Rebecca Irwin, Ph.D. ’20, is dialed in.

The first-time professor has designed and taught course modules, figured out how to make complex engineering concepts accessible, and developed a philosophy that now shapes her approach to education – yet, her first official class doesn’t start until this fall.

Credit: Provided

Irwin, currently a postdoc at Cornell’s Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, is set to begin a tenure track assistant professor position at the University of Rochester and credits much of her success to training she received as a fellow in the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program. Initiated by Meinig School faculty and supported by the U.S. Department of Education in 2017, the program funds and trains graduate students to teach engineering concepts and to put them into practice as a lead instructor in the classroom.

Irwin says the most impactful part of the program was her ability to design and teach a module in a course, get feedback from her mentor, and then teach it again the following year. "It was incredibly beneficial to implement something that was also related to my research in a course in a classroom, see how the students engaged with it, responded to it and then be able to take that feedback and alter it,” Irwin said, adding that the program enabled her to connect with students months after the class ended to assess how well they recalled different topics. 

Irwin also credits the GAANN program with preparing her for job interviews. “During my application process and my interview process for faculty positions, it made it so much easier to talk about my teaching philosophy, because I'd put time into it, and I'd done teaching where I received feedback and implemented it,” Irwin said. “I had my goals for what I want the students to learn, and also what type of instructor I wanted to be.” 

Credit: Provided

Now, a new class of GAANN Fellows are gearing up for a course on pedagogy and experiential teaching. Third-year doctoral student and GAANN Fellow Andi Garcia-Ortiz is developing a computational fluid dynamics module for a core foundation biomedical engineering class. She is passionate about “being able to explain engineering in a way that's attainable, but that also allows students to retain more information long term.” She wants her students to be “able to draw from that knowledge moving forward into their own careers, whether it's graduate school or industry.” Interested in becoming a university lecturer, Garcia-Ortiz sees GAANN as a “great opportunity to not only get funded, but also to dedicate time to exploring things outside of your own research.” 

Meinig School professor Chris Schaffer, one of the lead investigators on the grant, is proud of the GAANN program’s impact at many different levels, from the rigor of undergrad classes all the way to department culture. Schaffer attests that the grant’s focus on education can create a virtuous, mutually beneficial cycle. “We now have more money that funds graduate students. We have more graduate students who are involved in teaching. So we have a greater capacity for pedagogical innovation, and serious assessment,” said Schaffer. “And faculty are engaged in thinking reflectively about their teaching and about how they could improve it,” raising the standard of Cornell biomedical engineering education across the board.

Joining Garcia-Ortiz in the new class of GAANN Fellows is Harry Zou, India Dykes, John Toftengaard, Julia Bellamy, Perry Katsarakes, Rena Fukuda and Tyler Locke.