People

Contact Info:
200 Boston Avenue
Suite G810
Medford, MA 02155

Phone: 617-627-5888
Fax: 617-627-4760
Email

Biography:
Dr. Jennifer Cross is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach where her primary research interests include human-robot interaction with a focus on the educational applications of robotics and diversity in engineering education. She completed her graduate degrees within the Community Robotics, Education, and Technology Empowerment Lab at Carnegie Mellon University where she worked to develop the Arts & Bots Program, a creativity-oriented, middle school robotics program using the Hummingbird Robotics Kit. Dr. Cross was a fellow of both the Institute of Education Sciences supported Program for Interdisciplinary Education Research and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

Education:
Ph.D. in Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University, 2017
M.S. in Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University, 2013
B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, F. W. Olin College of Engineering, 2010

Publications:

• Hsu, Y.-C., Cross, J., Dille, P., Nourbakhsh, I., Leiter, L., and Grode, R. (2018). Visualization Tool for Environmental Sensing and Public Health Data. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '18 Companion), Hong Kong.
• Hsu, Y.-C., Cross, J., Leiter, L., Grode, R., Dille, P., and Nourbakhsh, I. (2018). Community-Empowered Air Quality Monitoring System. In Proceedings of 2018 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Montréal, Canada.
• Cross, J. (2017). Creative Robotic Systems for Talent-Based Learning (Doctoral Dissertation). Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Cross, J., Hamner, E., Zito, L., and Nourbakhsh, I. (2017). Student Outcomes from the Evaluation of a Transdisciplinary Middle School Robotics Program. In Proceedings of 2017 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Indianapolis, Indiana.
• Hamner, E., Zito, L., Cross, J., Tasota, M., Dille, P., Fulton, S., Johnson, M., Nourbakhsh, I., and Schapiro, J. (2017). Development and Results from User Testing of a Novel Robotics Kit Supporting Systems Engineering for Elementary-Aged Students. In Proceedings of 2017 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Indianapolis, Indiana.
• Hsu, Y.-C., Dille, P., Cross, J., Dias, B., Sargent, R., and Nourbakhsh, I. (2017). Community-Empowered Air Quality Monitoring System. In Proceedings of 2017ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Denver, Colorado.
• Cross, J., Hamner, E., Zito, L., Nourbakhsh, I., and Bernstein, D. (2016). Development of an Assessment for Measuring Middle School Student Attitudes towards Robotics Activities. In Proceedings of 2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Erie, Pennsylvania.
• Cross, J., Hamner, E., Zito, L., and Nourbakhsh, I. (2016). Engineering and Computational Thinking Talent in Middle School Students: a Framework for Defining and Recognizing Student Affinities. In Proceedings of 2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Erie, Pennsylvania.
• Hamner, E., Zito, L., Cross, J., Slezak, B., Mellon, S., Harapko, H., and Welter, M. (2016). Utilizing Engineering to Teach Non-Technical Disciplines: Case Studies of Robotics within Middle School English and Health Classes. In Proceedings of 2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Erie, Pennsylvania.
• Hamner, E., Cross, J., Zito, L., Bernstein, D., and Mutch-Jones, K. (2016). Training Teachers to Integrate Engineering into Non- Technical Middle School Curriculum. In Proceedings of 2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Erie, Pennsylvania.
• Bernstein, D., Mutch-Jones, K., Hamner, E., and Cross, J. (2015). Robots and Romeo and Juliet: Studying Teacher Integration of Robotics into Middle School Curricula. Paper presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Washington, DC.
• Cross, J., Hamner, E., Bartley, C., and Nourbakhsh, I. (2015). Arts & Bots: Application and Outcomes of a Secondary School Robotics Program. In Proceedings of 2015 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), El Paso, Texas.
• Cross, J. and Hamner, E. (2014). Identifying and Cultivating Diverse STEM Talent through Creative Robotics. In Proceedings of 2014 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference and Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana.
• Cross, J., Bartley, C., Hamner, E., and Nourbakhsh, I. (2013). A Visual Robot-Programming Environment for Multidisciplinary Education. In Proceedings of 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Karlsruhe, Germany.
• Hamner, E. and Cross, J. (2013). Arts & Bots: Techniques for distributing a STEAM robotics program through K-12 classrooms. In Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), Princeton, NJ.