Dr. Tracy Hammond, Director of IEEI and professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, at Texas A&M University, and Director, Sketch Recognition Lab was recently presented with the Chester F. Carlson Award by the American Society for Engineering Education in recognition of her work as an educator.
The award is presented annually to “an individual innovator in engineering education who, by motivation and ability to extend beyond the accepted tradition, has made a significant contribution to the profession.” It is named for Carlson, who invented xerography, which is the process of dry copying using electrostatic charges to transfer printing halftones to paper.
Through her work, Hammond continues to make a significant contribution to engineering education and further development at Texas A&M University. Her many goals include developing new technologies to improve engineering education, bridging the gender and diversity gaps in engineering and industries, and creating inclusive classrooms by helping faculty to engage with students.
Her work in engineering education research has positively impacted learning across K-12, and is part of the engineering curricula at Georgia Tech, Texas State University, San Jose State University, LeTourneau University, Texas A&M, and several high schools. She has received over $13 million in research funding, including 28 engineering education research grants, with 13 of these from National Science Foundation engineering education directorates. She has been named a 2020 ACM Distinguished Member, the 2020 recipient of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Faculty Fellows award, and the 2011-2012 recipient of the Charles H. Barclay, Jr. ’45 Faculty Fellow Award.
Dr. Hammond is an international leader in activity recognition, AI, data science, machine learning, haptics, intelligent fabrics, Smartphone development, and computer-human interaction research. She has created multiple educational software used in the classroom that positively impacts curriculum and learning, including Sketchtivity and Mechanix, which were developed in the Sketch Recognition Lab. Dr. Hammond has received a $1.5 million dollar grant titled, ‘’Collaborative Research: Fostering Engineering Creativity and Communication through Immediate, Personalized Feedback on 2D-Perspective Drawing;’’ which is shared by Texas A&M University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, and San Jose State University. Through this project, around 5,000 diverse undergraduate and graduate students at the four partnering institutions will receive software to help them grow into more confident, creative, and capable engineers with effective visual communication skills.