Charanya Ramakrishnan is an award-winning educator from the School of Computing. She is the current Course Director for the Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) degree. In this role, she provides leadership in the curriculum design, mainly focusing on the core units that serve seven different majors that the BIT degree offers. 

Charanya is passionate about teaching and making a difference in every student's life. She uses unconventional practices to create an active learning space for students to learn complex IT concepts (including karaoke in the lectures). She has put Macquarie University twice on the map by teaching cutting-edge technology frameworks like React-Native and Flutter to help her students' graduate capabilities. She enjoys teaching first-year units and convenes large first-year units (n>=1400).

Charanya has won multiple teaching awards, including the prestigious Macquarie's VC Award (student-nominated category). In 2023, she was the only IT academic in Australia to win the AAUT Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, a national recognition for her teaching quality and student outcomes. She was also a finalist in the National Australian Financial Review (AFR) Awards: Teaching and Learning Excellence (2024) and Equity and Access (2025).

• Course Director of Bachelor of Information Technology (since 2024)
• Shadow to the Deputy Dean of Education and Employability (2025)
• Unit Convenor for multiple first-year units (since 2018)
• Member of the School of Computing Education Committee (since 2021)
• Founding Member of the Computing Education Research Group (since 2024)
• School of Computing Retention Lead (2024)

Artificial Intelligence in Education, Higher Education Retention, Learning Analytics, Computing Education, Programming Education Pedagogies

I am an active member of the School of Computing’s Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee. In 2024, I completed my Ally Training and an active proud member of MQ's Ally Network to promote inclusiveness. I am the founding academic memeber and mentor for the Women in Computing Student group, which has grown to over 300 students in 2024 (Started with 12 in 2022) with opportunities to network with the industry professionals. I am also the founder and program director of Bonding Through Coding Outreach program, that helps primary school kids learn programming in a safe environment with their parents.