Regan Lee Mandryk is a Professor of Computer Science at theUniversity of Saskatchewan. She specializes inHuman-computer interaction.

Regan Mandryk
Mandryk in 2006
Born	(1975-12-09)December 9, 1975 (age 49) Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Academic background
Education	BSc, Mathematics and Physics, 1997,University of Winnipeg MSc, Kinesiology, 2000, PhD, Computing Science, 2005,Simon Fraser University
Thesis	Modeling user emotion in interactive play environments: A fuzzy physiological approach (2005)
Academic work
Institutions	University of Saskatchewan

Mandryk was born on December 9, 1975, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.^[1] Mandryk earned her Bachelor of Science degree from theUniversity of Winnipeg in 1997.^[2] She completed herMaster's degree and PhD atSimon Fraser University in British Columbia.^[3] Mandryk's PhD dissertation applied physiological measures to model user emotion in interactive play environments.^[4] She was awarded the 2005 Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal in Applied Sciences and was nominated for the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies Distinguished Dissertation Award.^[5] She then completed post-doctoral fellowships at theUniversity of British Columbia andDalhousie University.^[2]

Upon completing her fellowships, Mandryk joined theUniversity of Saskatchewan's Human-Computer Interaction Lab under the guidance ofCarl Gutwin to research video games.^[6] She had originally never looked at the university for she had no family connections to Saskatoon but was convinced by Gutwin's work.^[7] As anassistant professor, she co-received aNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grant to study how to increase university-aged students physical activity. Alongside Kevin Stanley, they developed a game called Gemini which would incorporate a player's real-world activities such as walking, running or riding a bicycle into a role-playing computer game.^[8]

In January 2015, Mandryk was selected as an inaugural member of theRoyal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.^[9] She later received the University of Saskatchewan's New Researcher Award.^[10] The following year, Mandryk and researchers at the Interaction Lab began developing concentration exercises to assist children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Their game involved the player's avatar runs endlessly forward, collecting coins and avoiding obstacles, while the player wore a headset to monitor their brain activity. Through the use of positive reinforcement, Mandryk's research team were attempting to train those with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder to focus.^[6] She also received a $1.65 million grant to create a graduate program in game-user research for the Saskatchewan Waterloo Games User Research Initiative.^[11]

Mandryk later began researching whether video games could be used to assess mental health.^[7] This project earned her a E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, $250,000 over two years, by theNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to fund her research.^[12] During theCOVID-19 pandemic in North America, Mandryk promoted the use of video games while isolating as a way to deal with stress, anxiety and other mental health challenges. She said that due to social isolation, children were missing out on interactions with their friends and video games were a way to socialize.^[13]

Regan Mandryk publications indexed byGoogle Scholar