Faculty Directory
Lakshmy Mohandas

Assistant Professor of Instruction in the McCormick Office of Undergraduate Engineering

Contact

2133 Sheridan Road
Ford 2.217
Evanston, IL 60208-3109

Email Lakshmy Mohandas

Departments

Undergraduate Engineering

Affiliations

Segal Design Institute

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Biography

Lakshmy Mohandas is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the McCormick Office of Undergraduate Engineering at Northwestern University, with an affiliation to the Segal Design Institute. She teaches Design Thinking and Communication (DTC) and Designing Your Life (DYL), courses that blend creative problem-solving with personal and professional development for engineering students.

Her scholarship focuses on design education, innovative learning environments, HyFlex instruction, and teaching effectiveness in higher education. Her work also explores the integration of AI tools in multidisciplinary classroom settings, student motivation, and self-regulation in active learning courses.

Dr. Mohandas earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Technology from Purdue University in 2022.


Selected Publications

 Published Papers:

•      Koehler, A., Mohandas,L., Mentzer,M. & Mammadova, E. " Teaching Across Modalities: Exploring Instructor Presence in HyFlex Environments". Journal of Research on Technology in Education (Accepted).

•      Cudney, E.A., Beane, R., Furterer, S., Buffon, C., Mohandas, L., Mowrey, C., Ahmad Elshennawy, A. & Appiah-Kubi, P. "Exploring student perceptions of teaching effectiveness factors in higher education." Total Quality Management & Business Excellence (2025): 1-23.

•      Mentzer, N., Mammadova, E., Mohandas, L., Koehler, A. & Farrington, S. “Analyzing the Impact of Basic Psychological Needs on Student Academic Performance: A comparison of Post- pandemic Interactive Synchronous HyFlex and Pre-pandemic Traditional Face-to-Face Instruction” (2024). Educational Technology Research and Development.

•      Mentzer, N., Isabell, T. & Mohandas, L. The Impact of Interactive Synchronous HyFlex Model on Students Academic Performance in a Large Active Learning Introductory Design Course (2023). Journal of Computing in Higher Education.

•      Cudney, E., Anderson, S., Beane, R., Furterer, S., Mohandas, L. & Laux, C. Using the Voice of Students to Identify Perceptions of Teaching Effectiveness Attributes: A Pilot Study (2023). Quality Assurance in Education.

•      Mohandas, L., Sorgenfrei, N., Drankoff, L., Sanchez, I., Furterer, S., Cudney, E., Laux, C., & Anthony J (2022). Identifying Factors that Impact Online Teaching Effectiveness during COVID-19. Quality Assurance in Education.

•      Mentzer, N. & Mohandas, L. Student Experiences in an Interactive Synchronous HyFlex Design Thinking in Technology Class during COVID-19 (2022). Interactive Learning Environments Journal.

•      Mentzer, N., Krishna, B., Kotangale, A. & Mohandas, L. HyFlex Environment: Addressing Student’s Basic Psychological Needs (2022). Learning Environments Research Journal.

•      Mentzer, N., Mohandas, L., Farrington, S. & Laux, D (2022). Course Quality Improvement in Design Education. Journal of Technology Education.

•      Mohandas, L., & Bhaskar, V. (2013). Performance analysis of MIMO transmission modes in an LTE system. The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) Digital Library.

Conference Proceedings:

•      Mohandas, L., Agarwal, S. & Ramnath, P. Leveraging AI-Assisted Discussion Tools in Multidisciplinary EPICS (Engineering Projects In Community Services) Teams: Instructor and Student Insights. Accepted for Panel Presentation in Mudd Design Workshop 2025.

•      Mohandas, L., Guberman, D., Bhati, A. & Hunt, E. Transdisciplinary Approaches to Critical Teaching with AI. 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (Under Review).

•      Mohandas, L. & Mentzer, M. Students’ perceptions of AI tools in a Design Thinking Course. 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.

•      Mentzer, N., Mohandas, L., Koehler, A., Mammadova, E. & Farrington, S. A synthesis of Discoveries Spanning Ten Semesters of HyFlex. 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.

•      Koehler, A., Mohandas, L., Mentzer, N. & Farrington, S. Teaching across Modalities: Exploring Instructor Presence in HyFlex Environments (shortlisted for best paper award in the Instructional Technology SIG). 2024 AERA Annual Meeting.

•      Mohandas, L., Mentzer, N., Koehler, A. & Farrington, S. To be Face-to-Face Today or to Be Remote Today: That is the Question. 2023 AERA Annual Meeting.

•      Mohandas, L., Mentzer, M., Koehler, A., Farrington, S. & Mammadova, E.

Understanding Students’ Self-Regulation in a HyFlex Design Thinking Course (2023). Best Paper in FPD 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.

•      Mohandas, L., Lee, W. & Mentzer, N. Changes in Achievement Goal Profiles of students in a Highly Active Design Thinking Classroom (2022). 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.

•      Gaëlle, M., Raes, A., Zeng, L., Bridges, S., Mentzer, N., Farrington, S., Koehler, A., Mohandas, L., Aamir, A., Claypool, M., Petit, M, Babin, J., Desrochers,M., Järvenoja, H.,Törmänen, T., Pramila-Savukoski, S., Kuivila, H., Järvelä, S., Mikkonen, K., Ollesch, L., Bodemer, D. & Weinberger, A (2022). 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, Japan.

•      Mohandas, L.& Mentzer, N. (2021). The Effectiveness of Synchronous vs.

Asynchronous Modes of instruction in an online Flipped Design Thinking Course. 2021 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.

•      Mohandas, L., Mentzer, N., Jaiswal, A., & Farrington, S. (2020). Effectiveness of Undergraduate Teaching Assistants in a First-Year Design Course. 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference.

•      Mohandas, L., Laux, C., Hundal, G., & Sabharwal, R. (2019). Adopting Lean Principles for improving student motivation in Higher Education. International Conference on Lean Six Sigma in Higher Education in Edinburgh, Scotland.

•      Bartholomew, S. R., Mentzer, N., Jones, M., Farrington, S., Johnson, N., Mohandas, L., & Thorne, S. (2019). Learning by Evaluating: Using Adaptive Comparative Judgment. Nashville, Tennessee. 106th Mississippi Valley Technology Teacher Education Conference and the 57th Southeastern Technology Education Conference.

•      Mentzer, N., & Mohandas, L. (2018). Active Learning in the Polytechnic Integrated Freshman Year Experience. Polytechnic Summit 2018 in Lima, Peru.

Books:

Mentzer, Nathan, Abdul Moeed Asad, Adrie A. Koehler, Lakshmy Mohandas, and Elnara Mammadova. Engaging Learners Everywhere: The Interactive Synchronous HyFlex Method. Purdue University Press, 2025.