People

Dr. Ido Davidesco is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Lab-to-Classroom Research Group at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. His research is positioned at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and science education. Utilizing recent developments in portable and wearable technologies (e.g., portable EEG), his work investigates student attention and engagement in science learning across different contexts (e.g., face-to-face and online).

Faculty profile
ido.davidesco@bc.edu

Yu-Shuang Liu, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research associate in the CDEP program at Boston College. She received her Ph.D. degree in Psychology and Language Science from Penn State. Yu-Shuang is interested in understanding cognitive processes underlying science learning in a naturalistic environment, and how technology can improve engagement during active learning period and learning outcomes.

yushuang.liu@bc.edu

Na’ama Av-Shalom, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral scholar at the Lynch School in Boston College. Na’ama does epistemic cognition research, exploring how learners think and reason collaboratively and individually in STEM contexts. She has also done work in consequential learning in science. Na’ama received her Ph.D. in Education (Learning Sciences) from Rutgers University, where she worked on several projects about students’ reasoning in elementary through high school biology classes. On the Lab2Classroom team, Na’ama primarily works on the Neural Engineering project, looking at high school students’ computational thinking and engineering practices.

naama.av-shalom@bc.edu

Cate Schultz is passionate about researching children’s mental health, adversity responses, prosociality, and motivation for STEM learning. She majored in Psychology and Human Development and Family Science, with a minor in Conflict Management, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Cate has worked to empower children in science learning in pediatrics at UNC Children’s Hospital (Wonder Connection), with asylum-seeking families in Denmark (Projects for Peace), and at Boys and Girls (Carolina Center for Public Service )club after-school programming. Her previous research experience at the University of Cambridge PEDAL Center and the UNC Neurocognition and Imaging Research Lab focused on play as a coping method for children enduring adverse circumstances. She also currently interns at the Harvard Center for the Developing Child Pediatric Innovation Initiative, which is developing a new battery of measures to assess adversity and address toxic stress. With Lab2Classroom, Cate primarily works on the Brain Healthy program, aiming to empower participating high school students in the Northeast to be in charge of their own brain health and wellness data.

cate.schultz@bc.edu

Vishal is a first-year doctoral student in the Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology Program. He received his B.S. in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Vishal is broadly interested in researching students’ self-regulatory cycle from middle school to college. Using eye-tracking, portable EEG, and experimental methods, his goal is to capture the social dynamics of classrooms and its impact on how students study and motivate themselves. He is currently working on a project in the Lab-to-Classroom Research Group exploring the neural signatures of attention and ways teachers can guide student attention during lectures.

vishal.easwar@bc.edu

Xiaorui is a first-year doctoral student interested in educational neuroscience and the cognitive processes that drive learning in real-world settings. She explores the potential of portable neurophysiological technologies, such as EEG and eye tracking, to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes. Before joining BC, she earned a Master’s degree in Educational Policy from Vanderbilt University, where she worked in the Levin Lab on a project - Linking Eye Movements with Visual Attention to Enhance Cyberlearning, to investigate the relationship between students’ eye movements and learning in authentic classroom environments. She is currently working on a project in the Lab2Classroom group, utilizing neurophysiological measures to enhance engagement and learning within Intelligent Tutoring Systems, aiming to capture real-time engagement fluctuations to improve personalized learning experiences.

xiaorui.xue@bc.edu

Kristin (Kris) Simmers is a Ph.D. student in the Neag School and is interested in a transdisciplinary approach to educational research. She investigates ways in which findings in neuroscience, psychology, and education can contribute to improvements in teaching and learning.

Vaishnavi (Vaish) Sivaprasad is a current doctoral student in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Connecticut, working on the Virtual Reality Classroom project. She received her masters in cognitive science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. Her research interests include motivation science, curiosity theory and STEM learning. She is also interested in learning about effective ways to integrate technology into classroom instruction.

Dr. Jason Geller is the director of The Human Neuroscience Recharge Facility at Boston College. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology, specializing in cognitive psychology, from Iowa State University. He completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Iowa and the University of Alabama, focusing on the cognitive neuroscience of spoken and written language.  On the weekends, he spends time with his other love: human memory and learning. In this area, he is interested in metacognition/metamemory and desirable difficulties.

jason.geller@bc.edu

Amy is an undergraduate student at Boston College studying Applied Psychology and Philosophy. She is passionate about understanding how motivation and cognitive engagement impact student performance. Her research interests focus on integrating psychology, neuroscience, and educational technology to enhance learning outcomes. Amy has worked with a company developing extended-brain headwear to promote mindfulness in academic and professional settings. She is working with the Lab2Classroom group to analyze neurophysiological data for tracking real-time engagement in Intelligent Tutoring Systems, with the goal of enhancing personalized learning. Through her work, she aims to create strategies that help students become more engaged, self-regulated learners.

suyi.liu.2@bc.edu

Tugce Aldemir, Ph.D., received her Ph.D. from the Learning, Design, and Technology program at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include cognition and emotions in learning processes, especially within the context of collaborative learning, and the design and evaluation of technological innovations to support and optimize these processes.

Noah Glaser, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Science & Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. He is also the director of the Information Experience Lab. His current areas of expertise include user experience (UX) design, virtual reality & game design, neurodiversity and inclusion, formal and informal STEAM education, and learning analytics. Much of his work has been in collaboration with medical centers and service providers to create e-health solutions.

Ella Ofek-Geva, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research associate in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Connecticut, working on the Role of Internal Attention in Science Learning project. She received her Ph.D. from the Science Teaching department at The Weitzman Institute of Science. Her research interests include how to improve the learning experience and outcome of adolescent students, while considering the different challenges of this specific age group regarding learning challenges and interactions with their teachers and schools.

Sarah Gilmore is a PhD student and Graduate Assistant on the Role of Internal Attention in Science Learning project in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. Sarah has 15 years of elementary teaching experience, and a Masters in Educational Leadership and Management. Sarah has background in technology integration and transdisciplinary, concept-based curriculum and instruction, and is interested in supporting educational access and equity through technology and instructional design, and in teacher learning research.

Gregory Boldt is a doctoral student in the University of Connecticut’s Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent Development program, working on the Brain Healthy project. He received his B.A. (Hon) from the University of Winnipeg before completing his M.Ed. through the University of Calgary. He has worked in various educational and healthcare settings assessing and supporting children with developmental disabilities and behavioural exceptionalities. His research focuses predominantly on the creative process, but also includes broader elements of 21st century learning and talent development.

Oscar E. Ruiz, Ed.S is a PhD student researcher and scientist-practitioner who is passionate about school-based mental health and education technology and is involved in the Brain Healthy project. Working under Dr. Sandra M. Chafouleas, his current areas of interest and applied research include applied educational psychology, public health interventions, school-based mental health, measurement of emotional well-being (EWB) across the lifespan, mechanisms of mind + body health interventions (MBI), innovations in psychophysiology and affective computing, educational neuroscience, digital therapeutics, VR/XR behavior skills training (BST), and the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model.

Susan Meabh Kelly is completing a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at the Neag School of Education. Qualified to teach both secondary-level Earth Science and Physics in Connecticut and New York, Susan has twenty years of science teaching experience, largely in culturally and socioeconomically diverse urban communities. Having participated in a variety of policy-driven and agency-funded efforts herself, Susan studies secondary students' and science teachers' experiences with STEM education improvement efforts. Using a variety of social theory lenses, she investigates and conceives communal, inclusive, and agentive opportunities for secondary students and their science teachers.

Nathalie John is a doctoral Candidate at the department of Teacher and Teaching Quality at the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education in Frankfurt, Germany and received her master’s in psychology from the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. She is working on the EiKlar (EEG in the classroom) Project. The project aims at a better understanding of cognitive, affective and behavioral teaching-learning processes using neurophysiological measures and their relation to various teaching methods and quality characteristics. Currently she is participating in a research stay with the Lab to Classroom group at the University of Connecticut.