Professor Rose Bohrer of the Computer Science Department and Professors Joe Aguilar and Kate McIntyre from Humanities & Arts were honored at the Faculty Awards Convocation in April as the 2024 recipients of the Romeo L. Moruzzi Young Faculty Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education.
Moruzzi Award Winner, Rose Bohrer stands with Mark Richman, Marcel Blais, Michael Magalhaes, President Grace Wong, Joyce Kline, and Art Heinricher
In an amazing redesign of an undergraduate programming language course, Professor Bohrer has integrated theory-driven content with human-oriented concerns, social and ethical considerations, and belonging in computing. A suitable text did not exist, so Rose created an open-access textbook, a work rich in research and her conceptualization of the field. Her teaching approach has already been shared in several conference publications, and in two short years, she has already changed Computer Science at WPI for the better.
Moruzzi Award Winners, Joseph Aguilar and Kate McIntyre stand with Mark Richman, Marcel Blais, Michael Magalhaes, President Grace Wang, Joyce Kline, and Art Heinricher
Professors Aguilar and McIntyre launched an international literary magazine, Hex Literary, which has made creative writing at WPI a thriving enterprise. The day-to-day business of running the journal is done largely by students, who learn about the history of literary journals, how to promote content through social media and other campaigns, evaluate literary submissions, plan events, and conduct interviews with writers. The work Joe and Kate have done to build the journal, their pedagogy, and outcomes for students are examples of the best things project-based learning can achieve.
Full award citations are linked on the Morgan Center’s Moruzzi Award webpage.
These awards have been conferred annually since 1999, in honor and remembrance of Romeo L. Moruzzi, a WPI faculty member for close to 40 years who was a key player in bringing tenure to WPI and revolutionizing undergraduate education with the creation of the WPI Plan.
The Moruzzi Award process is coordinated by the Morgan Teaching and Learning Center, and the winner is chosen by the Educational Development Council, a committee of four faculty members and one undergraduate student.