Multiple papers and presentations at the American Society for Engineering Education's annual conference highlighted ECE's fellowship program for aspiring faculty.
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STEER Fellows Suman Ghosh, Zachary Brumbach, and Ellie Pond stand beside their poster presentation at the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. The project examined graduate students' experiences in ECE's Supporting Teaching ExpERience (STEER) Fellowship and its role in preparing future faculty members.
Ph.D. students in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) are often recognized at conferences for the discoveries they make in the lab.
At this summer's American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exposition, however, several students took the opportunity to present work informed by their experiences in the classroom.
ECE faculty and graduate students contributed to four papers and presentations at the conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, sharing work on graduate teaching development, student engagement, innovative assessment practices, and faculty preparation.
Much of that work grew from ECE's Supporting Teaching ExpERience (STEER) Fellowship, a program designed to help doctoral students develop the skills and experience needed for teaching-focused academic careers.
The STEER Fellowship provides Ph.D. students interested in teaching with formal training in pedagogy, mentorship through the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), and the opportunity to serve as instructors of record for undergraduate ECE courses.
This year, a group of STEER fellows — Ellie Pond, Zachary Brumbach, Suman Ghosh, Pranav Mathews, and Davide Balzerani — collaborated on an ASEE Annual Conference-accepted paper examining graduate students' experiences in the fellowship and its role in preparing future faculty members.
Carol Subiño Sullivan (CTL), Ellie Pond (ECE), Ximena Pizarro-Bore (PUBP), Zachary Brumbach (ECE), Lakshmi Raju (ECE), Damon Williams (CoE), and Jonathan Gaines (ME) shared research on Flexible Assessment Design, an initiative examining innovative assessment approaches.
Ellie Pond (ECE), Jacob Tjards (ME), and Ximena Pizarro-Bore (PUBP) shared work from the Flexible Assessment Design initiative at the ASEE Annual Conference.
“As Ph.D. students, there's a very large focus on our primary research and less on secondary interests such as engineering education,” Brumbach, a fourth-year Ph.D. student, said. “Being able to see what the engineering education world looks like, I feel much more informed about what avenues to pursue as I begin my job search and more prepared for teaching at a high level."
Pond, a fifth-year Ph.D. student, contributed to two additional ASEE Annual Conference projects focused on teaching innovation and student learning.
One explored the use of gamification in ECE 2020: Foundations of Digital System Design, a course redesign that incorporated optional challenges, point systems, and other game-inspired elements to increase student engagement.
Pond also participated in a College of Engineering and CTL initiative focused on Flexible Assessment Design (FAD), which explores new approaches to evaluating student learning in engineering courses.
She was one of three graduate students selected for the project, working alongside Jacob Tjards (mechanical engineering) and Ximena Pizarro-Bore (public policy). The team was mentored by Damon Williams, associate dean for Outreach and Engagement in the College of Engineering; Jonathan Gaines, associate chair for Outreach and Engagement in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering; Lakshmi Raju, director of ECE Student Engagement and Well-Being; and Carol Subiño Sullivan, associate director of the Center for Teaching and Learning.
As part of the initiative, Pond designed and implemented the ECE component in a Spring 2026 section of ECE 2020 taught to industrial and systems engineering students. Serving as both the assessment designer and instructor of record, she helped evaluate how the approach influenced student engagement and learning.
"The STEER program has greatly affected my future career goals and my overall understanding of how teaching fits into different sectors of academia," she said. "Thanks to the STEER program, I am planning to pursue a teaching-focused career path after graduate school."
In addition to the student-led presentations, Raju presented on the development and implementation of ECE's STEER Fellowship and its role in preparing future faculty members.
Multiple members of the Georgia Tech community attended ASEE this year, sharing research and best practices in teaching, student engagement, assessment, and faculty preparation.
The conference also provided opportunities for fellows to connect with educators and researchers from across the country.
"The ASEE Annual Conference was an enriching experience that allowed me to discuss my work as a STEER Fellow with a broader educational community," Balzerani, a fourth-year Ph.D. student, said. "I had the opportunity to learn about successful teaching strategies and pedagogical innovations being implemented at other higher education institutions and gained insights into approaches for improving student learning and engagement."
In addition to the student-led presentations, Raju, who oversees STEER, presented on the program's development and implementation. Her presentation highlighted how STEER combines teaching certification, classroom experience, and mentorship to prepare future engineering educators while creating opportunities for fellows to engage in engineering education research.
The STEER-related presentations were part of a larger ECE presence at the ASEE Annual Conference. Faculty members Pamela Bhatti, Jacqueline Rohde, Ying Zhang, Jennifer Hasler, and Richard Asiamah also presented education-related work.
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