1) Overhaul of the mechanics course sequence: Statics, Dynamics and Solid Mechanics
As I worked on the development and implementation of course improvements in the Mechanics courses, it was important to develop a community of practice (CoP) consisting of faculty who were committed to continuing these reforms and able to collaborate closely. Instructors that belonged to this CoP had weekly meetings to discuss course development, teaching assistant training and assessments tools. Within this community, I developed lecture content, collaborative learning discussion section activities and a large data set of online assessments for the Solid Mechanics and Statics courses. I have also mentored and assisted other faculty when teaching these large classes for the first time.
West M., Silva M., Herman G., “Sustainable reform of an introductory mechanics course sequence driven by a community of practice”, Proceedings of the ASME 2015 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE 2015), IMECE2015-51493, 2015.
West M., Silva M., Herman G., “Randomized exams for large STEM courses spread via communities of practice”, Proceedings of the 122nd American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition (ASEE 2015), 26.1302.1-26.1302.15, 2015.
Grant: “TAM210/211/212/251”, Strategic Instructional Innovations Program (SIIP) at UIUC. Research team: Matthew West, Geir Dullerud, Elif Ertekin, Randy Ewoldt, Blake Johnson, Mariana Silva and Daniel Tortorelli, 2012-2016.
2) Bringing computational tools to a linear algebra course
In Fall 2019, a team of faculty from the Mathematics, Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering Departments began working on a project to improve the curriculum of the Linear Algebra course offered to students in the College of Engineering. The goal was to make the course more accessible to sophomores by removing the Calculus III prerequisite and introducing computational tools, allowing students to solve more complex and realistic problems.
One of my contributions to this project was creating computer laboratory assignments, which were implemented as collaborative learning activities during small discussion sections. The course was first offered as a pilot experiment in Fall 2020 to 300 students. This new course, called Computational Tools for Linear Algebra, is now required for most engineering majors in the College of Engineering, with about 2,500 students enrolling each year.
To measure the impact of these changes and perform longitudinal studies, I developed a Linear Algebra Concept Inventory using the PrairieLearn system. I first offered this assessment as an optional quiz during the first week of my Numerical Methods class in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020. It was also given to students in other classes, and we now have data from over 1,000 students, ranging from freshmen to seniors. We found that students with less mathematics background who completed the new computational linear algebra course performed significantly better on quizzes in my course compared to those who took the traditional linear algebra course. The results were presented at SIGCSE 2023.
Silva M., Hieronymi P., West M., Nytko N., Deshpande A., Chuang J., Hilgenfeldt S., “Innovating and modernizing a Linear Algebra class through teaching computational skills”, Proceedings of the 2022 American Society for Engineering Education Conference (ASEE 2022), 2022.
Chen H., West M., Hilgenfeldt S., Silva M., “Measuring the Impact of a Computational Linear Algebra Course on Students’ Exam Performance in a Subsequent Numerical Methods Course”, Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2023), 2023.
Grant: “Early Instruction in Linear Algebra and Computational Tools in the Curricula of CS, MechSE, and the College of Engineering”, Strategic Instructional Innovations Program (SIIP) at UIUC. Research team: Sasha Hilgenfeldt, Philipp Hieronymi, Luke Olson, Mariana Silva and Matthew West, 2019-2022.
3) Incorporating Python into the engineering curriculum
Based on the successfull re-design of the linear algebra course, another community of practice was formed to incorporate similar computational Python-based lessons to other courses required to many engineering programs, including Statics, Differential Equations and Control Systems. My main role was to mentor instructors teaching these courses, and interact with undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants, to support the development and implementation of the Python-based activities. These activities were supported by two internal grants.
Chang W., Ok S., West M., Hilgenfeldt S., Silva M. “Effects of integrating computational tools into an introductory engineering mechanics course”, Proceedings of the 2024 American Society for Engineering Education Conference (ASEE 2024), 2024.
Grant: “Python Working Group”, Strategic Instructional Innovations Program (SIIP) at UIUC. Research team: Sasha Hilgenfeldt, Jared Bronski, Wayne Chang, Neal Davis Mariana Silva and Matthew West, 2021-2022.
Grant: “Computational Tools for Dynamics and Control”, Strategic Instructional Innovations Program (SIIP) at UIUC. Research team: Sascha Hilgenfeldt, Timothy Bretl, Siegfried Eggl, Prashant Mehta, Melkior Ornik,
Srinivasa Salapaka, Chenhui Shao, Mariana Silva, Matthew West, 2023-2024.