Fowler, Robin | Faculty

Ph.D., Teaching Professor in Technical Communication, College of Engineering

5114 Engineering Research Building 1

rootsr@umich.edu

734-615-3095

MCommunity

About Robin

Robin Fowler is a Teaching Professor in Technical Communication and an Engineering Education researcher at the University of Michigan. Her teaching is primarily in team-based engineering courses, and her research focuses on equity in communication and collaboration as well as in group design decision making (judgment) under uncertainty. She is especially interested in how power relationships and rhetorical strategies affect group judgment in engineering design; one goal of this work is to to understand factors that inhibit full participation of students who identify with historically marginalized groups and investigate evidence-based strategies for mitigating these inequities. In addition, she is interested in technology and how specific affordances can change the ways we collaborate, learn, read, and write. Teaching engineering communication allows her to apply this work as she coaches students through collaboration, design thinking, and design communication. She is part of a team of faculty innovators who originated Tandem (tandem.ai.umich.edu), a tool designed to help facilitate equitable and inclusive teamwork environments.

Education

Ph.D., Educational Psychology & Educational Technology, Michigan State University
M.A., Critical Studies in the Teaching of English, Michigan State University
B.S., Psychology and Linguistics, Michigan State University