Declan Abernethy
History and Sociology of Technology and Science
dabernethy3@gatech.edu
Declan is a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in the History and Sociology of Technology and Science (HSOC). Declan’s research focuses on the interaction of sport and society and his dissertation is a socio-historical examination of the United States Women’s National Soccer team. Teaching sport is a strong passion of Declan’s and he has served as the primary Teaching Assistant across a range of HSOC’s sport courses. Declan joined CTL as a Teaching Assistant and GTF in the Summer of 2022. Declan helps administer the CTL Tech to Teaching (T2T) Graduate Certificate and facilitates CTL workshops.
Declan also holds the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning's (CIRTL) Associate, Practitioner, and Scholar certificates. For his Teaching as Research CIRTL project, Declan merged his interests in student goal setting and reflective teaching with youth soccer players. When Declan is not researching and teaching, he coaches youth soccer.
Arpit Narechania
Interactive Computing
arpitnarechania@gatech.edu
Arpit is a 5th year Computer Science PhD candidate in the School of Interactive Computing, advised by Dr. Alex Endert. Arpit builds interactive tools and techniques that provide guidance during visual data analysis; this guidance can be for humans, e.g., to minimize biases while exploring data, or even for systems, e.g., to better understand the user’s intent and accordingly respond. As part of his doctoral journey, Arpit has led multi-disciplinary projects with automobile engineers, database administrators, data scientists, and most recently cartographers and geographic information system experts. Arpit has served as Head TA for CS 4460 (Introduction to Information Visualization) for two semesters. After receiving his Tech to Teaching (T2T) Certificate from CTL in Spring 2023, Arpit joined CTL as a Graduate Teaching Fellow (GTF) in the Summer of 2023 to help facilitate the T2T program and other TA and future faculty initiatives. When not researching and teaching, Arpit plays chess, ping pong, and the keyboard. Also, Arpit looks somewhat like the person in the adjacent photo!
Ryan Ellis
Economics
ryan.ellis@gatech.edu
Ryan is a 3rd year PhD student in the School of Economics. His research is primarily in Development Economics and encompasses migration, health, conflict, and access to technology. He teaches Principles of Macroeconomics at Georgia Tech, as well as a statistical coding lab at Spelman College. As a Graduate Teaching Fellow, Ryan leads workshops for teaching assistants on integrating active learning techniques across different TA roles. He is a Co-Developer of the School of Economics’ new, fully asynchronous Principles of Macroeconomics, launching in Fall, 2023. He is also a decent musician, an underwhelming basketball player, and a self-styled “excellent cat dad.”
Theodore LaGrow
Electrical and Computer Engineering
tlagrow3@gatech.edu
Theodore is a fifth-year PhD-MBA dual degree student in the field of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Working in the Keilholz MIND Lab, Theodore's research areas include deep learning, fMRI time-series analysis, and cross-species brain-state comparison. Theodore’s collegiate experience with teaching and learning began during his studies as an undergraduate at the University of Oregon as a resident assistant and TA for several computer science classes. Since joining grad school at Georgia Tech, he has since held positions as a Grand Challenge Leadership Fellow, Grand Challenge Facilitator, Head TA for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Computing, and Online Masters in Computer Science. Additionally, Theodore conducted the GTA Preparation class for new TAs in the ECE program as Instructor of Record. Last fall, Theodore completed the Tech to Teaching certificate and was selected as Graduate Instructor of Record of the Year by the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech.
Nischita Kaza
Electrical and Computer Engineering
nischita.kaza@gatech.edu
Nischita is a Ph.D. candidate in the Bioengineering graduate program and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Her research is geared towards developing simple and efficient optical microscopy that use ultraviolet light to image cell and tissue samples. She has served as an ECE TA for multiple semesters and was a peer instructor for GT6000, an introduction to grad school for first semester grad students. As a Graduate Teaching Fellow, Nischita facilitates workshops on student mental health and well-being. She is also working with a diverse cohort of faculty to identify and implement teaching strategies and tools that better support student success.
Lynnae Stypulkowski
Civil and Environmental Engineering
ALStyp@GaTech.edu
Lynnae is a 6th-year Ph.D. candidate in the school of civil and environmental engineering with a focus on geo-environmental engineering. Her research consists of discovering optimal designs for urban stormwater mitigation and management techniques through field and laboratory experiments. Lynnae's experience in teaching began during her undergraduate career at the University of Maine where she was a teaching assistant for an introductory geotechnical course. She has now served as a teaching assistant for a similar introductory geotechnical course taught at Georgia Tech. In this role, Lynnae has designed her own set of At-Home Lab Experiments, where students can engage in a similar course virtually when necessary. She was named the Institute-Wide Online TA for the year 2021. As a Graduate Teaching Fellow, Lynnae has been helping with a program titled Teaching with Technology, to help instructors learn new technologies and the benefits of using them in the classroom.
Jelly Vanderwoude
Biological Sciences
jelly@gatech.edu
Jelly is a 5th year Ph.D. candidate in the School of Biological Sciences researching antimicrobial resistance and microbial diversity in cystic fibrosis lung infection. She has served as a teaching assistant for a wide array of classes, from introductory chemistry to paleontology lab. Her love for teaching led her to the Center for Teaching and Learning in 2021. As a Graduate Teaching Fellow, she leads workshops on student mental health and well-being and helps facilitate the annual TA Awards competition. When she isn’t running code or experiments in the lab, you can find her in the yoga studio or cuddling her cats as a form of self-care.
Boni Yraguen
Mechanical Engineering
byraguen3@gatech.edu
Boni Yraguen is a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech. She is currently in her Nth year of the PhD program, where she is conducting research on a novel diesel fuel injection strategy called Ducted Fuel Injection. Boni's research leverages mixing and flow mechanics to reduce or even eliminate soot production during compression ignition combustion. Along with her research, Boni has a strong passion for teaching and learning. She has served as the instructor of record for fluid mechanics in ME twice and has been a TA for numerous courses. In her free time, Boni has led three different engineering education-based studies. Boni's dedication to teaching has been recognized by her department and institute as she received the 2022 Graduate Student Instructor of the Year award.
Maugan Lloyd
Psychology
mlloyd32@gatech.edu
Meet Maugan, a seasoned 5th Year Ph.D. Candidate in the Psychology Department, who is passionate about teaching and learning. His research focus is broadly on maintaining cognitive abilities and aging, Maugan brings extensive experience as a TA and lab instructor in various branches of psychology, and is an instructor of record for Introduction to Psychology this year. As a Graduate Teaching Fellow, Maugan presents and facilitates GTA preparation classes on the TA experience, student motivation, and conflict resolution. He is an ardent advocate of The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL), and is working on a project to design classes that effectively combat student procrastination, a challenge faced by most students in higher education.