Grad student first in college to receive Faculty Senate outstanding TF/TA award

Shraddha Piparia stands on a bridge with her back against the city

Shraddha Piparia is the first student in the College of Engineering to receive the Faculty Senate’s Outstanding Teaching Fellows/Teaching Assistants Award. The recognition comes with a scholarship.

Piparia, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, served as a teaching fellow in the spring and fall of 2020, and is currently working as a teaching assistant this semester. She also participated in the Graduate Teaching Excellence Program, which provided tips and guidance on how to incorporate learning techniques in the classroom as well as how to align outcomes to goals and measure them accordingly.

"I love seeing the curiosity in the students. When you’re enthusiastic and engaged, they react the same way," she said. "When they start getting engaged and involved, that’s the fun part for me."

Outside of teaching, Piparia is researching automated software testing using machine learning techniques under the guidance and mentorship of Professor Renee Bryce.

"I’m specifically looking at mobile application testing and solving problems with how apps work through data collection and testing processes. We’re also developing and providing guidelines to app developers as we do this," she said.

Piparia also spends a lot of time involved in the UNT and Denton communities. At UNT, she served as the president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) student chapter from 2017-2019 and was one of the finalists in the Toulouse Graduate School Three Minute Thesis competition. She’s also spent time volunteering with the nonprofit organization, Keep Denton Beautiful.

Piparia is planning to graduate this summer, with a job as a post-doc already lined up at the University of California San Diego.