Alumni Spotlight: Vanessa Svihla ’93

Vanessa Svihla, Indiana Academy class of 1993, received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) for her National Science Foundation CAREER (Faculty Early Career Development Program) project, “Framing and Reframing Agency in Making and Engineering” (FRAME). The PECASE is the highest honor from the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their research careers.

As part of the FRAME project, Vanessa developed The Wrong Theory Protocol, an idea generation technique where students frame a problem, generate harmful ideas, then propose beneficial ideas to fix the problem. This unique method allows students to achieve a balance between empathy and creativity to solve problems. Vanessa’s research focuses on how people learn as they design various projects and, more specifically, how they frame problems.

“My research provided the first empirical evidence that problem framing relates to how creative a solution is,” Vanessa said.

Vanessa is a Full Professor of Learning Sciences and Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University of New Mexico. As a professor, her goal is for her students to gain experience with framing problems since this is not a practice they are used to. Her CAREER research showed that solutions differ based on how a problem is framed. She said that understanding how to frame problems in design courses allows students to develop confidence as engineers.

Receiving the PECASE affirms the importance to Vanessa of prioritizing problem framing and allowing students to have agency in their learning. She is dedicated to advancing engineering design education to achieve more equitable student outcomes. Vanessa is constantly exploring ways to engage students’ experiences by involving them in design problems that impact their communities while emphasizing their connections and responsibilities to these communities.

Vanessa thanked the Indiana Academy for helping her reach this point in her career.

“The Academy developed my thinking in ways that helped me as a researcher and connected me to an amazing network, which we lovingly call the Nerd Herd,” said Vanessa.

After graduating from the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, Vanessa attended Smith College for her undergraduate degree, University of Texas in Austin for her master’s in science in Geology and PhD in STEM Education. She joined the University of New Mexico in 2011 and is the fifth faculty member from the university to receive this award.