Awards and Recognition

Funding

• Course Development and Instructional Improvement Program (CDIIP) Award ($38,273 | 1 year)

  • Project Title: (More) Free, Interactive, Open Educational Resources for Lower-Division Programming Courses
  • Project Team: Niema Moshiri (PI), Joe Politz (co-PI), and Gerald Soosai Raj (co-PI)
  • Project Duration: July 2021 - June 2022
  • Funding Agency: Course Development and Instructional Improvement Program (CDIIP)

• National Science Foundation (NSF) Award 2044473 ($299,973 | 3 years)

  • Project Title: Determining the Effectiveness of Live Coding on Student Learning in Introductory Programming
  • Project Team: Gerald Soosai Raj (PI), Bill Griswold (co-PI), and Leo Porter (co-PI)
  • Project Duration: Jan 2021 - Dec 2023
  • Funding Agency: NSF’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE)
  • Award Link: Link to NSF Award 2044473

• Google ExploreCSR Award ($18,000 | 1 year)

  • Project Title: Introducing Community College Women to 4-Year University Research Opportunities
  • Project Team: Christine Alvarado (PI) and Gerald Soosai Raj (co-PI)
  • Funding Agency: Google
  • Project Duration: July 2019 - June 2020

• US Department of Education Award U411C190048 ($3,993,941 | 4 years)

  • Project Title: CS for English Learners (CSforEL)
  • Project Team: Jake Baskin (project director), CSTA Chapters, Deborah Costa Hernandez (co-PI), Beth Simon (co-PI), CRLP staff/facilitators, Megan Hopkins (co-PI), Gerald Soosai Raj (collaborator), and many others
  • Funding Agency: US Department of Education
  • Project Duration: July 2019 - June 2023

• Scott Kloeck-Jenson Fellowship ($4,500 | 3 months)

  • Project Title: Effect of Bilingual Education and Live-Coding on Student Learning and Engagement in Teaching and Learning Computer Sciences
  • Project Team: Gerald Soosai Raj (Ph.D. Candidate), Jignesh Patel (co-advisor), and Richard Halverson (co-advisor)
  • Funding Agency: Scott Kloeck-Jenson Fellowship at University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Project Duration: July 2018 - September 2018
  • Link to Project Report: SKJ Fellowship Report

Honors and Awards

• Best Paper Award: For our research paper titled Live-coding vs Static Code Examples: Which is better with respect to Student Learning and Cognitive Load? in Australasian Computing Education (ACE) Conference. February 2020.

• Capstone Ph.D. Teaching Award: University-wide teaching award in recognition of outstanding achievement as a graduate student instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. March 2019.

• Best CS Graduate Student Instructor Award: Department-wide teaching award for excellence in teaching as a graduate student instructor in Computer Sciences at University of Wisconsin-Madison. May 2018.

• UW-CS Thank You Award: UW-Madison Computer Sciences Department’s Thank You Award for Efforts in Increasing Diversity in Computer Sciences. May 2018.

• UW-CS Thank You Award: UW-Madison Computer Sciences Department’s Thank You Award for Creating Pathways for Women to Major in Computer Sciences. May 2017.

• Cisco’s CAP Award: Cisco’s Achievement Program (CAP) award for outstanding contributions to Diameter Credit Control Protocol (DCCA). January 2012.

• Cisco’s Star Award: Cisco’s Star performer award for developing a successful technical on-boarding program for new hires. April 2011.

• CEG Alumni Association Endowment Award College of Engineering Guindy (CEG) Alumni Association’s Endowment Award for outstanding performance during the first two years of undergraduation in Information Technology. February 2008.