Huge shout out to Jenna Leonardo and Katie Kirsch who founded Girls Driving for a Difference. Girls Driving for a Difference is a team of Stanford students using design thinking to empower middle-school girls across the United States to become leaders of social change, both within their local communities and beyond.

This Summer of 2015, Jenna, Katie, and team will be driving in an RV across America, visiting all-women’s communities (specifically leadership and summer camps for middle school girls), and coaching design thinking and leadership workshops. These workshops will give girls the tools, inspiration, and creative confidence to discover their purpose, enact social change in their communities, and envision their own dreams for someday changing the world.

More information here.

We are so proud of Design for America’s Luna Lights team who nailed their product pitch to their investors at the conclusion of the Healthbox incubator team in downtown Chicago. Way to go team!

I am thrilled for PhD students Daniel Lewis Rees and Anna Bethune as their papers “Helping Engineers Thrive: Feedback Systems for Ill-Defined Challenges,” and “Let’s Change Illinois Together: Youth Civic Engagement and New Media,” have been accepted for presentation at the 2015 AERA Annual Meeting.

The Wall Street Journal titled “Big Kickstarter Campaign Overwhelms Radiate Athletics” features Delta lab research on crowdfunding. Many project creators grossly underestimate time and effort needed to deliver products.

I am honored to have made the 2013-2014 Associated Student Government Faculty and Administration Honor Roll! Every year, the Association for Student Government asks Northwestern undergraduates to nominate faculty and administrators they feel have gone above and beyond to enrich our school’s academic experience. This year, they recognized my work. This may be the most proud that I have ever been to make an honor roll as I feel this one is really important.

We are thrilled for the Luna Lights team who was accepted into the HealthBox Incubator. Luna Lights goal is to help prevent falls among older adults.

My colleague, Amy Okeefe, are honored to have been selected as finalists for the Design Ignites Change Educator Grant. Final results to be announced later this week!

I am honored to receive the Grace Hopper Fellowship and looking forward to meeting other amazing women in computer science at the upcoming conference on women in computing in Phoenix, Arizona!

I’m thrilled to have been invited by the Parker School to be the Robert A. Pritzker Visiting Scientist-Engineer-Inventor for the 2014-2015 school year.

Dan Rees-Lewis won the Advanced Graduate Student Cognitive Science Fellowship for his work on Civic Innovation in Digital Lofts.