Congratulations to the 2024-25 “Person of Exceptional Performance” (PEP) Award recipient, Margaret Heil, senior lecturer and Director of the Senior Design Center (SDC). Heil was also selected as the College of Engineering nominee for the 2024-25 Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.

The Department of Computer Science launched the PEP Award in 2018 to recognize faculty or staff members who’ve exhibited truly outstanding performance, contributing significantly to the department’s success. These individuals serve as role models for what it means to ‘think and do’ the extraordinary. Heil is the department’s 8th PEP award recipient, joining George Rouskas (‘24), Donna Richards (‘23), Thomas Price (‘22), Lina Batestilli (‘21), Leslie Rand-Pickett (‘20), Sarah Heckman (‘19) and Ken Tate (‘18).

Heil received her B.S. degree in Biology and English Literature from McGill University (‘82) and her M.S. in Technical Communication from NC State (‘01). Heil has been a departmental stalwart since 1996, when she was hired to help develop and shepherd the Senior Design Center.

For thirty years, the SDC has provided students with a real industrial software development problem. Students are taught how to integrate the principles of software engineering, teamwork, project management and professional communication in the solution of that problem. Since 2015, Heil has served as director of the SDC. The Center has grown by leaps and bounds in the past three decades. Spring 2025 saw the largest class of senior design: 236 students placed on 47 project teams across six sections.

“Our multidisciplinary teaching team is committed to the SDC’s mission of helping students learn to integrate their technical expertise with their professional communication skills. I am proud of this team’s unwavering dedication,” said Heil. 

Heil has been the driving force behind the SDC, one of the department’s most successful teaching programs, and has helped develop decades of graduates. She manages industry sponsorships and coordinates the SDC teaching team to provide a consistent experience across all sections. Heil delivers lectures related to course organization, teamwork and communication deliverables.

Heil is also actively involved with student teams; she regularly conducts project management activities, helps them prepare oral presentations and holds individualized feedback and grading sessions with presenters. Heil is also responsible for planning and executing ‘Posters & Pies’, the popular end-of-semester exhibition for the Senior Design course.

“Each semester, students rise to the challenge of our robust senior design experience; kudos to all of them,” said Heil.

In a testament to her teaching expertise, Heil was named an NC State Outstanding Teacher in 2009-2010, and was nominated by the College of Engineering for the 2024-25 Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. This award was established in 1993 to underscore the importance of teaching and to encourage, identify, recognize, reward and support good teaching within the UNC system.

“My passion is to mentor young people, to reinforce the importance of commitment, to help them see beyond the obvious and to instill a sense of belief in themselves.”

“The PEP award encourages me to forge forward with these teaching goals!” said Heil.