Dr. Stacy Shaw is an Assistant Professor in Learning Science and Technology and Psychological Science at WPI. Her research focuses on understanding creative thinking in mathematics, how anxiety and other threat experiences affect mathematical cognition and reasoning, as well as how classroom experiences can affect performance and learning in STEM. More recently, she has become interested in the role of wakeful rest periods for learning and wellbeing. 

Anna is a Ph.D. student in Physics at WPI who is interested in Physics education and is advised by Stacy and Ben Pollard. Anna earned their bachelors in Robotics Engineering and Mechanical engineering at WPI, and currently teach physics labs and conduct research on how students learn in the physics classroom. 

Wilson is a Ph.D. student in Learning Sciences and Technologies at WPI. His research interests center around computing education, with a focus on designing classroom activities, programming environments, and visualizations that help novices build confidence. Wilson is passionate about teaching and educational outreach and leads K-12 creative coding workshops around Massachusetts. Wilson earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and his Master’s degree in Learning Sciences and Technologies from WPI.

Jiarong is a Computer Science Ph.D. student advised by Lane Harrison and Stacy, and is one of the main develops of PlotWise Widgets. She is interested in data visualization, human-computer interaction, and learning sciences. Her research focuses on how interactive visualizations can help students better understand statistical concepts. She is currently working on PlotWise, a web-based visualization learning tool that allows students to explore data patterns through interactive tasks. More broadly, she hopes to bring learning sciences and visualization together to build meaningful learning experiences for students.

Kaitlyn is an undergraduate data science major at WPI. She has a strong interest in cognitive psychology, particularly in understanding how the brain functions during learning and rest. Additionally, Kaitlyn is curious about the psychological processes behind habit formation and how they can help students succeed in school. She hopes to explore how human-computer interaction can be optimized to enhance educational experiences.

Emma is an undergraduate Psychological Science major at WPI. In the future, she intends to earn her master's degree in Neuroscience and pursue a career as a neuropsychologist. Emma is particularly interested in understanding the psychology of learning so as to help those with learning differences and disabilities achieve academic success. 

Danny Rahal, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Together, him and Stacy Shaw have conducted work on the affective experiences of students in statistics classroom. Rahal's own research focuses on how social marginalization, with respect to low objective and subjective status and being treated as low status, can compromise health and well-being among adolescents from racial and ethnic minority and low-income backgrounds. He investigates how everyday discrimination and status relate to different aspects of health including daily stress processes, emotional well-being, mental health, substance use, and physiological systems including immune, autonomic, and hormonal processes.

UC Santa Cruz Site

Dr. Jessica C. Hill is Director of the Morgan Teaching & Learning Center and Associate Professor of Psychology in the Social Science and Policy Studies Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where she leads institute-wide efforts to support effective teaching and meaningful student learning. When Dr. Hill moved to Worcester, she brought extensive knowledge of cognitive science to WPI and an eye tracker that soon found a home in the CEDAR lab. Dr. Hill supports CEDAR lab research on neurodiversity and will support future adoption of eye tracking for lab research. 

Nicole is part of the Office of Sponsored Programs at WPI, working closely with the CEDAR Lab. Nicole coordinates the complicated grants used through the Learning Science & Technologies Program for research studies,  employing graduate students, and also reimbursements for travel-related expenses. Nicole is an avid cat lover, Red Sox fan, and enjoys a strong iced coffee.

Andrew McReynolds earned his Ph.D. in Learning Sciences & Technologies in Spring 2026. Andrew's research focused on using large-scale national datasets (NPSAS & BPS) to examine the prevalence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in higher education, how trait curiosity shapes students' propensity to experience hyperfocus episodes, and the Hypercuriosity Hypothesis. Beyond his dissertation, he has contributed to projects exploring rest and its benefits for college students across well-being and academic outcomes.

Personal Website - www.amcreynolds.com

Mikayla earned her bachelor's degree in psychology (biology concentration), minor in statistics, and Master's degree in Learning Sciences & Technologies in 2026. She is interested in how wakeful rest can affect the overall well-being and learning outcomes of college students. 

Alena received her Ph.D. from the Learning Sciences & Technologies program in Spring 2025. She earned her Psychology MA from Moscow State University, where she investigated how emotional burnout develops in teachers. After graduation, Alena studied how people interact with digital tools, working as a researcher and designer in tech projects for over 7 years. She came to WPI to learn the ways new technologies and data could be used to improve education. Her current research interests include (1) the interplay of anxiety and cognition in learning and (2) how it unfolds in the context of educational technologies.

Dr. Kirk Vanacore received his Ph.D. from the Learning Sciences and Technologies Program at WPI in 2024. He earned his Masters at Tuft University from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study Human and Development. At Tufts, he worked as a graduate research assistant at the Center for Reading and Language Research studying and implementing effective pedagogy for dyslexic students. Kirk worked as a Senior Analyst at Lexia Learning, where he used data science to inform the development and improvement of educational technologies. Kirk's research interests include learning analytics, education data mining, causal inference in big data analysis, and effective pedagogies for neurodiverse populations. Kirk joined UPenn as a Post-Doctoral Researcher under Ryan Baker, and now is a visiting professor at Cornell University. 

Dr. Haim earned his Ph.D in Computer Science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). His work specifically involves improving student learning on-demand through content generated by teachers. In addition, in collaboration with the CEDAR Lab, Dr. Haim researches, collects, and disseminates Open Science and Reproducibility information such that researchers have a better understanding on how to implement these practices themselves.

Personal Website

Paul earned his bachelor's degree in psychology (biology concentration) and earned his Master's degree in Learning Sciences and Technologies in 2023. Paul is also a first-generation student who completed WPI's Teacher Preparation Program to become a licensed high school biology teacher, and now is teaching high school biology!

Vy Ngo graduated with her Master's degree in learning science at WPI in 2022 studying how teachers' perceptions affect students' math performance and attitudes towards math, and how instructional technologies affect these relationships.  She partnered with the CEDAR lab to conduct research on the experiences of Asian American women in Computer Science, investigating the intersectionality of gender and race for this subgroup of students. Her goal is to promote equity and reduce gender gaps in education and work environments. 

Personal Website - https://sites.google.com/view/vyngo/home 

McKenzie is a current senior majoring in Psychological Science. She is interested in studying mental health inequities and barriers to well-being throughout different stages of life. She is working with Dr. Shaw on a study about utilizing rest as a resilience resource for future stressful experiences.

Nellie is a rising sophomore at Stanford University who has been an REU student in the lab for Summer '23 and '24. She plans to major in data science, and is excited to work with Dr. Shaw on applications of generative AI in the statistics classroom, economic outcomes of statistics course-taking, and the design of quality statistics and data science courses grounded in theories from the learning sciences. Her other research interests include student perceptions of computational thinking and AI literacy.

Chayanne graduated with her bachelor's in computer science in 2023! As the inaugural lab manager of CEDAR for two years, Chayanne conducted research on how students view mistake messages in math, organized studies around creativity and rest, and did an excellent job at keeping our lab up and running. We miss you already, Chayanne!