University Times

Eight faculty members have been named winners of the 2011 Provost’s Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence (ACIE) Innovation in Education awards.

They are:

• Neal Benedict, pharmacy and therapeutics.

Benedict will develop two virtual-patient case study simulations to give students experience in decision-making and evaluating results in a no-risk environment.

• Sangyeun Cho, computer science.

Cho will convert an existing computer lab into a personal supercomputer lab and develop programming projects to facilitate students’ learning of parallel programming techniques.

• Lydia Daniels, biological sciences.

Daniels will redesign an introductory biology course to replace lectures with technology-based assignments and learner-centered activities.

• Mary Lou Leibold, occupational therapy.

Leibold will develop stepped learning experiences that incrementally increase in complexity in order to help occupational therapy students develop competency in upper-extremity assessment.

• Christinger Tomer, information sciences.

Tomer will create a digital repository of master’s of library and information science alumni presentations, discussions and visits to foster a mentoring community among current students.

• Jingtao Wang, computer science.

Wang will develop a new undergraduate course that focuses on designing, prototyping and evaluating mobile applications.

• Amy Williams, music.

Williams will develop a collaborative graduate course with Attack Theater, a professional dance troupe, to allow students to explore music composition as it relates to dance.

• Eunice Yang, Pitt-Johnstown engineering.

Yang will develop a spiral curriculum for her engineering measurements course and its corresponding lab section. This will introduce concepts on a simple level and continually revisit them at greater complexities throughout the course.

These eight projects, totaling over $100,000, will be completed by next spring. Each faculty member will have a project page on the ACIE award web site at www.pitt.edu/~facaffs/acie/awards.html, which will be updated as projects are completed.

ACIE award proposals are solicited each year from faculty across Pitt’s five campuses. Funded projects primarily enhance teaching at the University and/or foster improved instructional approaches; are adaptable in other instructional settings; foster collaboration among faculty from different departments/units/campuses in the development of innovative approaches to teaching; develop innovative course materials, and/or create significant curricular improvements.