UpGrade is a finalist in the XPRIZE Digital Learning Platform Competition

Cat.: Blog

We’re excited to announce that Carnegie Learning’s UpGrade team has proceeded to the next round of the $1 million The Digital Learning Challenge, sponsored by XPRIZE and The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), an arm of the U.S. Department of Education. We are honored to compete alongside teams across the country who share our passion for driving innovation in education.

Meet the UpGrade team!

	Susan Berman Susan is the Research Project Manager for Carnegie Learning, Inc. She has varied and extensive experience in helping usher successful research projects from development through dissemination.		Jamie Sterling Jamie is Vice President of Product for CLNext, Carnegie Learning’s Center for Excellence in Innovation, where she oversees incubating innovative product ideas and ensuring all departments at Carnegie Learning operate using innovative mindsets and processes.
	Barbara Calhoun Barbara is a Research Scientist at Carnegie Learning where she evaluates the impact of products and their components. Her background is in bioengineering, with expertise in auditory neuroscience.		Stephen Fancsali Stephen is Director of Advanced Analytics at Carnegie Learning, where he oversees cutting-edge educational data science and AI research. Prior to his near-decade tenure at Carnegie Learning, he earned a PhD in Logic, Computation, and Methodology at Carnegie Mellon University.
	Logan De Ley Logan is Senior Cognitive Scientist for Carnegie Learning, where he applies research, data analysis, and educator insights to craft educational experiences that improve the learning trajectories of struggling students.		Emily Czar Emily is Director of Design and Usability who champions engaging experiences through user research and human centered design process.
	Sarah Galasso Sarah is the Director of Instructional Design, Math 6-12 at Carnegie Learning. Before working in instructional design, Sarah served schools across the country as a teacher, instructional coach, and professional learning facilitator.		April Murphy April is a Learning Engineer, leading the UpGrade project, our open-source platform for conducting large-scale educational field studies. She received a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She’s a staunch advocate for the use of data and evidence to improve educational experiences.
	Afreeka Miller Afreeka is a professional learning leader at Carnegie Learning and she embraces the humanity of teaching.		Rahsaan Mitchell Rahsaan is an Account Executive for California, focusing on L.A., Ventura, and N. Orange Counties, and is a leader in achieving district adoption of Carnegie Learning products.
	Steve Ritter Steve is Founder and Chief Scientist at Carnegie Learning. He has been developing, analyzing and evaluating educational technology for over 20 years. He earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, and is the author of numerous papers on the design, architecture and evaluation of Intelligent Tutoring Systems and other advanced educational technology. He leads the research team at Carnegie Learning, focusing on improving the educational effectiveness of its products and services. Each year, over 500,000 students use Carnegie Learning’s mathematics curricula.		Zack Lee Zack is software engineer in the research team at Carnegie learning. He’s working on the development of UpGrade which is an open-source A/B testing platform for education software to optimize student learning.
	Martina Pavlenko Martina Pavelko is a Cognitive Scientist and Software Engineer at Carnegie Learning and is responsible for the design, development, and continuous improvement of intelligent tutor content. She brings to bear her experience as a high school chemistry teacher and expertise in e-learning design to create highly effective and usable software for classrooms.		Michael Sandbothe Michael is a Research Programmer/Data Engineer with the research team at Carnegie Learning. He supports the customer data reporting pipeline, analytics and dashboards, district reporting, and additional all-purpose code wizardry.
	Matt McHenry Matt is a Principal Software Engineer at Carnegie Learning. He has worked in educational technology for two decades and is excited to help tighten the feedback loop and quicken the pace of improvements in learning effectiveness.		Kaleb Mathieu Kaleb is a Learning Engineer at Carnegie Learning and a former science teacher. He is excited to use technology and research to improve student learning.