The Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering is honoring the 2026 Mosaic Award and the
Instructional Strategies for Partnership, Innovation, Resources and Engagement, or INSPIRE, Award recipients. Their work shows how some of the most meaningful contributions to student and faculty success happen through the everyday work of teaching, mentoring, community building and innovation.
The awards recognize faculty members whose efforts reflect the Fulton Schools values and advance the school’s ongoing effort to align faculty recognition with those values. While many faculty members contribute to these priorities through their regular responsibilities, the Mosaic and INSPIRE Awards highlight individuals whose work has created especially significant impact across the Fulton Schools community.
The Mosaic Award acknowledges faculty who exemplify the value of building a foundation for all to be successful. This translates to fostering environments where all members of the Fulton Schools community have access to opportunities, feel included and valued and receive support to achieve their full potential.
The INSPIRE Award recognizes faculty who advance the value of foster learning and collaboration by supporting student success, professional development and professional practice through innovation and leadership.
This inaugural INSPIRE Award focused specifically on enhanced teaching and learning through the integration of artificial intelligence, or AI. The INSPIRE Award’s theme will change every two years to adapt alongside university goals.
Next year, the Fulton Schools will add an additional award for delivering innovation that matters to honor outstanding research efforts.
Together, this year’s recipients showcase how faculty are living the Fulton Schools values by helping students, colleagues and the broader Fulton Schools community thrive.
Mosaic Award recipients: Building a foundation for all to be successful
Samantha Brunhaver
Samantha Brunhaver, an associate professor in The Polytechnic School, earned the Mosaic Award for her commitment to mentoring, community building and advocacy that help students and faculty navigate challenges, build meaningful relationships and advance their goals.
As chair of the engineering education systems and design doctoral program, Brunhaver has developed initiatives that help strengthen the graduate student experience. She coordinates a peer mentoring program that pairs newer doctoral students with more experienced peers, helping students learn from one another while building networks that extend beyond the classroom.
Colleagues also highlighted her willingness to provide support during periods of uncertainty. When grant cancellations affected some doctoral students, Brunhaver worked with Fulton Schools leaders to help secure financial support for affected students. In some cases, she devoted additional time and resources to ensure students could continue their education without interruption.
“Whether someone is starting a doctoral program or navigating a new stage of their faculty career, having people you can learn from makes a tremendous difference,” Brunhaver says. “I enjoy creating opportunities for those relationships to develop because they help people navigate challenges and make the most of the opportunities in front of them.”
By investing in people and creating opportunities for meaningful engagement, Brunhaver has helped strengthen the networks that support students and faculty across the Fulton Schools.
Christina Carrasquilla
Christina Carrasquilla, a teaching professor in The Polytechnic School, was recognized with the Mosaic Award for creating inclusive learning environments and helping faculty and students access opportunities for growth and success.
In her classrooms, Carrasquilla intentionally designs learning experiences that support a wide range of student needs. Flexible participation options, inclusive language and structured opportunities for collaboration help create spaces where students feel welcomed, respected and able to contribute.
She also focuses on reducing barriers to learning by incorporating work time into class sessions, encouraging questions and providing students with multiple ways to demonstrate their understanding. These practices help shift the classroom experience from one centered on performance to one centered on learning and support.
Beyond her teaching, Carrasquilla serves as a graduate program chair and faculty coach within the Fulton Learning and Teaching Hub. In those roles, she helps faculty implement inclusive teaching practices, share effective strategies and build stronger learning environments for students.
“I build systems that support both students and faculty in achieving their full potential,” Carrasquilla says. “I promote flexible teaching practices such as alternative assessment formats that allow students to demonstrate understanding in ways that align with their strengths.”
Her work includes developing resources and facilitating discussions on topics such as increasing student participation, supporting student well-being and creating more accessible learning experiences.
INSPIRE Award recipients: Advancing AI-enhanced teaching and learning
Alicia Baumann
Alicia Baumann, an associate teaching professor in the Fulton Schools, was recognized with the INSPIRE Award for helping students engage with AI as a learning partner rather than simply a tool.
Across introductory engineering and computing courses, Baumann has integrated AI into classroom activities that encourage students to troubleshoot problems, compare AI-generated responses and critically evaluate the quality of those outputs. Rather than accepting AI answers at face value, students learn how to question, verify and improve them.
Her approach also emphasizes responsible use. Students who use AI to refine assignments are asked to provide records of their AI interactions, creating opportunities to discuss ethics, transparency and academic integrity while building AI literacy.
“The goal is to create a structured framework where students learn to use AI as a thought partner, assistant, collaborator and transformative tool, while also enabling faculty across the Fulton Schools to adopt consistent and effective AI practices,” she says.
Baumann has extended that work beyond the classroom through undergraduate research and mentoring. She has guided students investigating topics such as AI-generated engineering design projects and AI-assisted grading systems, giving them opportunities to examine emerging technologies through research and experimentation. She also advises projects that combine AI with virtual reality and human-centered design, helping students explore how these technologies can support engineering problem-solving and communication.
Through curriculum innovation, mentorship and service on AI-focused initiatives, Baumann is helping prepare students to work thoughtfully and effectively alongside emerging technologies while developing the critical thinking skills engineers need in an AI-enabled future.
Jason Bronowitz and Nadia Kellam
Jason Bronowitz and and Nadia Kellam, faculty members in The Polytechnic School, part of the Fulton Schools, received the INSPIRE Award jointly for their leadership in creating a community of practice around AI-enhanced teaching and learning. Bronowitz is an associate teaching professor and associate director for academic excellence, and Kellam is a professor of engineering, the undergraduate engineering program chair and the associate director for strategic initiatives.
Central to their work are AI fika gatherings, regular discussions inspired by the Swedish tradition of drinking coffee, eating a pastry and taking time to connect and exchange ideas. The sessions bring together faculty members, staff and graduate students to explore AI tools, discuss challenges and opportunities, share classroom experiences and learn from one another in a collaborative environment.
The impact extends beyond individual participants. Faculty members have used ideas from the gatherings to redesign courses, create new learning objectives and increase their confidence in incorporating AI into teaching. The sessions have also helped build a culture in which experimentation, dialogue and shared learning are encouraged.
Both faculty members have integrated AI into their own teaching in meaningful ways. Bronowitz has developed courses that help students use AI for data analysis, critical thinking and decision-making while emphasizing the importance of evaluating AI outputs rather than accepting them uncritically.
In Kellam’s engineering mechanics courses, students evaluate AI-generated solutions to determine whether they are accurate and effectively communicated. She has also created assignments that use AI to support creative, future-focused engineering design while encouraging students to think critically about the social and technical implications of their work.
Together, Bronowitz and Kellam have demonstrated that effective AI integration is not just about adopting new technologies. It is about creating learning communities where students, faculty and staff can explore those technologies thoughtfully, collaboratively and responsibly.
