Nivedita Bhattacharya has been chosen as a recipient of the 2021 Women in Engineering (WIE) Teaching Excellence Award. She will be recognized with this award at the annual WIE Banquet, to be held virtually on the evening of April 12. 

The WIE Banquet brings together students, faculty, alumni, corporate partners, and Institute leaders to recognize and celebrate student and faculty leaders at Georgia Tech and all female engineering students who have a minimum 3.0 GPA. The WIE Teaching Excellence Award was determined by a vote of current female undergraduate engineering students, and Bhattacharya was chosen as one of the two recipients, along with Christian Cuba-Torres, a lecturer in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.   

“I am extremely honored to have been chosen to receive this award, more so because it was determined by the votes of Women in Engineering student members,” Bhattacharya said. “Female education in STEM is particularly close to my heart, and I will be very happy if I can make a small contribution in creating a supportive and encouraging learning environment for our students at Georgia Tech.”

Bhattacharya is a lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and has been with the School since spring 2020. She teaches ECE 2020 Fundamentals of Digital System Design, ECE 2040 Circuit Analysis, ECE 2035 Programming for Hardware/Software Systems, and ECE 3150 VLSI and Advanced Digital Design. Earlier this year, Bhattacharya was named to the Class of 1934 CIOS Honor Roll by Center for Teaching and Learning.

In Her Students’ Words… 

Nivedita Bhattacharya: Professor, Mentor, Role Model

"Professor Bhattacharya is one of the best teachers I have ever had. I took ECE 2020 with her; as an introductory class, it is very important students feel confident in the material and their choice of major. It is imperative to have a teacher who believes in their students, encourages learning outside of the classroom, and instills the excellence Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering is known for. Professor Bhattacharya not only embodies these qualifications, but transcends them. 

“Professor Bhattacharya always answers everyone’s questions, whether during class, office hours, or late night emails; she is there to support her students. If a student makes a mistake, she is understanding and works with you to correct it—ensuring you learn from the process. Due to her wonderful teaching, there was not a single time I felt unprepared during a lab or assessment, or even now as I am working on electrical engineering projects at NASA.”

Going Above and Beyond

“I feel that Professor Bhattacharya is deserving of this award because she always goes above and beyond for her students. When I was taking her class, I found myself struggling a lot. However, Professor Bhattacharya was very encouraging and is always offering to help such as setting up meetings outside her office hours and follow up emails on questions we asked. She never made me or anyone feel bad for not knowing something or asking a lot of questions, and I really appreciated that.”