As an engineering student turned education researcher, I aspire to be a reformer. I am a perpetual student and am currently fascinated by theories of cognition and motivation and what these theories tell us about ourselves, how we learn, and how we can create sustainable reform in education. This fascination is coupled with a love for people that springs from my faith in Jesus and how he lived to bring God's best to people. Consequently, this blog (when it gets up and running) and my work aims to help myself and others discover, explore, and discuss so that we can grow. I don't have it all figured out, so I hope that anyone who comes to this site will challenge me and will be challenged, but I hope most of all that we will all be changed for the better.
I earned my PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but I conducted education research. I was co-advised by Michael Loui and Craig Zilles to develop an understanding of how students learn topics in computer engineering and then develop a learning assessment tool called the digital logic concept inventory. Through this research, I developed a passion for improving the quality of engineering education through both rigorous research as well as consulting with instructors. To extend this research, I completed two postdocs. During the first postdoc, I worked for the Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education at the University of Illinois (iFoundry) to pilot some reform projects that centered on improving students' intrinsic motivation to learn engineering. I then worked with Ruth Streveler at Purdue University (in partnership with Shane Brown at Washington State University and Holly Matusovich at Virginia Tech) to develop a theory of "hot cognition" - a theory which argues that cognition can be fully understood only by understanding how cognition is directed by motivation.
I now work as a visiting assistant professor with the iFoundry where I am working as an education reformer. I am helping to redesign several courses and their teaching methods. While I primarily focus on helping instructors learn how to cultivate their students' intrinsic motivation to learn, I am happy to work with faculty on whatever reforms or innovations they seek to master.
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