Andrew Raij, Ph.D.

​UX, QX and Human Performance
​​Most recently, I served as a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Draper Laboratory within the User Experience and Human Performance team. My work focused on pioneering AR for situational awareness and naval simulation data analysis. Additionally, I was a Research Scientist at Magic Leap in the Quantified Experience group, where I led human-perception experiments to define the requirements for next-generation AR hardware.

XR Theme Park Magic
At Universal Creative, I was a Hardware Development Manager for the the Advanced Technology Interactives (ATI) team. As a subject matter expert in XR, I managed the development of custom hardware designed for the unique, high-throughput, high-touch environment of theme park attractions.

​Academic Roots
Before moving into industry, I spent years in academia, researching, teaching, mentoring and learning at some of the country's leading institutions:

• UCF (SREAL): As a Visiting Research Associate Professor, I explored how virtual humans and self-avatars could revolutionize training and behavior change. I did this work in the Synthetic Reality Lab (SREAL) with some great colleagues, Dr. Greg Welch and Dr. Charlie Hughes. 
• USF (PIE Lab): As an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, I founded the Powerful Interactive Experiences (PIE) Lab. We focused on pervasive tech and HCI for health and wellbeing. Of all my academic achievements, I am most proud of my students, including Ph.D. graduates who continue to innovate in the field (Luis Jaimes, Tylar Murray, Evren Bozgeyikli, Lal Bozgeyikli).
• Postdoctoral Fellowships: University of Memphis (Advisor: Dr. Santosh Kumar) & University of Florida (Advisor: Dr. Benjamin Lok).
• Ph.D. in Computer Engineering: University of Florida (2009), M.S. in Computer Science: UNC-Chapel Hill (2003)​, B.S. in Computer Science: Northwestern University (2001).

Family Life

While I love building the future, my favorite roles are husband and father. I live in Winter Park, FL with my amazing wife, Emily, and our two children, Tilly and Adam. Our home is kept lively by Gryffin, a sweet and notoriously noisy Beagle/Italian Greyhound mix (named after Hogwarts house, naturally).