The Georgia Tech Center for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) has announced that AE Professor Amy Pritchett has been chosen to receive the 2014 Curriculum Innovation Award.

Pritchett, the David S. Lewis Associate Professor of Cognitive Engineering, will formally receive the award at the Faculty Honors Luncheon, April 11.

A longtime member of the AE faculty, Pritchett was recognized by CETL and her aerospace engineering colleagues for introducing Problem Based Learning (PBL) to both upper and lower level AE courses.

"Dr. Pritchett has proven to be a tireless and data-driven advocate for using PBL to empower our students to take control of their learning," said AE Chair Dr. Vigor Yang. "In so doing, she has introduced many students to talents and capabilities they never knew they had."

Problem based learning (PBL) is an instructional method that requires teams of students to solve tough, authentic problems as a means of learning challenging material. The PBL approach encourages students to:

• identify what knowledge they need to acquire;
• reflect on this informations applicability to the problem and their depth of understanding;
• develop the skills essential to problem solving within the domain;
• stay active in learning activities spanning gathering information, assessing and applying knowledge as it is gained, and problem solving;
• assume ownership and responsibility for their learning.

Dr. Pritchett earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She currently holds a joint appointment in Georgia Tech's schools of Aerospace Engineering and Industrial Systems Engineering.

In additon to overseeing numerous research projects sponsored by industry, NASA and the FAA, Pritchett has  served as director of NASA’s Aviation Safety Program, where she was responsible for planning and execution of the program.

She has published more than 170 scholarly publications in conference proceedings and in scholarly journals such as Human Factors, Journal of Aircraft and Air Traffic Control Quarterly.She is the the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making.

Dr. Amy Pritchett engaging with students in her Georgia Tech office