As Senior Director of Experiential Learning, Alisha plays an integral role in disrupting traditional curriculum and assessment practices in order to expand access to diverse learners, and working on new innovative ways to use wearables and data to track health and wellness data, reflect, and iterate further. Alisha is a designer, researcher, author, and educator with a strong background in maker education and experiential learning.
She’s spent over 15 years teaching in diverse schools across India, the U.S., Canada, and Brazil, creating curricula and leading professional development workshops. Alisha has led numerous maker-based learning initiatives, focusing on integrating craft, wellness, play, identity, storytelling, and technology into creative learning experiences.
Alisha brings a deep passion for using smart and adaptive materials to create rich, meaningful learning opportunities, especially for underrepresented communities and diverse learners. Alisha’s work has been groundbreaking, and she’s a published author of two books, including Biomaking: A Visual Guide to Explore Making with Biology. Currently, she’s also a co-principal investigator for the Morphing Matter for All project, exploring new ways to bring interdisciplinary STEM learning to everyone, and providing unique, engaging access points and positive identity-building for girls in engineering
PUBLICATIONS:
Books
- Collins, A. (2023). Biomaking: A visual guide to explore making with Biology. Brilliant Labs.
- Martin, D., & Panjwani, A. (2016) Start Making!: A Guide to Engaging Young People in Maker Activities.
- MAKE Media / O’Reilly Media Community Empowerment (Masters Dissertation) Srishti Institute of Art Design and Technology, Bengaluru India
Peer-Reviewed Publications
- Albaugh, L., Chen, M., Liu, S., Jain, H., Collins, A., & Yao, L. (2024). Morphing matter for teens: Research processes as a template for cross-disciplinary activities. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24) (Article 670, pp. 1–20). Association for Computing Machinery.
- Kleinberger,R. & Panjwani, A. (2018) Digitally Enchanted Wear: a Novel Approach in the Field of Dresses as Dynamic Digital Displays. In Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (pp. 27-34). ACM.
- Panjwani, A. (2017) Constructing Meaning: Designing Powerful Story-Making Explorations for Children to Express with Tangible Computational Media. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children. (pp. 358-364). ACM.
PRESENTATIONS:
Conferences, Workshops, Posters (recent)
- Collins, A. (2023). Innovation durable en classe- la biofabrication. Retour de la session Ignite CADRE21 à Clair 2023 (French Presentation)
- Collins, A., Murugan, N, Collins, W. (2023) Thinking Without a Brain: Biomaking Exploration with Slime Mold. Presentation at The Global Community Bio Summit 6.0
- Collins, A., Vautour, N. (2021) Biomaking in Schools. Presentation at The Global Community Bio Summit 5.0, Virtual
- Collins, A. (2020) Amplifying Awareness: Engaging Children in Designing Wearable Devices to Track their Health and Well-being at the 9th Annual FabLearn Conference on Maker Education, New York NY, USA
- Collins, A., Belliappa, B. (2020) Myths, Mindfulness and Making with Bio-Electronic Arts. Presentation at the FabLearn Asia Conference on Maker Education, Bangkok, Thailand
- Collins, A. (2020) Choreography Of Matter. Presentation at The 5th Annual Maker Educator Convening. Pittsburgh, PA.
- Collins, A. (2019) Teaching by Tinkering: Creative Learning in Classrooms. Presentation at The 20th Annual Building Learning Communities® Conference. Boston, MA.
- Collins, A. (2019) Amplifying Awareness: Rethinking Classrooms as Playgrounds of Creativity, Empowerment and Wellbeing. Presentation at The 20th Annual Building Learning Communities® Conference. Boston, MA.
- Collins, A. (2019) Teaching by Tinkering. Explore and create–Workshop at ISTE – EdTech Conference. Philadelphia, PA.
- Collins, A. (2018) Amplifying Awareness in Youth: Rethinking Classrooms as Playgrounds of Creativity, Empowerment, and Wellbeing. Presentation at Reaching for Greatness, Learning & the Brain conference. Boston, MA.
- Collins, A, Garber, R. (2018) Designing Physical Microworlds for Learning. Presentation at The 19th Annual Building Learning Communities® Conference. Boston, MA.
- Collins, A. (2018) From STEAM to SEEDS: Designing Creative Interdisciplinary Learning Environments and Experiences in Science, Engineering, Esthetics, Design & Storytelling for Students. Presentation at The 19th Annual Building Learning Communities® Conference. Boston, MA.
AWARDS & HONORS
- National Science Foundation Grant | Award No: # 2017008 | Fostering Aptitudes, Attitudes and Aspirations of Girls in STEM Through 4D Printing of Robotic Materials, (2020-2024)
- President’s Volunteer Service Award | Gold Level | AmeriCorps | 2023
- Learning fellowship at the Future of Learning Institute, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2013
- Merit fellowship by the Ujwal Trust for the period July 2009-December 2010 that covered all tuition for the Advance Diploma Program at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology.
- Most innovative Member Award, Aga Khan Education Board, Southern India Zone (2011-2012)
