Devon Ramey

Devon Ramey is a Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast within the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, and a member of the TIME Centre. His research focuses on improving the quality of life for autistic individuals through behavioral and technology-based interventions. He leads projects on mood indices measurement, co-designed peer support programs, and autism-inclusive education policies. Ramey is the recipient of the 2024 Cogniss Innovation Challenge for developing the Big Feelings app, which teaches social-emotional learning to autistic children. He also spearheaded a SCoTENS-funded study on language preferences in autism education, collaborating with Dublin City University. His work emphasizes participatory research with the autistic community to reduce stigmatizing practices. Ramey serves on editorial boards for Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders and the ESRC Peer Review College, contributing to research methodology and literature review standards.

Research interests include technology-based instruction (e.g., VR for social anxiety reduction), community-based participatory research, and measuring happiness as a quality of life metric. He has published 23 peer-reviewed articles and supervised doctoral projects on topics like virtual reality interventions and psychosexual development in autistic adolescents. Current projects involve validating mood indices through wearable tech and exploring neuroaffirmative practices in research methodologies.

• Awards:
  • Cogniss' Innovation Challenge Winner (2024)
  • SCoTENS PLAACE Project Leadership (2022)
• Advising: Supervised doctoral research on VR for social anxiety and is open to mentoring projects in autism technology, quality of life metrics, and inclusive education.
• Labs/Teams: TIME Centre collaborations, Dublin City University partnerships.