Tirupalavanam G. Ganesh is assistant professor of Engineering Education at Arizona State University's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He also serves as the program coordinator for the Engineering Education concentration in the doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction, and previously served as assistant dean for information systems in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Ganesh's research is largely focused on K–12 curricula, integrating engineering in K–12 education, and teaching-learning processes in both the formal and informal settings. He is principal investigator of the National Science Foundation-sponsored project Learning through Engineering Design and Practice, aimed at designing, implementing and systematically studying the impact of an informal middle school engineering education program.

James A. Middleton is professor of engineering education and director of the Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology at ASU. Prior to these appointments, Professor Middleton served for three years as associate dean for research at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and as director of the Division of Curriculum and Instruction for another three years. He received his doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992, where he also served in the National Center for Research on Mathematical Sciences Education as a postdoctoral scholar.

Middleton's research is focused in children's mathematical thinking, teacher and student motivation in mathematics, and teacher change in mathematics. He is currently developing methodologies for utilizing the engineering design process to improve learning environments in science, engineering and mathematics, and has written on effective uses of educational technology in mathematics and science education as a natural outgrowth of these interests. To fund his research, Middleton has garnered more than $20 million in grants to study and improve mathematics education in urban schools. He just finished a $1.8 million research grant to model the longitudinal development of fractions, rational number and proportional reasoning skills in middle school students, and is currently engaged in a project studying the sustainability of changes in urban elementary teachers' mathematics practices.

All of his work has been conducted in collaborative partnerships with diverse, economically challenged, urban schools — a relationship that's resulted in a significant positive impact on the direction partner districts have taken, including a significant increase in mathematics achievement in the face of a rising poverty rate.