where she also serves as Assistant Department Head for Graduate Education and co-directs the Virginia Tech Engineering Communication Center. Her research includes interdisciplinary collaboration, communication studies, identity theory, and reflective practice. Projects supported by the National Science Foundation include interdisciplinary pedagogy for pervasive computing design, writing across the curriculum in statics courses, and a CAREER award to explore the use of e-portfolios to promote professional identity and reflective practice. Her teaching emphasizes the roles of engineers as communicators and educators, the foundations and evolution of the engineering education discipline, assessment methods, and evaluating communication in engineering.

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During the 2013-14 academic year he spent a sabbatical in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Dr. Cunningham's educational research interests are student metacognition and self-regulation of learning and faculty development. His disciplinary training within Mechanical Engineering is in dynamic systems and control with applications to engine exhaust aftertreatment.

where she also serves as Assistant Department Head of Graduate Education and co-Director of the VT Engineering Communication Center (VTECC). She received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and B.A. in English from the University of Georgia. Her research interests include interdisciplinary collaboration, design education, communication studies, identity theory and reflective practice. Projects supported by the National Science Foundation include interdisciplinary pedagogy for pervasive computing design; writing across the curriculum in Statics courses; as well as a National Science Foundation CAREER award to explore the use of e-portfolios for graduate students to promote professional identity and reflective practice. Her teaching emphasizes the roles of engineers as communicators and educators, the foundations and evolution of the engineering education discipline, assessment methods, and evaluating communication in engineering.

Writing assignments were implemented in a statics course to improve conceptual understanding. The assignments required students to explain in words their solution process for specific homework problems. Quantitative analyses of Statics Concept Inventory (SCI) and course exams data showed significant improvements on the SCI in the experimental section; however, scores on course exams did not significantly improve. Qualitative data indicate that students who were dissatisfied with the process problems cite unfair grading, rather than the work, as cause, highlighting a key area for enhanced collaboration between engineering and writing faculty. These results provide empirical validation for the use of writing-to-learn assignments and validated discipline-based assessment tools such as concept inventories as a means to engage content faculty in writing assignments that support conceptual learning.