One way to make students feel more welcome in a class is to learn their names. In large classes or classes that meet infrequently, it can be difficult to learn names. Some laboratory settings can make that more difficult because you generally approach students from the side or behind making it harder to recognize physical traits that may help an instructor recall their name.
As part of my Engineering Unleashed Fellowship project, the student team suggested using name tags in the laboratory to help students and staff learn names. We explored many different name tag designs, including traditional paper tents and magnets. Since the shelves above the bench surface are metal, we opted for name tags that were magnetic on one side and had a whiteboard on the other side. This makes them reusable and easy to swap between sections. The lockers that students store their equipment in during the semester are also metal. Therefore, they can store their name tags on the front of their locker between sections, so they double as locker labels as well. These name tags can be found at your favorite office supply or big retailer for a reasonable price. We found a set with 96 2"x 4" name tags that we plan to start using in the spring 2024 semester, see photo above.
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At the Society of Women Engineers Annual Conference (WE23), I was presented with the Emerging Engineering Educator award. I am honored to be recognized for outstanding service in technical and professional societies, including SWE.
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At the 2023 Frontiers in Education Conference, I was presented with the Mac Van Valkenburg Early Career Teaching Award. I am honored to be recognized "for innovative contributions to undergraduate education, laboratory curriculum, and inclusive pedagogy methods."
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In 2023, I was named as an Engineering Unleashed Fellow. This fellowship is sponsored by the Kern Family Foundation to support engineering educators to allow them to work on an educational project of their own design.
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I am excited to take on a new role as the Associate Head of Undergraduate Programs in Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In this position, I will be responsible for the operations of the three undergraduate programs: bioengineering, neural engineering, and CS + BIOE.
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I have recently been exploring ways to adopt second brain techniques to manage and organize my research. At the ASEE 2023 conference, I shared a tips and tricks paper in the NEE division. The full paper is available in the ASEE archive.
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Recent Publications
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Tips for Creating a Functional Personal Knowledge Management System in Academia
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Preparing Women in STEM for Faculty Careers through a Job Search Workshop Series
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Adopting Alternative Grading in an Upper-Level Laboratory Course in Bioengineering
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Development of a Community of Practice for Rethinking Best Practices in Post-COVID Experiential Learning
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Converting a Biomedical Instrumentation Lab From In-person to Online