People

Aman is a Lappan-Phillips Professor of Computing Education in the College of Education and College of Natural Science at Michigan State University. His research focuses on computing education research in K-12 classrooms. He has been a PI/Co-PI on several National Science Foundation (NSF) funded projects related to preparing teachers to embed computational thinking and computer science in their teaching. His work has been published in a number of leading journals, including ACM Transactions on Computing Education, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Journal of Engineering Education, and Communications of the ACM.

Michael Lachney is an assistant professor in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program in the College of Education. He has a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he learned about critical theories of technology and qualitative methods. His research explores the cultural politics of educational technology and computer science education, including how technology and race co-shape each other in school and out-of-school contexts. In addition, he works on educational technology design strategies and implementation tactics to help educators collaborate with community experts (e.g., braiders, urban gardeners, youth sports coaches, etc.) in culturally responsive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. Michael’s research has appeared in the journals, Computer Science Education, Interactive Learning Environments, Learning, Media and Technology, Science as Culture, among others in the fields of STS and educational technology. His most recent project explores how to theorize and ethically construct relationships between humans, nonhuman animals, plants, and technologies in educational technology research.

Kyle is a doctoral student in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program. As a Technology Integration Specialist in a middle school, she is broadly interested in the intersection of equity, technology and project-based learning. Her research interests include the role project-based learning may play in student academic identity development and teacher expectations. She is currently exploring how to engage students in computing through codable robots in middle school mathematics lessons.

Anne Drew Hu (they/them) is a PhD student in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology (EPET) advised by Aman Yadav. They research the intersection of education and computing from a critical perspective. They are interested in integrating critical computing, ethics, and computing for social justice into K-12 CS education.

Madison is a PhD student in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology Program at Michigan State University. She holds a B.A. in Social Psychology and African American Studies from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Madison’s research interests lie at the intersection of race, culture, technology, and learning. These interests have led to work in culturally responsive and sustaining computer science education, equitable access to education and technology, and Ethnocomputing. Madison has worked on culturally situated design tools that bring computing and cultural practices like adinkra stamping, cosmetology, and barbering together in educational spaces within schools and communities. Madison has also served as an equity consultant and strategist for the NYC Department of Education’s CS for All initiative. In this role, Madison supports K-12 computer science teachers, staff,  and administrators in understanding equity in education and in creating culturally responsive and sustaining computer science educational materials. 

Olamide (She/Her) is a first year doctoral student at Michigan State University on the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program. She has experience working on projects focused on K-12 computer science education, in-service teachers’ professional development, technology training for African women-owned Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Her research interests are in computational thinking for education, culturally responsive computing, and professional teacher development in the classroom.

Nick (he/him) is a first year doctoral student in the Computational Mathematics Science and Engineering department at Michigan State University. He has a bachelors degree in Physics with a minor in Data Science. He has worked on education research in the past in the Physics Education Research Lab (PERL). He is interested in research how AI impacts and can be incorporated into education.

Jon is a Research Evaluation And Assessment Consultant for Leadership And School Improvement group at Oakland Schools. His research interests include computational thinking, computer science education, teacher education, and creativity. He previously worked in Pre-K through Grade 12 schools in the areas of faculty development, technology management, curriculum development, and teaching multiple courses related to computing.  He has been published in Education and Information Technologies and TechTrends. His awards include College of Education Deans Scholar Fellowship, the Frank B. Martin CUMREC Fellowship (2013-2014), and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research / Humboldt University of Berlin.

Sarah is the Director of Apple Developer Academy in Detroit. Her research focuses on digital literacies. Specifically, she is interested in the competencies that educators should acquire to successfully help students understand and create digital media. Previous work includes an Ed.M. in Mind, Brain, and Education from Harvard University, where she researched the cognitive implications of digital literacies for teaching and learning. Her dissertation project focused on integrating digital literacies in teacher education programs, as well as understanding the factors that play a role in the integration of these skills in K-12 education.

Mauricio is an assistant professor in the department of education at Universidad Del Norte in Colombia. He currently coordinates the Master in Education program and works on two statewide projects on teacher professional development (PI) and education for peace (Co-I) funded by Colciencias. In his dissertation, he explored US elementary preservice teachers’ beliefs about effective classroom instruction and the characteristics and behaviors of effective teachers. He recently replicated this study with Colombian elementary preservice teachers. Results from Mauricio’s research suggested that there are strong similarities between US and Colombian preservice teachers’ beliefs about teacher effectiveness at the beginning of their teacher education (first and second year). He is working with the Center for Faculty Professional Development at Universidad del Norte in developing pedagogical strategies to assess students’ beliefs.

Lexi is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. Her research focuses on examining motivational and affective factors that influence student outcomes in undergraduate introductory programming courses. During her time at MSU, Lexi conducted a series of studies to investigate how students learn to program in an undergraduate introductory programming course. One of her papers won the best paper award at International Computing Educational Research (ICER) conference. Her dissertation examined how cognitive, motivational, affective, and dispositional factors interact to influence learning to program. Results from her study exhibited that when all factors are considered together,  students’ problem solving ability is the only significant predictor of their learning outcomes.

Swatiis a  postdoctoral scholar at California State University, Dominguez Hills at Carson, CA. As a critical scholar, her research uses culturally responsive lenses to understand the gendered and racialized experiences of students of color and women in computer science and engineering education and urge faculty to practice culturally responsive pedagogies in teaching. Earlier, she worked as an Assistant Professor in an MBA institute in India, where she obtained the opportunity to involve students in case-based learning that was integral to the management curriculum.

Sukanyais an Assistant Professor of STEM Education in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences at the University of Kentucky – Knoxville. She is primarily interested in active teaching-learning strategies, problem-solving, and learner collaboration/cooperation, both face-to-face and online. Her background is in Engineering. She came to Michigan State after completing a Masters degree in Learning Technologies from University of Texas-Austin. During her time in Austin, Sukanya was was involved in a project called ‘Alien Rescue’, a STEM-based learning environment that focused on developing problem-solving skills of 6th-grade students. She has a bachelors degree in Biotechnology from SASTRA University in India.

Katie is a researcher at American Institutes for Research. She stated her PhD after ten years as a curriculum developer for Everyday Mathematics at the University of Chicago. She is interested broadly in the use of technology in elementary mathematics education. From the student perspective, she is interested in exploring how dynamic representations and manipulatives can support conceptual development, and how integration of computational thinking concepts into mathematics curricula can promote readiness for computer science education in later grades. From the teacher perspective, she is interested in exploring how digital delivery of curriculum materials can support teachers in making productive adaptations for their particular contexts.

Philis a teaching professor of CS at Michigan State University. His research focuses on the impact of self-regulation in the computer science classroom, issues relating to teacher pedagogical knowledge in computer science, and the use of online learning environments to broaden participation in computing. Currently, Phil serves as the K-12 Outreach Coordinator for the Department of Computer Science at Purdue University. Previously, Phil worked as a K-12 statistics and computer science teacher in Michigan and Maryland, and also as a software engineer.

Chris is an Assistant Professor in Veterinary Clinical Medicine at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests broadly include motivational aspects in learning, specifically for teachers of underrepresented students. He has served as a research assistant on two grant funded projects: the NRMN-CAN project under Dr. Aman Yadav to study the challenges and needs of underrepresented minority postdoctoral fellows in STEM fields and the MSUrbanSTEM Teacher Fellowship program to study the pedagogical practices of K-12 urban teachers who teach STEM content. Additionally, his dissertation explores motivational constructs that are altered due to math teacher participation in growth mindset interventions across various school settings. Prior to starting his PhD journey, Chris worked as an admissions counselor and program coordinator at the University of Louisville for nearly 5 years.

Ninger is a postdoctoral researcher at University of California – Irvine where she is working on CS1C@OC project to train in-service teachers to satisfy California’s new teacher certification pathway in computer science. Ninger’s disseration examined the effects of multimedia story reading and questioning on preschoolers’ vocabulary learning, story comprehension and reading engagement. Results from her study showed that multimedia stories on iPads significantly influenced children’s’ target vocabulary and engagement level, but not their comprehension. Image Credit: Saksham Gangwar