Built by an engineering professor. Designed for curious kids.
Dr. Mariam Faied, PhD, MBA
Founder, SparkIT. Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, University of Detroit Mercy.
“Great engineers aren't born. They're sparked.”
Education
- PhD, Electrical Engineering — University of Michigan
- MBA, University of Detroit Mercy
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Aerospace Engineering — University of Michigan
Research
- Doctoral Researcher, MIT
- Doctoral Researcher, Air Force Research Lab (AFRL)
- Visiting Research Professor, Aerospace Engineering — University of Michigan
- Research funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Lab and U.S. Department of the Navy
- $1M+ in NSF S-STEM funding for STEM education
- 40+ peer-reviewed publications in robotics and autonomous systems, including IEEE Transactions on Robotics
Teaching
- 20+ years teaching engineering and robotics at the university level
- Associate Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science — University of Detroit Mercy
- Program Director, Robotics and Mechatronics Systems Program — University of Detroit Mercy
0:42Vision
A world where every child's curiosity is sparked into the skills to engineer tomorrow. We believe engineering talent is everywhere — it just needs the right spark, early and often.
Mission
SparkIT delivers a complete, ready-to-teach STEM curriculum: lesson plans, resources, and teacher training. Every lesson is written with the rigor of a college classroom and aligned to NGSS and ISTE standards, so today's curious kid is ready to become tomorrow's engineer.