David Thornton, Ph.D.
Professor of Computer Science
Dr. Thornton developed the Game Design concentration in his department in 2007, where he has supervised hundreds of student team game projects for 2D, 3D and virtual reality, including the VR game Tower Ascent (available on Steam). Dr. Thornton was awarded the George Mehaffy Excellence in Learning Technology Award for the creation of multiple web-based gamification tools for use in high school and university curricula, which are in use in over 40 schools in seven different countries. In addition, Dr. Thornton’s work developing digital games promoting cybersecurity awareness, such as Brute Force and Space Scams, has been funded by the DoD-NSA.
Selected publications
Thornton, D. C. (2026). Conversational Teaching Assistant Supported by Large Language Model in Immersive Virtual Reality Game. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
Thornton, D. C. (2022). The Potential of Gaming to Ameliorate Human Factors in Information Security Compliance. In Guillermo Francia III, Jeffrey Zanzig (Ed.), Global Perspectives on Information Security Regulations: Compliance, Controls, and Assurance. Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global.