Ayush Gupta

Contact Info: 

Room 1320, Physics Building 

University of Maryland, 

College Park, MD 20742. 

Phone: 301-405-5445

Email: ayush@umd.edu

Blog: http://glorifiedevil.blogspot.com/

About Me:

I am a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics, Unversity of Maryland, College Park in the Physics Education Research Group. I am also a Keystone Instructor in the A. J. C. School of Engineering at the University of Maryland.

From a scientific perspective, I am interested in gaining a better understanding of how the human mind operates and learns. From a social perspective I want to use this understanding to promote a more equitable education system and an overall scientific and rational way of thinking in society - awareness and education being the slow but steady path towards greater social justice without instability.

Interesting tidbit: I have an entry on the Internet Movie Database!  Visit my IMDB page Unfortunately I cannot upload a picture: that costs money.

Research Interests:

•  Cognitive models of the dynamics of knowledge-in-use and of learning

•  Role of emotions in students' reasoning 

•  How engineering students use mathematics in physics and engineering

•  Learners' ontologies in physics: A dynamic systems view

•  Engineering Design Thinking 

•  Integrating Discourse Analysis and Knowledge Analysis

• "Unit of Cognition": Bridging the cognitivist-situativist divide via a complex systems model of cognitive dynamics 

Current Projects:

• Physics Education Research
• Helping students learn how to learn using PhET based Tutorials: Research and Development
• Engineering Education Research
• Helping Engineering Students Transform Their Understanding of Quantum Phenomenon and Devices
• An Application Based Learning Approach to Introductory C-Programming Courses
• Modeling the dynamics of integrated moral and technical reasoning in contexts of socio-scientific issues
• Science Education (K-12) and Teacher Education 
• Minority Student Pipeline Math Science Partnership (MSP2) project

Past Projects: 

• Improving students' mathematical sense-making in engineering: Research and development

Publications/Talks

• Publications
• Invited and Contributed Talks and Posters

Teaching:

• ENES100: Introduction to Engineering Design (Fall 2011 - present)
  
• Phys 260: General Physics (Calculus-based; engineering majors) (Fall 2009)
• Phys 161:  General Physics (Calculus-based; engineering majors) (Spring 2009)
• Phys121 Labs&Tutorials: Fundamentals of Physics (algebra-based) Labs (Fall 2008)
• Phys 122 Labs (Fundamentals of Physics; algebra-based)(Fall 2008)
• Phys115 Inquiry into Physics (for Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education majors) (Fall 2007)

Past Research

Curriculum Vitae