Leyla Nazhandali named Bradley Faculty Fellow of Education
Leyla Nazhandali, professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering, has been named the Bradley Faculty Fellow of Education by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The Bradley Faculty Fellowship of Education recognizes outstanding achievement and innovation in teaching, student mentoring, and curriculum development. Recipients retain the fellowship for a period of three years.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 2006, Nazhandali has a distinguished record of innovation in teaching throughout her career at Virginia Tech and her contributions to her department have improved the teaching effectiveness of her colleagues.
To enhance attendance and participation in the classroom, Nazhandali pioneered the method “Gamification with Second-Order Incentives,” which is a significant advancement in educational strategies, particularly in addressing the challenges of the post-COVID era. She has successfully increased class attendance by 30 percent and improved the quality of student participation.
A paper she wrote on the method was recently accepted to the Frontiers in Engineering Education conference; she will present the renamed "SEASIDE" method in Washington, D.C., this fall.
Nazhandali pioneered the department’s use of undergraduate teaching assistants and has made transformational changes to courses including Introduction to Computer Architecture (ECE 2500) and Introduction to Embedded Systems (ECE 2564). In the latter course, she introduced a new structure, new sequenced homework assignments, and a new website that contains relevant review materials for students as well as step-by-step tutorials and other materials.
She has earned numerous honors while at Virginia Tech, including the prestigious National Science Foundation Early Faculty Career Development (CAREER) award in 2006.
Nazhandali received her bachelor’s degree from Sharif University of Technology and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
