Growing up in Nigeria, Emmanuella Ejichukwu always knew there was more to the world than what she could see around her. Her late father, an academic, stoked her curiosity by encouraging her to explore. “He knew there were better opportunities outside the confines of Nigeria,” she remembers. “He wanted us to push past limits.”
She has done just that during her doctoral studies at UM-Dearborn, becoming the first UM-Dearborn student ever to be inducted into the U-M Rackham Graduate School chapter of the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society. Named for Edward Bouchet, who became the first African American doctoral recipient in the United States when he graduated from Yale in 1876, the society honors scholars who embody academic and personal excellence and serve as examples of scholarship, leadership, character and advocacy.
“Induction into U-M’s chapter of the Bouchet Society is one of the highest honors Rackham bestows upon its doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows each year,” says Ethriam Brammer, assistant dean at U-M’s Rackham Graduate School. “Emmanuella Ejichukwu was selected as a result of her remarkable scholarship and impressive leadership and service to the community.”
Ejichukwu’s induction is the culmination of four years of perseverance, success and Michigan winters that have not only opened new doors for her but also given her the tools to build better futures for others. She earned her master’s degree in industrial and systems engineering at UM-Dearborn in 2023 and is currently pursuing a doctorate in the same field. She holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial and production engineering from Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria. “I love that industrial engineering blends data analysis and human factors, because at the end of the day, we’re trying to design systems that work better for people,” she says.
The ISE program offers a variety of focus areas including production design, management science and information systems. Ejichukwu chose to study the intersection between people and systems, examining how engineering principles can improve the design of systems to better support users. She’s putting that idea into practice in her PhD thesis, examining whether AI tools can improve the college classroom experience and help students succeed.
Ejichukwu was drawn to the topic during her teaching experience as a graduate student instructor in the ISE program. She’s inspired by the vast differences between students in the classes she taught. “Students have different levels of exposure to STEM. Some are confident asking questions and some are not. But they’re all in the same classroom,” she says. “How do you engage them all and bring them along? That challenge led me to find ways to bridge those gaps.”
Ejichukwu sees AI as a tool that could build equity by providing personalized, on-demand support to students. But she also sees the risk of overreliance and the need for insight into how AI affects comprehension. She designed a study in which engineering students solve coding problems, first on their own and then with the assistance of AI. It then tracks the students’ progress in both situations, collecting data to measure how AI affects workflows, comprehension and final outcomes. “Grad school has enabled me to dig deeper, analyze patterns in data, discover new insights and ask bigger questions. To contribute new knowledge rather than just applying existing knowledge,” she says.
At UM-Dearborn, she has also found a nurturing environment with the support and space to ask challenging questions and the resources to find answers. “To be honest, I’ve always been crazy about Henry Ford, the auto industry and manufacturing, and when I saw that UM-Dearborn was right in the middle of it, I thought ‘OK, that’s the place I should go,’” she says. “When I got here, I found that there are so many ways to mentor and be mentored, to engage with faculty and contribute to the community. And you can be in that close-knit space while also connecting with Ann Arbor and working with their faculty, which is great.”
In addition to attending classes and pursuing her research, Ejichukwu connected with student organizations like Society of Women Engineers, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Alpha Phi Mu Honor Society and the African Student Union. She also found financial support, including an Experience+ grant that enabled her to attend conferences, building her presentation and networking skills. “I used to be afraid to present publicly,” she says. “I decided I wanted to change that, and I found so many opportunities to grow. Today, I’m a better and more confident interviewer and speaker.”
Ejichukwu is looking forward to defending her dissertation — and to what comes next. “I would love to pursue a faculty career because that will allow me to continue researching human-AI collaboration and mentoring students,” she says. “I’ve developed the skills of a researcher that I can take with me to either academia or industry.”
She feels that she can leave UM-Dearborn knowing that her work has been a worthy tribute to the legacy of Edward Bouchet — and her father. “Pursuing higher education is not easy, but I think staying true, knowing where you started and being determined can see anybody through,” she says. “You have to always remember that it’s meant to bring out the better version of you.”
Story by Gabe Cherry
