Cameron Saylor

Ioulia Rytikova receives 2021 Online Teaching Excellence Award

Martha Bushong — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 12:29:15 +0000

Ioulia Rytikova receives 2021 Online Teaching Excellence Award Martha Bushong Tue, 07/06/2021 - 08:29

In This Story

Congratulations to associate professor Ioulia Rytikova from the Department of Information Sciences and Technology for receiving the 2021 Stearns Center Digital Learning Online Teaching Excellence Award (OTEA). The OTEA is open to all instructional faculty at Mason (adjuncts, term, tenure-track, and tenured faculty) who have taught at least one fully online course during the past academic year and have at least four semesters completed of teaching fully online courses at ��AV.

This award acknowledges faculty who have displayed growth and development as online educators, demonstrated online student and learner engagement, and shown effective online teaching and impact.

The award letter says, “Dr. Rytikova designed and developed multiple interdisciplinary programs, concentrations, and courses in the emerging areas of data sciences and big data analytics, computer and information technologies, health information technologies, and statistical analysis.” During her fifteen years of teaching, she has applied all her efforts towards creating the kind of environment that encourages students’ growth both intellectually and emotionally. She successfully demonstrated her effectiveness through student and learner achievement for these efforts and contributions throughout the academic school year.

Rytikova is the first winner from the College of Engineering and Computing to receive this award. As part of OTEA’s recognition of achievement, she was honored at the 2021 Celebration of Teaching Excellence, on Friday, May 7.

The OTEA selection committee is comprised of Mason faculty who review teaching portfolios. The teaching portfolios provide each nominee an opportunity to share evidence for what is unique about their online teaching, concerning their discipline, best teaching practices, and student learning engagement

Rytikova says, “Preparing my Online Teaching Award portfolio has given me the important opportunity to look beyond daily tasks to consider larger educational issues, to assess my own strengths and weaknesses as a teacher, and to better understand the kinds of values I’d like my students to develop in class.”

Topics

Classroom & Online Teaching

Awards

College of Engineering and Computing

Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

Students win oral presentation at American Vacuum Society Mid-Atlantic Virtual Chapter Meeting

Martha Bushong — Wed, 26 May 2021 12:16:57 +0000

Students win oral presentation at American Vacuum Society Mid-Atlantic Virtual Chapter Meeting Martha Bushong Wed, 05/26/2021 - 08:16

At the American Vacuum Society (AVS) Mid-Atlantic Virtual Chapter Meeting in April, students competed with one another through oral presentations for a cash prize.

Two students from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering won top honors. The two winners were Alexander Goldstone and Zhenyi Ye — both PhD candidates in the department. The two students will have the chance to compete in the AVS International Symposium this year in Charlotte, North Carolina. Professor Qiliang Li served as the lead advisor for both presentations.

“In the wake of the discovery of graphene, the search for new and remarkable 2D materials with astounding electronic and mechanical properties has led to the fabrication of germanene, a 2D germanium allotrope similar to silicene,” says Goldstone. His presentation was titled “Analysis of various passivation species on Germanene AC and ZZ Nanoribbon physical structure and band structure.” The study indicated the engineered Germanene nanoribbons are promising for next-generation nanoelectronics.

The title of Ye’s presentation was “Embedding Learning from Odor Using Cost-effective E-Nose. Ye says that “E-nose is a device based on gas sensors that can fingerprint patterns for a specific gas. It is an emulation of a human olfactory system involving multiple technologies” This study represented significant progress in developing precise and intelligent electronic noses.

About AVS

AVS is a non-profit, volunteer-driven, interdisciplinary organization that is dedicated to advancing the science and technology of vacuum, materials, surfaces, interfaces, thin films, and plasmas. The AVS supports networking among academic, industrial, government, and consulting professionals involved in a variety of disciplines.

Links to the winners' full presentations:

Zhenyi Ye – 5 min highest honors

Title “Embedding Learning from Odor Using Cost-effective E-Nose”

Alexander Goldstone – 5 min high honors

Title: “Analysis of various passivation species on Germanene AC and ZZ Nanoribbon physical structure and band structure”

Topics

Electrical and Computer Engineering

doctoral students

College of Engineering and Computing student receives top OSCAR award

Martha Bushong — Thu, 13 May 2021 15:03:20 +0000

College of Engineering and Computing student receives top OSCAR award Martha Bushong Thu, 05/13/2021 - 11:03

The Office of Student Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR) recently hosted the Spring 2021 Virtual OSCAR Celebration of Student Scholarship and Impact. Since its inception in 2011, OSCAR has highlighted undergraduate student work in various disciplines.

This year, the College of Engineering and Computing had the honor of having one of our very own named as a Student Excellence Award Winner. Daniel Mitchell, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, designs inspection robots. He has also worked on nanomaterial sensors to detect hazardous gas and nanomaterial-based nerve stimulation electrodes. Mitchell is a Mason Gordon Scholar, a Society of Military Engineers Student Leader award winner, and an American Society of Civil Engineering Multidisciplinary Competition winner. Additionally, he served as student chair of the Patriot Green Fund, a staff writer for the IV Estate, has had several internships, and has presented his work at nine conferences.

“The most valuable takeaway for me is finding a way to apply the scientific method to get problems solved and to find out new things,” says Mitchell.

OSCAR sponsors two awards each academic year, one that recognizes student excellence in undergraduate scholarship, creative activities, and research and another that recognizes the outstanding contributions of the faculty and staff who mentor undergraduates on their projects. This past celebration displayed Mason’s standout students and faculty and their numerous accomplishments.

“I could not be prouder of the OSCAR scene over the years and the number of students we’ve been able to help with their projects,” says Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education Bethany Usher. “Over 2,900 students have been supported by an OSCAR program. OSCAR students have had an impact on Mason, in Virginia, and around the world.”

Through the years, OSCAR has helped students see their education as a process of discovery, inquiry, and synthesis—the core values of the Mason student experience.

“Research is about the generation of understanding. One of the values of the OSCAR program is to provide our outstanding students with the opportunity to experience the wonder of discovery. Congratulations to all our students and faculty.”

Provost Mark R. Ginsburg

Topics

Office of Student Scholarship Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR)

Volgenau School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering

Honors College