Meet the team

Jennie L. Chiu

Jennie Chiu is an Associate Professor at the School of Education and Human Development at UVA. She researches technology-enhanced approaches to augment STEM+CS teaching and learning. She is the Principal Investigator of the ACTS project.

Don Brown

Don Brown is Founding Director of the Data Science Institute and the W.S. Calcott Professor in Systems Engineering at UVA. His research focuses on data fusion, knowledge discovery, and predictive modeling with various applications. Don leads the engineering development team at UVA.

James Bywater

James Bywater is an Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology at James Madison University. His scholarship focuses on the design, development, and implementation of intelligent tools that support high-quality teaching and learning practices.  Jim leads development of the scalable architecture and educational applications.

Ginger Watson

Ginger Watson, Ph.D. is Director of Instructional Training Systems at the Virginia Modeling Analysis & Simulation Center, Old Dominion University. Her research focuses on the design, development, integration, and evaluation of technology-enhanced learning and performance.


Debajyoti Datta

Debajyoti Datta is a current Ph.D. student in Systems Engineering at UVA. His research focuses on understanding the geometry of data to provide domain-specific applications.

Sarah Lilly

Sarah Lilly is a Postdoctoral Researcher in STEM+CS Education at UVA. Her research focuses on how to support teachers in interdisciplinary, project-based settings.

Shahina Ansari

Shahina Ansari is a current Ph.D. student in systems engineering. She works on the development of the ACTS system.

Sairaj Kuchana

Sairaj Kuchana is a current master’s student in Computer Science at ODU. His work mainly focuses on development of the ACTS system.


Aveen Mohammad

Aveen Mohammad is a current master student in Adult Education Human Resource Development at James Madison University. She is currently working as a graduate assistant and is a member of the ACTS system.


Maria Phillips

Maria Phillips is a past member of the project, graduating with her Ph.D. in systems engineering. Maria helped develop the pilot versions of ACTS.