Professor Kristen Labazzo was selected to receive the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Innovations. This honor carries an institutional award of $2,500. The award will be presented to Professor Labbazo at the Chancellor’s Celebration of Faculty Excellence virtual event.
The recipients of the 2020-2021 Chancellor's and Provost's Awards for Faculty Excellence represent faculty members at all stages of their careers whose outstanding work has been recognized by their peers. The awards recognize and highlight the excellence of our outstanding Rutgers–New Brunswick faculty. Awardees exemplify the best that our faculty have to offer in innovative teaching, cross-disciplinary research, public engagement, and diversity impacts.
While Professor Labazzo incorporates several unique and innovative teaching practices in her classroom including but not limited to field trips, “show and tell,” and guest speakers, her most impactful contribution to the department has been the inclusion of patient-centric projects into the senior design program. To date, this initiative has introduced almost 120 BME seniors to disabled individuals at The Matheny School, and athletes at Operation Rebound, where students used their engineering skills to create solutions for challenges they observe or learn about from the “voice of the customer.” Professor Labazzo also introduced former football star, Eric LeGrand, to the department, where he is working with Professors Labazzo and Noshir Langrana on a special drone project to help quadriplegics. This program has been well-received by the students who, as biomedical engineers, value an opportunity to work on projects that can directly help people.