Mariana Teixeira Silva

Mariana Teixeira Silva is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and affiliated with the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also holds an affiliation with the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Previously, she served as a lecturer in Mechanical Science and Engineering at the same institution from 2012 to 2017.

Education:

• PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2009)
• MS in Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2003)
• BS in Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2001)

Her research focuses on educational technology innovations, particularly in computer-based assessments, collaborative learning, and scalable teaching methods. She pioneered tools like PrairieLearn, a platform for randomized question generation and automated grading using LLMs, and co-founded PrairieLearn Inc. to commercialize these technologies. Her work emphasizes equity, accessibility, and pedagogical scalability in STEM education.

Current grants include the NSF IUSE Grant on enhancing equity via digitally-mediated learning. Past grants include NSF Cyberlearning projects on collaborative engineering education tools.

Labs/Teams: Co-founder and CEO of PrairieLearn Inc., actively involved in the Illinois Global Institute and Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies. Collaborates with institutions like FAPESP on collaborative research initiatives.