Wimmer Faculty Fellowship for the Development of Teaching

To encourage and foster the professional development of junior faculty as educators.

These fellowships of $3,000 each can be used to help junior faculty members improve the quality of their teaching and learning of CMU students by revising an existing course through:

• incorporating instructional strategies (e.g., active learning, group work, peer evaluation, "flipping" the classroom);
• implementing educational technologies (e.g., collaboration tools, instructional videos);
• creating instructional materials (e.g., assignments, case studies, classroom activities, performance rubrics);
• collecting and analyzing data on student learning to iteratively improve course design (e.g., via learning analytics, pre/post-tests, analyses of student work, student surveys or focus groups); and/or
• integrating new content (e.g., global or multicultural perspectives, ethics, sustainability, interdisciplinarity - simply updating disciplinary content alone is not sufficient).

The above list is not exhaustive; we encourage interested colleagues to contact us to discuss potential ideas!

Who is eligible?

Junior faculty members with a continuing appointment (i.e., teaching, tenure, research, or library track instructors) teaching at CMU who have five or fewer years of teaching experience at the university level, either at Carnegie Mellon or elsewhere. Proposals must seek to enhance CMU students’ learning. Projects targeting undergraduate and/or graduate students are welcome. Proposed courses must be taught in AY 2025-26 and affiliated with CMU academic programs.

Funding

The maximum funding period is one year (i.e., May 2025 - May 2026). Fellowship awards may be used as faculty stipend (taxable) or to directly support project costs.

Relevant dates

Applications due Tuesday, March 11, 2025, 11:59pm.

Expectations for Wimmer Faculty Fellows

To ensure that participants make demonstrable progress toward their proposed goals, we require that you:

• meet regularly with Eberly consultants who will provide support, guidance and feedback;
• participate in Wimmer Course Incubator in May 2025 (date TBD, based on fellows’ schedules);
• produce and share materials (e.g., assignments, projects, classroom activities, performance rubrics, instructional units) for a course you will be teaching;
• receive a confidential Early Course Feedback Focus Group service from the Eberly Center during the semester the course is offered;
• submit a short (2-page) reflection on what you have done and its impact on your teaching and student learning or engagement;
• collect data on learning outcomes to inform future course iterations, with the full support of the Eberly Center staff; and
• present your project at a future CMU Teaching & Learning Summit or Spotlight event.

Application Process

The request for proposals for the 2025-2026 Academic Year is available here. The deadline for applications is March 11, 2025, 11:59pm. 

Any questions about the program may be directed to eberly-assist@andrew.cmu.edu.

Applicants may request a consultation with an Eberly colleague on their project idea and evaluation plan prior to submitting a proposal. Please request a consultation at least one week prior to the submission deadline.

We are pleased to announce the newest Wimmer Faculty Fellows. These fellowships are made possible by a grant from the Wimmer Family Foundation and are designed for junior faculty members interested in enhancing their teaching through concentrated work designing or re-designing a course, innovating new materials, or exploring a new pedagogical approach. Fellows work in close collaboration with Eberly Center colleagues and receive a stipend to acknowledge the work it takes to improve one's effectiveness as an educator. 

Yasser Majeed
Assistant Teaching Professor, Biological Sciences

Yasser is teaching 03-390 Molecular and Cellular Immunology, an advanced elective course for Biological Sciences students at CMU-Qatar. As part of his Wimmer project, Yasser will be redesigning his Journal Club assignments by developing instructional strategies to support student preparation and participation and by refining assessment rubrics. His goal is to redesign the assignments with scaffolding and transparency to support all students in the course to develop their scientific reading, writing, interpretation, and analysis skills.

Amy Melniczuk
Assistant Teaching Professor, Computer Science

Amy is teaching 05-391 Designing Human-Centered Software, an intro course for Human Computer Interaction students at CMU-Qatar.  For her Wimmer project, Amy will be looking to redesign her course’s assessments and rubrics so they more accurately measure student performance and understanding of learning objectives.  A particular focus for Amy is rethinking how to assess group work to encourage engagement by all team members while fairly rating their individual contributions.

Rafał Włodarski
Assistant Teaching Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Rafał is teaching 18-653: Software Design and Architecture, a popular software engineering course for Masters students. His project focuses on restructuring several in-class activities to enhance student engagement, clarify key concepts, and promote deeper application of course material to project-based work. Rafał will be working with the Eberly team to increase the transparency and instructional alignment of class activities and track students’ impressions of the clarity, helpfulness and engagement with these revised activities.