Isabella Stuopis is a postdoctoral researcher working in engineering education at Boston College under the supervision of Professor Avneet Hira. She received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the School of Engineering at Tufts University. She will be working on Dr. Hira’s NSF Career Award research, “Engineering in Youth-led Technology-rich Settings: Promoting Belonging and Preventing Harm."

Dr. Stuopis’s doctoral work focused on “Learning Assistants in Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering: Goals, Discourse, and Community.” Learning assistants (LAs) are near-peer members of the instructional team in undergraduate courses. They promote student thinking and discourse and learn pedagogical techniques in a weekly pedagogy seminar. Typically, LAs do not have grading responsibilities so that students are more likely to come to them about course questions. Dr. Stuopis, along with her doctoral advisor Dr. Kristen Wendell, facilitated weekly pedagogy seminars for the learning assistants. During her time at Tufts, Dr. Stuopis was actively involved in the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach and the department of STEM Education.