Science and Mathematics Education (SESAME)

Zachary A. Pardos

Dr. Pardos is an Associate Professor of Education at UC Berkeley studying adaptive learning and AI. His current research focuses on knowledge representation and recommender systems approaches to increasing upward mobility in postsecondary education using behavioral and semantic data.

He earned his PhD in Computer Science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a dissertation on computational models of cognitive mastery. Funded by a National Science Foundation Fellowship (GK-12), he spent extensive time with K-12 educators and students working to integrate educational technology into...

Ally Collard

Alexandra (Ally) Collard is a first-year PhD student in the Graduate Group in Science and Mathematics Education (SESAME). Ally has Bachelor's degrees in Chemistry and Math from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Master's degree in Chemistry from Institut Polytechnique de Paris, where she studied Electrochemistry and Materials Chemistry. Ally also taught high school Chemistry in Colorado, where she worked to develop her skills in inquiry-based teaching. At UC Berkeley, she is now studying Chemistry education, working with Anne Baranger and Marcia Linn's groups. Her research focuses...

Siqi Huang

Siqi Huang is a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics education at the University of California, Berkeley, mentored by Felix Klein Medalist Alan H. Schoenfeld. Siqi holds a B.S. in mathematics from UCLA and is concurrently pursuing a Master’s degree in mathematics under Fields Medalist Richard Borcherds to deepen her mathematical expertise. Siqi has presented her research at major conferences, including PME-NA (International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education - North American Chapter), AERA (American Educational Research Association), and RUME (Research in Undergraduate Mathematics...

Haider Ali Bhatti

As a child, Ali and his family immigrated to the United States from Pakistan and settled in Englewood, New Jersey. As a proud New Jerseyan, he earned his Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, followed by a Master's degree in Biological Science Education at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. After graduating, he taught high school biology and also worked at Khan Academy as a biology content creator.

Currently, he’s a PhD candidate in the SESAME program at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on how we can make...

Alan H. Schoenfeld

Alan Schoenfeld is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds the Elizabeth and Edward Conner Chair in the School of Education and is an Affiliated Professor in the Mathematics Department. Schoenfeld is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and a Laureate of the education honor society Kappa Delta Pi. He is an elected memberof the International Academy of Education and the U.S. National Academy of Education, and has served as President of AERA and vice...

Michelle Hoda Wilkerson

I am a learning scientist whose work explores computational literacy, with special focus on how young people learn about scientific computing, its power, and its limitations. Most recently, I have explored how two varieties of scientific computing in particular, visual data analysis tools and agent-based simulation, can be responsibly introduced as epistemic tools within the precollegiate curriculum. Because my research focuses on the ways in which these tools allow youth to explore large-scale systems with significant social impacts (e.g. climate, health patterns, nutrition, pollution), I...

Julien Putz

Julien Putz is a first-year doctoral student in the Graduate Group of Science and Mathematics Education (SESAME) at UC Berkeley. His primary advisor is Prof. Dor Abrahamson and he is an active member of the Embodied Design Research Laboratory. He is interested in understanding and modelling the cognitive processes that constitute mathematical thinking from an embodied and enactive perspective. Further interests of his include the relationships between physical skill acquisition and conceptual learning in mathematics. He also seeks to leverage first-person methodologies like...