Elise A. Piazza


As a teacher and mentor, I am committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere for all students in the classroom and the lab. Inspired by my own liberal arts education at Williams, my teaching tends to bridge multiple disciplines, such as psychology/music/signal processing, or neuroscience/machine learning.

fall 2021

Instructor for Language (a hybrid graduate/undergraduate course on naturalistic and computational approaches to the cognitive neuroscience of language), University of Rochester

Overall Instructor Rating (average rating): 4.83/5 (2021)

spring 2021

Invited Guest Lecturer for Cognition (a graduate course), University of Rochester

spring 2021

Instructor for Music and the Mind (an undergraduate course), University of Rochester

Overall Instructor Rating (average rating): 4.75/5 (2021)

spring 2018

Invited Guest Lecturer for a Neuroscience Core Methods Course (a graduate course), Princeton University

fall 2016, fall 2017

Instructor for a Neuroscience Junior Tutorial (an undergraduate course), Princeton University

Overall Teaching Effectiveness (average rating): 4.9/5 (2017)
Overall Teaching Effectiveness (average rating): 4.5/5 (2016)

fall 2016

Invited Guest Lecturer for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (an undergraduate course), Princeton University

summer 2015

Instructor for Music and the Brain (an undergraduate course), UC Berkeley

Overall Teaching Effectiveness (average rating): 5.8/7

spring 2015

Invited Guest Lecturer for Sensation and Perception (an undergraduate course), Cal State University East Bay

spring 2015

Invited Guest Lecturer for Visual Cognitive Neuroscience (a graduate course), UC Berkeley

fall 2014

Teagle Foundation Award for Excellence in Enhancing Student Learning, UC Berkeley
Essay prize for Graduate Student Instructors who connect their effective teaching strategies to research on how students learn

Read essay here

spring 2014

Teaching Effectiveness Award, UC Berkeley
Essay prize for Graduate Student Instructors who have made a significant contribution to teaching and learning in their departments through their identification of and response to a problem they have faced in their classes

(Awarded to 0.5% of all GSIs)

Read essay here

fall 2013, spring 2014

Invited Guest Lecturer on research methods and statistics for BROCA (an undergraduate cognitive science course), UC Berkeley

spring 2013

Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, UC Berkeley
For exceptional achievements as an instructor for Cog Sci 1

(Awarded to 9% of all GSIs)

spring 2012

Graduate Student Instructor for Introduction to Cognitive Science (an undergraduate course), UC Berkeley

Overall Teaching Effectiveness (average rating): 6.6/7

fall 2009, 2010

Graduate Student Instructor for Visual Perception and Sensitivity (a graduate course), UC Berkeley

Overall Teaching Effectiveness (average rating): 6.5/7 (2010)
Overall Teaching Effectiveness (average rating): 5.5/7 (2009)

fall 2008

Teaching Assistant for Fundamentals of Music (an undergraduate course), Williams College