Ryan Watkins, Ph.D.

Professor, Educational Technology Leadership
Program Director, Human-Technology Collaboration Ph.D.
Associate Director, GW Trustworthy AI
George Washington University

Full CV | Bios | GWU Website | Google Scholar | GitHub Repos

Current Focus

My current work focuses on trustworthy AI, human-technology collaboration, educational technology, and the ethical use of large language models in scientific research and teaching workflows. I study how people, organizations, and institutions define useful results, make decisions with emerging technologies, and design systems that better serve human needs.

Selected Work

• Associate Director, GW Trustworthy AI.
• Professor in Educational Technology Leadership and Program Director for the Human-Technology Collaboration Ph.D. program at George Washington University.
• Author and co-author of work on large language models in research workflows, needs-aware artificial intelligence, human needs and AI, and AI’s influence on human creative agency.
• Contributor to open educational resources and development guides, including Teaching and Learning with Jupyter, A Guide to Assessing Needs, and multiple World Bank knowledge exchange guides.
• Developer of research and learning platforms including Synthetic Prediction Markets Platform, PreprintScout, We Share Research, and We Share Science.
• Co-host and producer of the Parsing Science podcast.

Recent Publications

Homma, K., Shittu, E., & Watkins, R. (2025). Research ethics in STEM education at universities: a scoping review. Journal of Academic Ethics. DOI

Watkins, R., & Barak-Medina, E. (2024). AI’s Influence on Human Creative Agency. Creativity Research Journal, 1-13. DOI

Watkins, R. (2023). Guidance for researchers and peer-reviewers on the ethical use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in scientific research workflows. AI and Ethics. DOI

Human, S. and Watkins, R. (2022). Needs and Artificial Intelligence. AI and Ethics. DOI

Watkins, R., Human, S. (2022). Needs-aware artificial intelligence: AI that serves human needs. AI and Ethics. DOI

Books and Guides

Barba, L., Barker, L., Blank, D., Brown, J., Downey, A., George, T., Heagy, L., Mandli, K., Moore, J., Lippert, D., Niemeyer, K., Watkins, R., West, R., Wickes, E., Willing, C. and Zingale, M. (2018). Teaching and Learning with Jupyter. Open Source on GitHub.

Kumar, S., Leonard, A., Watkins, R., Vovides, Y., Kerby, B. (2018). The Art of Knowledge Exchange: A Results-Focused Planning Guide for Development Practitioners in the Social, Urban, Land, and Resilience Sectors. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Watkins, R., West Meiers, M. and Visser, Y. (2012). A Guide to Assessing Needs: Tools for collecting information, making decisions, and achieving development results. Washington, DC: World Bank.

For Event Organizers

Reusable bios are available on the Bios page, including short, medium, and longer versions for programs, introductions, and event materials.

The full academic and professional record is available as a CV.