Meliou Awarded Lilly Fellowship
Alexandra Meliou, assistant professor of computer science, has been awarded a prestigious 2016-2017 Lilly Fellowship from the UMass Amherst Institute for Teaching Excellence and Faculty Development (TEFD).
Established in 1986, the Lilly Fellowship program enables promising junior faculty to cultivate teaching excellence in a special yearlong collaboration. Each year, eight to ten teaching fellows are selected to work closely with the TEFD on individual projects which typically involve developing or redesigning a course. Meliou's fellowship will allow her to redesign her course, "Practice and Applications of Data Management."
As part of the fellowship, fellows will assess their instruction and their students' learning through classroom visits, a review of course materials, and student feedback. Fellows also attend an annual retreat and regular monthly seminars on college teaching organized by TEFD, and work with a senior faculty mentor to anticipate many of the challenges and rewards of teaching.
Meliou, whose research interests are in the area of data and information management, also received a NSF Career Award in late 2015.