9/29/2023 Bethan Owen
In recognition of her hard work in engineering education, bioengineering professor Rebecca Reck was named a 2023 Engineering Unleashed Fellow.
Written by Bethan Owen
In recognition of her hard work in engineering education, bioengineering professor Rebecca Reck was named a 2023 Engineering Unleashed Fellow. This fellowship, made possible by the Kern Family Foundation, is designed to recognize outstanding engineering educators and give them the opportunity to work on an educational project of their own design.
Reck plans to use this fellowship to create an independent study course geared towards gathering student feedback on how bioengineering instruction, and labs in particular, could be made more inclusive and user-friendly.
“Part of what I do is improve accessibility in education,” said Reck. “But most of my previous work has stemmed from existing research or from instructors’ perspectives. I've always wanted to get more student voices in a more authentic way than just through surveys, and that's what this fellowship is allowing me to do.”
Reck hopes that her independent study course will be an opportunity for participants to think creatively and come up with solutions from a uniquely student-focused perspective. As an educator, she is also planning to utilize teaching tools that will allow these student ideas to thrive.
“I have no idea what the students are going to come up with,” said Reck. “I want as much input as I can from the students, so I'm trying not to steer them too much. And this is where Engineering Unleashed and Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) come in; I'm going to use some of their framework with the three C's–curiosity, connections, and creating value–along with some of the ideation techniques from the Siebel Center for Design.”
Reck hopes that together, she and her students will be able to come up with some actionable ideas over fall semester that could potentially be implemented as early as spring semester. Reck emphasized that no matter whether the changes students suggest are large or small, the end result will be the same: an improved engineering education experience for everyone.
Another benefit of this fellowship is how it inspires collaboration. KEEN is a widespread network that supports engineering education across the country, and participants are encouraged to use this network to share ideas and problem-solving methods.
“With this fellowship I have the ability to share ideas with the entire KEEN network,” Reck said. “Part of the funding that came with this award is set aside for me to present my findings at an engineering education conference next year. It allows me to share the ideas that come out of this with a wide audience, so I can help support labs here at The Grainger College of Engineering and across the country as well.”