Volume 51 |
Issue 16: April 18, 2019

Provost’s office gives out awards for teaching innovations and mentoring

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Two sets of faculty awards were announced recently by the Office of the Provost.

Innovation in Education Awards

Six faculty members were selected by the Provost’s Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence to receive funding for the 2019–2020 year.

The Innovation in Education Awards are for projects that enhance teaching at Pitt and foster new instructional approaches that represent advances over existing methods. This year, 19 proposals were submitted, representing the broad University community. Those selected are:

  • Dmitriy Babichenko, School of Computing and Information: An Augmented Reality Platform for Clinical Procedure Training

  • Lucas Berenbrok and Elaine Mormer, School of Pharmacy: Championing Hearing Using Accessible Medication Experts at the Community Pharmacy: An Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Certificate Program for Student Pharmacists

  • Dawna Duff, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: Instructional Design for Teaching Clinical Skills in a Flipped Classroom

  • Nicholas Farnan and William Garrison, School of Computing and Information: A Flexible and Scalable Approach to Multidisciplinary Introductory Computer Science

  • Jessica Ghilani, Pitt–Greensburg: #FakeNews: Understanding Journalism, Mass Communication Technologies, and the Rise of Clickbait

  • Robert Kerestes, Swanson School of Engineering: Integration of Computer-Aided Design into Electrical Engineering Curriculum using COMSOL Multiphysics

Provost’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring

Four faculty members were honored at a reception April 15 with the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring, which recognizes faculty members who demonstrate outstanding mentoring of graduate students seeking research doctorate degrees with a citation and $2,500.

The 2019 recipients, who were each awarded $2,500, are:

  • William Layton: Department of Mathematics, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences

  • John Markoff: Department of Sociology, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences

  • Michael Sayette: Department of Psychology, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences

  • George (Chien-Cheng) Tseng: Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health

For more details on the mentoring awards, go to @Pitt.