Dr. Tracy Hammond, professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, was recently named the director of the Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation (IEEI). The appointment is effective Sept. 1 and she will devote 40% of her effort to lead the IEEI.
“I am thrilled at the opportunity provided to me by the College of Engineering,” Hammond said. “I look forward to bringing our already excellent faculty to even greater heights.”
IEEI is a center within the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES). Its mission is to serve as a focal point and academic resource for engineering education research for faculty and administrators in order to advance the practices of engineering education in The Texas A&M University System and worldwide.
Hammond is also director of the Sketch Recognition Lab and chair of the Engineering Education Faculty at Texas A&M. She is an international leader in engineering education and her background includes degrees from Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), including a master’s degree in anthropology from Columbia and a doctoral degree in computer science from MIT.
She has received several awards for her contributions to the Texas A&M engineering program and her professional field, including the 2011 Charles H. Barclay Jr. ‘45 Faculty Fellow Award and the 2020 TEES Faculty Fellow distinction. She has also earned multiple educational, teaching and best paper awards.
Hammond is an international leader in activity recognition (focusing on eye, body and sketch motions), haptics, intelligent fabrics, smartphone development and computer human interaction research. Her publications on the subjects are widely cited and her engineering education research has positively impacted learning across K-12, and is part of the engineering curricula at Georgia Tech, Texas State University, San Jose State University, LeTourneau University, Texas A&M and several high schools. Her work has also been featured on the Discovery Channel and other national and international news sources. Additionally, she has received over $13 million in research funding, including 28 engineering education research grants, with 13 of these from National Science Foundation engineering education directorates.