New lecturers

Lauren Bricker 

Department: Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
Research focus: human computer interaction, computer supported collaboration, educational technology, 3-D modeling and printing

Lauren Bricker joined the Allen School as a full-time lecturer last fall. She has taught several workshops for the Washington State Academic RedShirt (STARS) program to introduce students from underserved high school to basic Java programing and build their skills in computational thinking and problem solving. In addition to teaching at the Allen School, she was also a computer science and technology support faculty member at Seattle’s Lakeside School where she developed honors level computer science courses including a rapid-prototyping class using 3-D modeling and printing. She was featured in Geekwire and has given talks at Ignite Seattle, NerdNite, Fremont Women in Tech and Maker Faire Seattle.

Patricia Buchanan 

Department: Industrial Systems & Engineering
Research focus: systems engineering, manufacturing design, simulation models
 

Patty Buchanan joins ISE as a full-time lecturer. Since 2016, Patty has taught introductory classes in engineering economics, optimization models and manufacturing scheduling and inventory. Prior to coming to UW, she worked at the defense and space company, Harris Corporation, as a production and development manufacturing engineer implementing simulation modeling to improve cycle time and manufacturing capabilities.

Dianne Hendricks 

Department: Human Centered Design and Engineering
Research focus: adaptive user accessibility, open-source design, play technology, technical communication

Dianne Hendricks is a lecturer in HCDE where she directs the Engineering Communication Program. She teaches courses in technical communication and engineering ethics. In her previous role as lecturer in the bioengineering department, she taught introductory bioengineering and writing-intensive capstone courses and led the department’s outreach efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in engineering education. She is the co-founder and faculty adviser for HuskyADAPT (Accessible Design and Play Technology), where she mentors students who design technologies for people with disabilities.

Rania Hussein 

Department: Electrical & Computer Engineering
Research focus: embedded systems, human-machine interaction, image processing, machine learning

Rania Hussein joined ECE last summer as a lecturer. For the last ten years, Rania taught courses at all levels in electrical engineering and computer science. Rania held leadership posts in non-profits to promote diversity and the social and educational development of women and youth. She has a record of high ratings from her students, and was a finalist for the distinguished teaching award at UW Bothell in 2017. She previously worked as a research engineer at the Walt Disney Company. She became a senior member of IEEE in 2017.

Hunter Schafer 

Department: Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
Research focus: data visualization, software development, Java coding
 

Hunter Schafer joins the Allen School as a lecturer. As a graduate student, he taught introductory computer science classes and helped develop a machine learning class accessible to a broader audience outside of the university's computer science and statistics departments. He previously held software development internships at Redfin, Socrata, and Sift Science where he worked on a number of systems and tools to support their machine learning efforts.

Brett Wortzman 

Department: Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering
Research focus: data structures, algorithm, control issues, computer science curriculum design

Brett Wortzman joins the Allen School as a lecturer focusing primarily on introductory computer science courses. Brett was previously the instruction and training manager for TEALS, a Microsoft Philanthropies–supported organization which helps high schools build and grow computer science courses by pairing teachers with volunteer industry professionals. At TEALS, Brett was responsible for developing and leading nationwide training for over 250 teachers and 750 volunteers on teaching computer science classes. Prior to that position, Brett taught computer science at Issaquah High School, where he also advised the FIRST Robotics Competition team.