Maria Elena Chavez-Echeagaray
Assistant Teaching Professor, ENGR Academic & Student Affrs
Computing and engineering educator and researcher in the Academic and Student Affairs unit and in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence under the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.
My research area of interest is focused on user, customer, and learner experience, human computing interaction, affective computing, educational technology, engineering education, intelligent tutor systems, and software engineering. I collaborate within interdisciplinary and cross-departmental research teams with renown public and private companies and educational institutions. My research is enhanced by the usage of biometric systems to generate data-based insights and assessments.
My current work includes the development and assessment of learner-centered educational programs to support, mainly, first-year engineering students both in the transition to college as well as in learning computing and engineering fundamentals. Besides this, I support research projects and initiatives for both undergrad and grad students in areas such as affective computing, augmented reality, human-computing interaction, and web-based applications.
Along the years at ASU, I have collaborated within the Motivational Environment Research Group led by Dr. Winslow Burleson (2009), the Data and Information and Artificial Intelligence Group led by Dr. Kurt VanLehn (2009 – 2013), and the Advanced Next Generation Learning Environments (ANGLE) Lab and innovative Learning and User Experience (iLUX) Lab led by Dr. Robert Atkinson (2010 – Present).
My collaboration at ASU also includes participating as committee member for undergraduate and graduate students research projects, as well as capstone team cordinator and mentor.
Prior to coming to ASU, for eight years (2001 – 2008), I collaborated within the Tecnológico de Monterrey, where I taught courses in areas such as programming, software engineering, computer architecture, and networking. Beside my teaching experience at this institution, I had the opportunity to collaborate as academic program chair for two and a half years, while I developed and established university-industry liaison programs that, due to their success, established a solid foundation for other similar programs to follow. Also, I led the effort to successfully open four new academic programs in the area of information technology and electronics that successfully recruited nearly 100 students in their first year.
Ready to mentor
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My research includes studies where we can learn how the experience for a user/customer/learner can be improved. This goes from learning how the interaction between an user/customer/learner and graphical user interfaces in computing devices, applications, or the interaction of a user/customer/learner is in new places, places layouts, etc. could be improved. These studies consider not only the technology or the design, but also the emotional component that these experiences include.