Curriculum vitae

 last updated February 2, 2013

EDUCATION

Ph.D.              Engineering Education                              Virginia Tech                                 expected 5/2013
Dissertation Title: Characterizing Student Attention in Technology-Infused Classrooms Using Real-time Active Window Data
Chair: Dr. Christopher Williams

M.S.                Computer Engineering                    Mississippi State University                          12/2004
Thesis Title: Visualization of Computer-Modeled Forests for Forest Management
Chair:  Dr. Robert Moorhead

B.S.                 Computer Engineering                    Mississippi State University                           5/2002
Magna Cum Laude
Senior Project: Interchangeable PlayStationTM Controllers and Architectural Models for an Immersive Virtual Environment
 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Dean’s Teaching Fellow, August 2010 – present
Engineering Education Department, Virginia Tech
Presently conducting research investigating how students’ classroom computer use is related to student-centered, technology-infused pedagogy.  My research directly impacts instructional practice in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering. 

Research Assistant, part-time, Fall 2012
College of Engineering, NSF TUES grant (PI: Glenda Scales), Virginia Tech
Due to my expertise in technology-infused pedagogy and in conducting classroom observations of student computer use, I was asked to join the research team part-time in order to improve observation reliability.

Graduate Research Assistant, Summer 2011
Engineering Education Department, NSF CAREER grant (PI: Lisa McNair), Virginia Tech
Conducted preliminary research to aid engineering departments that were planning to integrate electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) into their graduate programs in Fall 2011 

Research Associate II, July 2009 – April 2010
Research Associate I, Dec 2003 – June 2009
Geosystems Research Institute, Mississippi State University
Developed numerous desktop visualization and immersive virtual reality applications through multiple grants funded by NOAA, NASA and the DoD

Graduate Research Assistant, Aug 2002 – Dec 2003
Visualization, Analysis, and Imaging Laboratory, Mississippi State University
Worked collaboratively with the College of Forestry to develop and run a user study validating forest management measurements in the CAVETM

Undergraduate Research Assistant, June 2001 – Aug 2001
High Performance Computing Laboratory, University of Delaware
Awarded a position through the CRA Distributed Mentor Project (cra-w.org); I was paired with Dr. Lori Pollock and my summer project supported a computer science doctoral student’s research

Undergraduate Research Assistant, Apr 1999 – Dec 2000
The Institute for Signal and Information Processing, Mississippi State University
Segmented and transcribed significant portions of the Switchboard corpus, and developed comprehensive documentation for the ISIP Foundation Classes, a C++ library upon which ISIP’s custom speech recognition system was built

CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE

Course Coordinator and Lecturer, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013
ENGE 1104: Exploration of the Digital Future, Virginia Tech, Engineering Education Department

Lecturer and Laboratory Instructor, Spring 2011
ENGE 1104: Exploration of the Digital Future, Virginia Tech, Engineering Education Department

Laboratory Instructor, Fall 2010
ENGE 1024: Engineering Explorations, Virginia Tech, Engineering Education Department

Co-instructor, Fall 2009 and Spring 2010
ECE 1002: Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department

Guest Lecturer, March 2005 and March 2006
ECE 4990/6990: Scientific Visualization, Data Mining Lecture, Mississippi State University, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department

Lecturer, November 2005, November 2006, and November 2008
GIS Day, Mississippi State University, Geosystems Research Institute Outreach

OTHER RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Assessment Specialist (Consultant), June 2012 – September 2012
TIBCO Software, Inc.

Outreach Coordinator, May 2009 – April 2010
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Mississippi State University


AWARDS AND HONORS

Graduate Engineering Education Consortium for Students (GEECS) Fellow, 2012
One of 30 students selected to attend the NSF Engineering Education Awardees Conference

Engineering Education Ambassador, 2011-2012
One of three students selected to represent to represent the Virginia Tech Eng. Ed. Department

Virginia Tech Graduate School Travel Grant, 2011
Awarded a competitive supplement for conference travel and presentation

College of Engineering Dean’s Teaching Fellow, Virginia Tech, 2010-2013
Competitive three-year fellowship with 28 total awards from 2005-2011

Most Outstanding Graduate Woman Award, Mississippi State, 2003Awarded to one female graduate student per a year

Joseph Barrier Graduate Engineering Fellowship, Mississippi State, 2003-2004

CRA-W Distributed Mentor Project Awardee, 2001
Matches female undergraduates with female professors for a summer of research and mentoring

NSF Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Fellow, Mississippi State, 2000-2002

Mississippi Eminent Scholars Grant, 1998-2002

Herin-Hess Engineering Scholarship, Mississippi State, 1998-2002


PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)
Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Tau Beta Pi, Engineering Honor Society, inducted May 2002
Upsilon Pi Epsilon, Computing and Information Honor Society, inducted April 2002                   


PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Outreach Activities

  • Assisted in numerous prospective graduate student visits (2010 – present)
  • Served as a judge for FIRST LEGOTM League Robotics competitions (2010, 2012)
  • Gave multiple engineering presentations and virtual reality demonstrations to local middle- and high-school students, including to the Society of Women Engineers summer camps and to advanced high school prospective students (2003 – 2010)
  • Gave multiple VIP virtual reality demonstrations to NSF program officers, congressional staffers, and faculty candidates (2003 – 2009)
  • Appeared in multiple recruiting and advertisement videos, including a Mississippi Development Authority commercial (April 2008), and a Mississippi State College of Engineering high school recruitment video (May 2008)

Professional Society Activities

  • Technical reviewer

o   ASEE Annual Conference (2012, 2013)
o   FIE Annual Conference (2011)

  • Session Chair

o   FIE Annual Conference (2011)

  • Leadership Roles

o   ASEE Virginia Tech Student Branch Chair (2012 – 2013)
o   ASEE Virginia Tech Student Branch Vice Chair (2011 – 2012)
o   Tau Beta Pi – Mississippi Alpha Student Branch Advisory Board (2002 – 2006)
o   Tau Beta Pi – Mississippi Alpha Student Branch Cataloger (2002 – 2006)
o   Upsilon Pi Epsilon Mississippi State Student Branch President (2002 – 2003)
o   Miss. State Engineering Student Council Representative (2002 – 2003)
o   IEEE Student Branch Secretary (2002-2003)
o   IEEE Student Branch Chair (2001-2002)

PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS

Panel member, November 2012
Reframing the “e” in ePortfolios. Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning Southeast Conference (AAEEBL SE), Clemson, SC

Interactive session, November 2012
Institution cultural considerations for reframing ePortfolios: Examples from engineering. Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning Southeast Conference (AAEEBL SE), Clemson, SC

Seminar, November 2012
Who’s paying attention in the laptop classroom? An investigation of real-time student attention.  Virginia Tech Engineering Education Department

Presentation to faculty, April 2012
An overview of engineering education and Virginia Tech’s Ph.D. program. Mississippi State University

Interactive faculty development session, October 2011
What is engineering education and why do we need Ph.D.s in it? South Dakota School of Mines

Seminar, October 2003
Visualization of Computer-Modeled Forests for Forest Management.  Mississippi State University Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduate Symposium 

6 paper presentations at conferences (publication numbers* 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, and 16 – 18)
7 poster presentations (publication numbers* 20, 22 – 26, 29, and 30)


PUBLICATIONS

Refereed Journal Articles

1)    Mohammadi-Aragh, M.J. & Williams, C. B. (2013 – in press). Students' perceptions of Tablet PC interaction techniques.  Computers in Education, 23(2).  (Paper was also presented at American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX, June 10-13, 2012 – publication #5) 

2)    Louis, R., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Brown, P., Mann, K., Carrico, C., Cross, K., Janeski, J., & McNair, L. (in press). Assessing graduate engineering programs with eportfolios: A comprehensive design process. Advances in Engineering Education, accepted June 2012.

3)    Fujisaki, I., Evans, D.L., Moorhead, R.J., Irby, D.W., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Roberts, S.D. & Gerard, P.D. (2008). Lidar-based forest visualization using immersive virtual environment technology. Forest Science Journal, 54(1), 1-7.

4)    Fujisaki I., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Evans, D.L., Moorhead, R.J., Irby, D.W., Roberts, S.D., Grado, S.C., & Schultz, E.B. (2007). Comparing forest assessment using computer visualization and videography.  Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning, 81, 146-154.

 

Refereed Conference Papers

5)    Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., & Williams, C. B. (2012). Students' perceptions of Tablet PC interaction techniques.  American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX, June 10-13, 2012. (Following the conference, paper was accepted to Computers in Education Journal – publication #1)

6)    Louis, R., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., & Lee, W. (2012). Wait … There is a Ph.D. in Engineering Education? The First Year Experience of Three Students in an Engineering Education Department. American Society for Engineering Education Southeast Section Meeting (ASEE-SE) 2012, Mississippi State, MS, April 2012.

7)    Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., & McNair, L. (2011). Work in progress: Effect of departmental culture on eportfolios for graduate engineering programmatic assessment.  Frontiers in Education (FIE) 2011, Rapid City, SD, October 2011.

8)    Irby, D.W., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Moorhead, R.J., & Amburn, P. (2009). Improving the understanding of hurricanes: Visualizing storm surge.  IEEE Oceans 2009, Biloxi, MS, October 2009.

9)    Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J. & Jankun-Kelly, T.J. (2005). MoireTrees: Visualization and interaction for multi-hierarchical data.  Eurographics – IEEE Symposium on Visualization, Leeds, United Kingdom, June 1-3, 2005, p. 231-238.

10) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Fujisaki, I., Irby, D.W., Evans, D. L., Moorhead, R.J., & Roberts, S.D.  (2005).  Visualization of Computer-Modeled Forests for Forest Management. Eurographics – IEEE Symposium on Visualization, Leeds, United Kingdom, June 1-3, 2005, p. 183-190.

11) Fujisaki, I., Evans, D. L., Moorhead, R. J., II, Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Irby, D., & Roberts, S. D. (2004). Human Factor Integration into the Development of a Realistic Tree Rendering System Based on LiDAR Remote Sensing. IS&T/SPIE 16th Annual Electronic Imaging Symposium. San Clara, CA. vol. 5291.

12) Martin, J.P., Gopal, G., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., & Boggess, L. (2003).  Text entry via PalmTM in an immersive virtual environment.  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics 47th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.

13) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Moorhead, R.J., Irby, D.W., Evans, D.L., Fujisaki, I., & Roberts, S.D. (2003).  Rendering realistic pine trees from LiDAR data in a virtual forest.  Proceedings of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Anchorage, AK.

14) Fujisaki, I., Evans, D.L., Moorhead, R.J., Irby, D.W., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., & Roberts, S.D. (2003).  LiDAR based forest visualization: Modeling forest stands and user studies.  Proceedings of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Anchorage, AK.

 

Non-Refereed Conference Papers

15) Irby, D.W., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Moorhead, R.J., & Amburn, P. (2009).  Improving the understanding of hurricanes: Visualizing WISDOM and UAS.  NOAA NGI Annual Meeting, Mobile, AL, May 2009.

16) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Martin, J.P., Ziegeler, S., & Moorhead, R.J. (2008). Visualization of time-varying features.  HPCMP Users Group Conference, Seattle, WA, July 13-17.

17) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Irby, D., Moorhead, R. J., II, & Schumeyer, R. (2006). CWO Data Mining. DoD HPC Users Group Meeting. Denver, CO, June 26-29, 2006, p. 280-282.

18) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Moorhead, R.J., Ziegeler, S., & Gaither, K. (2004).  FeatureView:  a 3D microstructure extraction and visualization tool.  3-D Materials Science Symposium, Materials Science and Technology '04, TMS Fall Meeting, New Orleans, LA, September 26-29.

 

White Papers

19) Mohammadi-Aragh, M.J. (2007). Data mining with Sapphire and FClib. User Productivity Enhancement & Technology Transfer (PET) Online Knowledge Center (OKC).

 

Posters

20) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Stephenson, J., Song, K., Wasko, C., and Finn, T. (2012). Tablet PCs in undergraduate general engineering: The untold story.   Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, February 2012, Blacksburg, VA.

21) Funderburk, W. K., Kirkland, B. L., Brown, L.R., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., & Schmitz, D.W. (2010). 3D imaging of micron-scale permeability pathways and biofilm surfaces within sandstone pore networks using CT X-ray. Proceedings of the Southeastern Microscopy Society, 30, p. 22.

22) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Irby, D., Moorhead, R.J., & Amburn, P. (2009). The UAS and WISDOM visualization system.  NOAA NGI Annual Meeting, May 2009, Mobile, AL.

23) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Irby, D., Amburn, P., & Moorhead, R. J.  Improving the understanding of hurricanes:  Visualizing storm surge.  NOAA NGI Annual Meeting, May 2009, Mobile, AL.

24) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Irby, D., Sanyal, J., Amburn, P., Moorhead, R. J., II, Zhang, S., & Wu, K. (2008). Visualization techniques for improving public understanding of catastrophic events. NGI Annual Meeting, May 2008, Biloxi, MS.

25) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J.,  Irby, D., Zhang, S., & Moorhead, R.J. (2007). Visualization techniques for improving public understanding of catastrophic events.  IEEE Visualization 2007 Proceedings Compendium, October 2007, pp. 34-35.

26) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Irby, D., Zhang, S., & Moorhead, R.J. (2007). Visualization techniques for improving public understanding of catastrophic events.  Northern Gulf Institute (NGI) Annual Meeting, May 2007, Biloxi, Mississippi.

27) Irby, D., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Fujisaki, I., Moorhead, R.J., Evans, D.L., & Roberts, S.D. (2005).  Forestry visualization based on LIDAR remote sensing.  Applied Visualization Conference, April.  (Best Graduate Student Poster Award)

28) Cai, S., Du, Q., Moorhead, R.J., Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., & Irby, D.W.  (2005).  Noise-adjusted principle component analysis for hyperspectral remotely sensed imagery visualization.  IEEE Visualization 2005 Proceedings Compendium, pp. 119-120.

29) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J. & Jankun-Kelly, T.J. (2004).  Visualizing and interacting with multi-tree hierarchical data.  IEEE Visualization 2004 Proceedings Compendium, pp. 119-120.

30) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., Moorhead, R.J., Irby, D.W., Fujisaki, I., Evans, D.L., & Roberts, S.D. (2003).  Computer-generated forests from LIDAR remote sensing.  Mississippi State Engineering Week Poster Competition, Mississippi State University, February 16-22.

 

Submitted/Under Review

31) Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J. & Williams, C. B. (under review).  Validation of active window as a proxy for student attention in technology-infused classrooms.  Manuscript submitted for journal publication on February 1, 2013.

32) Mohammadi-Aragh, M.J. & Williams, C.B. (under review).  Student attention in unstructured-use, computer-infused classrooms.  Manuscript submitted to ASEE 2013 on January 7, 2013 (abstract accepted).

33)  Mohammadi-Aragh, M.J. & Louis, R. (under review).  Surviving your first large lecture with attentive and engaged students.  Manuscript submitted to ASEE 2013 on January 7, 2013 (abstract accepted).

34)  Mohammadi-Aragh, M.J. & McNair, L. (under review).  Graduate engineering student perceptions of eportfolio and the role of departmental culture.  Manuscript submitted to ASEE 2013 on January 7, 2013 (abstract accepted).

35) *Amelink, C., Scales, G., Watford, B., Farquhar-Caddell, D., & Mohammadi-Aragh, M.J. (under review).  Defining and measuring innovative thinking among engineering undergraduates.  Manuscript submitted to ASEE 2013 on January 7, 2013 (abstract accepted).   *Final author order TBD.