Students recognize HCDE faculty with FACET Awards

Leah Pistorius
June 21, 2024

Four instructors in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering are honored with awards from the University of Washington's 2024 Faculty Appreciation for Career Education & Training (FACET) program.

Organized by the UW’s Career Center at Engineering, the annual FACET awards recognize engineering faculty who have helped students with professional development through mentorship and career preparation.

The program is unique in that nominations are collected directly from students. This year, the Career Center at Engineering recognizes Assistant Professor Katya Cherukumilli, Associate Teaching Professor Brock Craft, Assistant Professor Sucheta Ghoshal, and Professsor Sean Munson. Testaments to their dedication to HCDE students can be found in the excerpts from the nominations below.

2024 HCDE FACET Awardees

Katya Cherukumilli
"Katya had been an amazing professor for our HCDE 517 usability study class. Although it was her first time teaching a class on such topic, she delivered a well-articulated and organized class, and provided career and professional development for master's students wanting to pursue a career in User Experience domain. Katya has always been easy to talk to, and available and supportive to her students. She cares about her students' career and professional development, and is willing to mentor them throughout their exploration process."

Brock Craft
"Professor Craft has taught two classes I have taken in HCDE this year. One was a discussion based class and the other was a more technical development class. What I loved about both of his classes was that he was always very engaged and encouraging of our learning. I have learned so much more about my own passions through his class and I think he truly does care about the purpose of our learning rather than trying to always test us on what we know. He gave us the room to try and fail and this in turn gave us the confidence to go out there in the world and not be afraid of failure."

Sucheta Ghoshal
"Upon expressing interest in user research and its tensions I had many extremely informative and helpful conversations with Sucheta about the issues within user research and the importance of understanding the role that bias and personal experience play in results. Sucheta provided me with some incredible literature to expand my knowledge in the field of HCDE and encouraged me to follow my curiosities and write about my findings. Further, she helped inspire me to do a year abroad, which I am currently wrapping up."

Sean Munson
"Professor Sean Munson is a gem. He turned HCDE 310 from a nightmare to a dream. I learnt how to code without being scared of it. He also sat with me one on one to work on the final project and guided me through it all."