The Ronald W. Pratt Outstanding Teaching Award for Faculty at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
This past September, Professor Olga Mironenko, teaching faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) won the Ronald W. Pratt Outstanding Teaching Award for Faculty at ECE. Candidates are nominated by the ECE student body. The recipient has demonstrated excellence in undergraduate teaching, recognizing curriculum development and fostering good communication between faculty members and students. In honor of her achievement last term, Power News sat down with Mironenko to chat.
Q. Tell me a bit about how you came to be teaching at ECE?
A. If you had asked me “Did you always want to become university faculty?” I would have answered, “no.” My PhD advisor is the one who saw that potential in me before anybody else—including myself. He told me one day, “Olga, why you wouldn’t become a professor? Students love you!”
Q. How does it feel to win this award and to be valued by your students?
A. Personally, it feels very emotional. Especially considering that my colleges and students took time out of their busy schedules to write letters of support on very short notice. It speaks better than a thousand words.
Q. What do you do to hone your skills as an educator?
A. I try to continue to learn. There are many opportunities to learn about different practices and approaches to teaching; resources ranging from local UIUC resources to large national conferences like ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education.)
Q. In a time in which AI is being trained to fill all sorts of roles, tell us why good teaching, particularly in the field of electrical engineering, is so important?
A. Apart from AI hallucinating a lot, good teaching has always been important. Though online education has existed for a long time now, it hasn’t, and I believe, won’t, replace in-person education. Everyone was forced to learn online during COVID, and it had an observed impact on the quality of knowledge students absorbed. Prof. Yuting Chen and I have published a paper on that topic. Sure, some of us can learn on our own, but the majority of us need the systematic approach, guidance and sense of community provided by in-person teaching.
Q. You won your award at the ECE Faculty Banquet awards ceremony, how did it feel to be recognized by the faculty for your work?
A. I feel very proud to be recognized and acknowledged by tremendously successful people in the ECE.
Q. Name something you love about working in the department of ECE (or the power and energy group)
A. Support from my colleagues. From my first day to now. The climate in the power area is absolutely exceptional. One of our visitors once said “I am surprised you are not competitive!” We replied “No, we are, just not against each other”.
Q. What’s something you enjoy in your spare time that your students might not know about?
A. Spare time? What is that? Just joking… work/life balance is very important to me, in order to keep being productive. I like traveling, and my educational research allows me to travel to interesting destinations and meet fascinating new people!
All of us, at the Power and Energy Systems Area, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are grateful for Olga Mironenko’s outstanding work with our students, and we are thankful for her tremendous teaching skills.