LEI, Ph.D., Howard, is an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering at California State University East Bay. He is currently the engineering and computational skills lead for NSF DRL-1418440 entitled Next Gen Alliance for Science Educators Toolkit, developing and testing curricula and diagnostic tools that unpack the NGSS 3-dimensions for science methods students.

Dr. Lei has taught a broad array of technical courses at CSU – East Bay, with students from the 3 different majors of Computer Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Computer Science. His courses primarily involve computer software and hardware systems. He has introduced Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Team-Based Learning (TBP) practices into freshman-level engineering instruction, and has collected and analyzed a large set of student performance data from the course. He has also revamped curricula for two technical computer engineering courses to introduce students to state-of-the-art computer hardware technology, in order to better align student learning with the demands that computer engineers face in today’s industry. Dr. Lei has been involved in program assessment to ensure that computer engineering students meet the ABET student learning outcomes, and has also been engaged in a Bechtel-funded project that facilitates community college students’ transferring to engineering programs at 4-year universities. Dr. Lei also serves on the Board of Directors for the East Bay STEM network.