Margaret Ellis, Recipient of the Mary Kenneth Keller CS and Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award 

With a student-first focus on fostering motivation and support within the classroom, Margaret Ellis shares invaluable insights honed throughout her career in this exclusive interview. As an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, Ellis emphasizes the importance of creating an encouraging environment for students. Being a Virginia Tech alumna herself with a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Computer Science, she joined the faculty after working in industry and a stint in secondary teaching. Notably, she pioneered the initiative, Broadening Undergraduate Research Groups in Systems (BURGS), which provides promising students with a community to learn, grow, and connect. What began with the Computer Systems Genome project now includes five different projects advised by stacks@CS faculty. Beyond her academic endeavors, Ellis’s commitment to ethics curriculum, academic integrity, and outreach reflects her dedication to shaping future generations of computer scientists.

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