Information About

Ann McKenna Northwestern University 2133 Sheridan Road, G319 Evanston, IL 60208 TEL: 847-491-6761 FAX: 847-491-2603 mckenna@northwestern.edu B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Drexel University, 1988 M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Drexel University, 1991 Ph.D., Engineering Education, University of California at Berkeley, 2001

Honors

• ASEE-ERM Apprentice Faculty Grant Award, 2002.
• Best Overall Paper Award, American Society for Engineering Education Conference, Seattle, WA, 1998. Paper selected from approximately 2000 submissions.
• Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE/ASEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, 1997. Thirteen papers out of 400 submitted were selected for this award.
• National Science Foundation Reforming Education through Science and Design Fellowship, 1998-1999.

Research Interests

Learning through design and complex problem solving; the role of adaptive expertise in engineering education; engineering faculty pedagogy and conceptions of teaching and learning; mechanical reasoning; creativity and innovation in design education.

In the Classroom

Prof. McKenna teaches IDEA 370: Engineering Design Portfolio and Presentation. In IDEA 370 each student creates a design portfolio that showcases his or her engineering work. Similar to product design, portfolio design follows the design process, and melds design and communication, meshing such concepts as usability testing and understanding and getting feedback from one’s users and audience. In addition, Prof. McKenna teaches IDEA 106: Engineering Design and Communication.

Prof. McKenna is the Associate Director of Design Education for the Institute for Design Engineering and Applications (IDEA) as well as an IDEA Faculty Fellow. Most recently she has led the development of the Northwestern Center for Engineering Education Research (NCEER) where she serves as Co-Director.

Selected Publications

McKenna, Ann F. (2007). “An Investigation of Adaptive Expertise and Transfer of Design Process Knowledge,” to appear in the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design.

McKenna, Ann F. and Yalvac, Bugrahan (2007). “Characterizing Engineering Faculty’s Teaching Approaches,” to appear in June issue of Teaching in Higher Education, 12(3).

McKenna, Ann F. (2006). “Implementing Learning Science Research in University Settings:  New Research Opportunities,” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 108, Winter 2006, pp. 109-114.

Kolikant, Yifat Ben-David, McKenna, Ann F. & Yalvac, Bugrahan. (2006). “The Emergence of a Community of Practice in Engineering Education,” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 108, Winter 2006, pp. 7-16.

McKenna, Ann, F., Colgate, J. Edward, Carr, Stephen, & Olson, Gregory, B. (2006). “IDEA: Formalizing the Foundation for an Engineering Design Education,” International Journal of Engineering Education, 22 (3), pp. 671-678.

McKenna, Ann F., Nocedal, Jorge, Freeman, Randy, & Carr, Stephen H. (2005). “Introducing a Constructivist Approach to Applying Programming Skills in Engineering Analysis,” Proceedings of the IEEE/ASEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE05), Indianapolis, IN.

Kolikant, Yifat Ben-David, McKenna, Ann F. & Yalvac, Bugrahan (2005). “Using the Personal Response System as a Cultural Bridge from Silent Absorption to Active Participation,” Proceedings of the ED-MEDIA World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, Montreal, Canada.

McKenna, A. and Agogino, A. (2004). “Supporting Mechanical Reasoning with a Representationally-Rich Learning Environment,” Journal of Engineering Education, 93 (2), pp.97-104.

McMartin, F., McKenna, A., and Youseffi, K. (2000). “Scenario Assignments as Assessment Tools for Undergraduate Engineering Education,” IEEE Transactions on Education, 43(2), pp. 111-119.