Project Category: Transformative Teaching and Learning

The goals of this CURE were to: 

• build interest and excitement in statistics through exposure to real-world applications of industrial engineering
• increase awareness of what industrial engineers do and how industrial engineering relates to other fields
• expose students to open-ended questions in engineering
• motivate students to consider industrial engineering/analytics as a field of study and career path
• motivate students to consider research and graduate school as a post-graduation plan

In this CURE, student groups explored access to social services in Atlanta, Georgia. During the CURE, students (1) gathered data on existing service locations (e.g., food banks) and potential expansion sites (e.g., places of worship), as well as demographic data on target groups (e.g., women of reproductive age), (2) applied facility location models to identify optimal expansion sites, (3) learned to visualize data and use statistics to compare travel distances to services for specific populations.

To evaluate the potential benefits of the CURE, we conducted pre-course and post-course surveys in multiple sections of ISYE 3770: four traditional (non-CURE) sections and one CURE section. All sections were delivered in Spring 2025. We then compared the pre- and post-surveys among these different sections. We are in the process of analyzing these survey results now. Written CIOS responses were mixed, but mostly positive (4 positive unsolicited comments about the CURE and 1 negative comment). From preliminary analysis, it seems that our CURE had a positive impact on research skills and generated interested in industrial engineering among some students who did not know much about the field beforehand.

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This project endeavored to catalog, digitally document, and interpret Green Book sites in Georgia. Initially called The Negro Motorist Green-Book, this text was an annual guidebook (published 1936-1967) for African-American travelers to safely navigate and explore a highly segregated nation, providing readers with verified suggestions for lodgings, businesses, and gas stations. This was a protected guide, and was largely unknown to those outside of the Black community. Beyond an inventory, this projecaimed to identify sites under threat that may benefit from digital documentation and advocacy.

This course explored Georgia architecture and the regional importance of the Green Book using readings, interactive letures, and site visits (e.g., walking tour around GT, Atlanta History Center, EJI in Montgomery). There were three key deliverables: (1) a Georgia tourism poster with a ‘key’ to explain the imagery and collage elements, (2) student-led discussion sessions of assigned readings and project interfaces (e.g., storymaps, narrative podcasts, etc.), and (3) the research and documentation of Green Book sites in Atlanta and Savannah that were assigned to individual students. These aim to address cognitive learning outcomes through improved public communication and information dissemination through a tagged Google map and enhanced database, and behavioral learning outcomes by engaging in digital humanities work to see interdisciplinary connections between place, history, and legacy.

From our in-class discussions, students were very engaged in the active research component of the course, even when it was challenging. 

Beyond the requirements for the course,  One student has also continued research on one building, the Butler Street YMCA, about which we are pursuing options for a publication. 

From our in-class discussions, students were very engaged in the active research component of the course, even when it was challenging.

Beyond the requirements for the course, One student has also continued research on one building, the Butler Street YMCA, about which we are pursuing options for a publication.

This project was created to expose students to the variability in Internet quality as experienced by many around the world: slow, unresponsive, or intermittently lossy. Through this project, students were challenged to think about these issues and how to debug the problems using skills gained in the course. In doing so, students experienced empathy with those whose Internet experience differs from their own. The ultimate goal was for students to understand why online systems need to be designed with such variations of experience in mind. 

This course-based undergraduate research project included the redesign of two programming assignments. In the first, the students experienced the impact of specific network issues on everyday activities on the Internet. Multiple simulations were created: bandwidth limitations, increased latencies (delays), latency variations (jitters), and packet drops. Under these simulations, the students browsed through a multimedia-rich webpage that contained video playback, downloading of a large file, live audio, and a live game. In the second assignment, students tweaked the parameters of the end to end transport layer (TCP) to overcome some of the underlying network issues.

After the students completed each assignment, the students were required to reflect on their experience through a chat with an AI-based large language model. The students conversed with an AI chatbot called Socratic Mind (Georgia Tech internal project) which was tailored to this project with a set of questions and expected answers. After these chats with the AI agent, students completed a brief survey. Survey responses reveal that students were largely satisfied with how the AI agent probed the students to think in the right direction. 

In a subsequent assignment, the students were required to change some of the parameters to TCP in response to packet loss, delay, and jitter in the underlying network. The students’ decisions were evaluated objectively by comparing their outcomes to a network with no such issues.

2025 GTREET (Georgia Tech Retreat Exploring Effective Teaching)

2025 Celebrating Teaching Day

The goal of this project was to equip students working on team projects with skills and tools to be more collaborative by learning how to have tough conversations and manage conflicting ideas or priorities.

We created four videos for students to watch covering topics like assuming positive intent, providing constructive feedback, and managing conflicting ideas. We conducted a pre/post assessment and reflection to gather feedback on the intervention videos and students’ confidence in and preparation for conflict resolution within a team. Students then used a new 360-degree Feedback Tool to provide anonymized comments to peers and private comments to instructors about their group project experiences. 

Engagement with videos varied; 5-10% of study subjects viewed the four content videos with an average 70% completion rate. A small sample (n=13) of students completed the reflection and viewed the videos. 
 

While data analysis is still underway, preliminary results show:
• Increases in students’ view that working collaboratively on teams is valuable and has been a positive experience in these courses
• Increases were observed in students’ reported motivation to address concerns with the team as soon as they arise along with feeling prepared to engage in challenging conversations with the team. 

This course project was designed to allow students to students to explore how green infrastructure is distributed in the campus and Atlanta area. Students identified a research question about green infrastructure and collected data to analyze the impact(s).

This project extended the learning around urban ecology from the classroom and into real-world action. Grant funding was used to take students off-campus to see several large-scale stormwater management projects, improving student connections between the historical context and present-day structure. Students learned to recogize green infrastructure and the impact it can have on the economy, temperature, stormwater management, and human activity.

Student engagement with the material was increased through this project. This outcome was demonstrated by high class attendance, no obstacles in team work within groups, and completion of all assignments in the course. Based on final exam responses, students also gained a high level of understanding of the complexity of issues that are integral to urban ecology.

2025 GTREET (Georgia Tech Retreat Exploring Effective Teaching)

This project aimed to improve the experience a difficult class by helping students understand how other students with similar situations had been able to overcome challenges. Related to this are potential benefits to improving persistence among all students, the sense of community, and generally higher levels of academic achievement.

We contacted recent students who had completed the course and collected stories of how they rebounded from adverse circumstances. Then, for current students, we presented these stories at two times during the semester when they might have been experiencing similar challenges, surveying them both before and after they read some of the collected stories. 

We assessed the impact of sharing rebound stories on student self-efficacy and sense of belonging by analyzing pre- and post-intervention surveys. These asked short reflection questions on the challenges faced and the actions planned and taken to address them. The surveys also included 5-point Likert scale questions derived from related scales in the literature, rating (a) confidence in skills related to computing, systems building, and problem solving and learning, (b) self-efficacy and sense of belonging. On these surveys, student data before and after reading the rebound stories showed a consistent, positive increase in each of these factors. 

The data also shows that of the 85% of students who found challenges in the course, 88% indicated that the stories they read inspired them to take actions similar to the story they read by at least a moderate amount. The stories also encouraged help-seeking behaviors: 85% more students planned to take such actions after reading the stories than before. We also observed that the stories helped to expand the students’ vocabulary for naming their concerns and for expressing more specifically how they planned to address them. 

With DJI digital recording devices, we transformed the usual instruction of English and Art History — two courses co-enrolled during students’ study abroad experience — by providing a medium that would integrate the WOVEN curriculum and the content of Art History, thereby encouraging collaboration across the cohort and engaging students actively in their surroundings.

Our project engaged students co-curricularly in a student-led video production club for which we provided the equipment. We found that by introducing the gimbals through a video production club, students who were typically a bit quieter took on different roles within the cohort and let their creativity and entrepreneurialism shine.

Our project also required collaboration and reflective exercises in ID 2242 Art History II: cognitive maps for which students explored a theme within five cities’ built environments, conducting research and answering questions that invited them to engage at a level beyond “tourist notations,” and cinematic glossaries that challenged them to create a thematic and interactive glossary of architecture in video and PDF presentations.

The creation of a video production club and distribution of equipment provided a leadership opportunity for students who wanted to be group leaders (and thus responsible for equipment) and a social opportunity that encouraged group projects in a safe, low-stakes environment.

We found that the introduction of the gimbals and video projects obligated students to think creatively, take risks, and struggle. Students wanted to know the ‘right’ answer for collaborative documentary projects, and sometimes found it frustrating that there wasn’t an example to show them. This uncertainty allowed students to be more exploratory and experimental.

The gimbals also encouraged genuine collaboration. The videos for which the teams crafted a holistic project (vs. approaching the videos from individual standpoints) were much more successful, so even though the gimbal is a singular, handheld tool it is still very much a device that rewards teamwork.

The project aimed to enhance early-stage chemical engineering students’ engagement, conceptual understanding, and career confidence by integrating authentic, research-style inquiry into the core curriculum. Ultimately, the goal was to foster a stronger sense of belonging while equipping students with practical skills in applying thermodynamic principles. 

In this initiative, student teams designed, built, and tested small-scale experimental rigs to investigate thermodynamic relationships through a structured process that included pre-lab proposals, hands-on lab sessions, and final video presentations.

The project had a positive impact on student learning, leading to measurable gains in students’ sense of belonging, confidence in applying thermodynamic concepts, and overall engagement. This impact was assessed using a pre- and post-project survey (comprising 33 questions) that evaluated self-efficacy, community perception, and attitudes toward chemical engineering, complemented by qualitative feedback from final presentations.

2025 GTREET (Georgia Tech Retreat Exploring Effective Teaching)

The goal was to redesign the course to create a problem-based learning approach that incorporated Sustainable Development Goals learner and increased engagement among Arabic students, non-majors throughout an intermediate Arabic course.

The course included meaningful experiential learning where students examined their own impact on the planet, made meaningful improvements to their lifestyles to lower their carbon footprint, and grow as thoughtful global citizens (behavioral learning). It also stimulated students to reflect on the differences between Western and Arab countries’ engagement with sustainability goals through current real-world scenarios. 

The majority of students liked many aspects of incorporating the SDGs, especially when those were organized around fun activities such as AI-generated comic strips. They also liked 3 out of the 4 parts of the SDG-focused projects. For some reason one part turned out to be the least popular. Some students expressed the feeling that they started thinking about sustainability issues they’ve never thought before, but others mentioned that their interest in sustainability remained low despite the course’s focus.

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The goal of the project was to give students an opportunity to 1) cultivate storytelling skills across verbal, visual, and aural dimensions; 2) to translate insights in a compelling and persuasive manner for the broad audience that may not know theory or field-related jargon.

Students worked on a semester-long team project that starts with the traditional analysis of a corporate strategy decision. After completing a traditional academic report, students worked on translating the report into a story that can be published on website for general audience. The re-telling included re-writing the story using storytelling principles, developing informative visuals and creating a video. Students also had to conduct continuous research for two months because the news about their companies and industries kept coming.

While data continues to be analyzed, the initial results of this project are:

1. Average course grade increased
2. Quality of student stories increased
3. Final exam scores are unchanged
4. Students who were invested in the group project achieved more learning gains compared to students who were less invested in the group project. There was an impact on team performance due to this uneven student attitude.
5. Future research should anticipate student resistance to reflection/revision of work.