Systems Engineer. Engineering Educator.

Rebecca M. Reck, Ph.D.

I strive to make instructional laboratories accessible and inclusive spaces for all students, allowing them to learn from hands-on STEM experiences, by creating resources for lab instructors that are informed by rigorous research in all aspects of laboratory course design.

Lab and Design Community of Practice

The Lab and Design Community of Practice was formed in the spring of 2021 with the goal of bringing lab and design instructors together from across the Grainger College of Engineering to address shared challenges.

Accessibility and Inclusion in Undergraduate Labs

Lab and design courses are an integral part of a STEM education, however, there are unique barriers to creating an inclusive space where all students can successfully achieve the learning objectives of the course. This project seeks to identify these barriers and reduce them with evidence-based practices.

Alternative Grading

Alternative grading shifts the focus of grades for each assignment from maximizing the number of points via partial credit to the student’s ability to demonstrate their achievement of the course learning objectives.

SPARK

Strategic Preparation for Academic Resilience and Know-how (SPARK) is an initiative to prepare STEM graduate students who identify as women for faculty careers. We are creating resources and workshops to fill a gap in preparation that isn’t readily available as part of many graduate programs or targeted for an audience of women.

Dr. Reck, a white woman with long curly brown hair and glasses wearing a dress with a dna pattern and cardigan, stands at the front of a classroom with a tablet in one hand and pointing at a screen with the other hand. — Dr. Reck stands at the front of a classroom.

Rebecca Marie (Johnson) Reck is a systems engineer. She is a Teaching Associate Professor and the Associate Head of Undergraduate Programs in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She teaches biomedical instrumentation (BIOE414), biomedical instrumentation lab (BIOE415), signals and systems (BIOE205), and Introduction to Bioengineering (BIOE100). Her areas of research include experiential learning, undergraduate instructional laboratories, alternative grading, and inclusive pedagogy. She is an active volunteer in the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), ABET, and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). In her spare time, she enjoys making jewelry out of electrical and recycled parts, taking photographs outside, and running.

From 2016-2020, she was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering University. She earned a Ph.D. in Systems and Entrepreneurial Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2016. Previously she worked as a systems engineer in the Systems and Software group in the Flight Control Systems Department at Rockwell Collins (now Collins Aerospace). She has completed a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.