Sara Willner-Giwerc Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Il, Us

• Head researcher on all cross-disciplinary core user research • Lead collaborative efforts across research teams to drive consistency and best practices• Drove exploration of Generative AI tools for qualitative research, with an emphasis on validation • Centralized qualitative feedback leveraging enterprise tools to allow developers to more easily query customer data and self serve insights

Medford, Massachusetts, United States

Introduction to Robotics and Mechanisms (ME35) Spring 2022, Department of Mechanical Engineering

United States

• National Science Foundation INTERN Fellowship Recipient

• Developed "Activity Briefs", a new one-page alternative to LEGO Education instructions• Coordinated efforts to bring that Activity Briefs from research prototype to published resource available for LEGO Education SPIKE Prime, SPIKE Essentials, BricQ Motion Prime, and BricQ Motion Essentials• Authored a 6 part blog series on the LEGO Education Teacher Community website about how to use Activity Briefs in the classroom and help teachers learn how to create their own activity brief resources

• Investigated new pedagogies for teaching computing to first year engineering students• Created a new form of instructions for educational robotics experiences• Collaborated with industry partners such as LEGO Education, LEGO Foundation, and Arduino to inform the design of new educational technologies and curricula• Mentored and managed over 20 different undergraduate research assistants

• Created and produced a robotics kit for the National Instruments myRIO• Wrote software package to control digital fabrication machines with LabVIEW• Developed learning experiences using LEGO StoryStarter and LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 • Judged LEGO StoryGames competition in Shanghai, China • Researched elementary schoolers capacity to conduct systems engineering tasks

Teaching assistant for the Teacher Engineering Education certificate program, which provides in-service teachers with an opportunity to gain a certificate in engineering education and further their careers. I was responsible for grading and providing written feedback on student work as well as offering individual assistance on homework and projects.

Build the Change is a powerful way for children to express their hopes and dreams for the future with LEGO® bricks and other creative materials, plus their own imagination. And it's all done via Learning through Play!Build the Change explores important topics related to the environment and society and asks kids to tap into their imaginations and come up with solutions to big problems. The goal of the Build the Change expanded experience is both to inspire kids to learn through play and to provide children with a platform to share their ideas with change-makers. With a focus on climate change and biodiversity, the 2020 Build the Change experience is designed to be completed at home with LEGO bricks and other common materials, and the experience enables LEGO to capture kids’ ideas to shape and deliver key insights to decision-makers globally (without compromising on digital child safety).I was a member of the Build the Change Expert working group, where I helped craft the Build the Change expanded digital experience. My main contributions were: • Brainstorm potential classroom integration opportunities• Provide overall feedback on the user experience • Come up with qualitative metrics to collect throughout the experience

• Taught engineering to elementary school students once a week • Collaborated with classroom teachers to design engineering curricula

Malta

• Standardized tool failure codes using Microsoft Excel • Installed side-shields on tools• Wrote job breakdown instructions for preventative tool maintenance

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Mechanical Engineering And Engineering Education

Activities and Societies: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow American Society for Engineering Education, Tufts Marathon.

Bachelor'S Degree, Mechanical Engineering

Activities and Societies: cum laude, high thesis honors Double minor in engineering management and engineering education, Undergraduate.

Advanced Regents Diploma