Professor, open courseware advocate, socioeconomic diversity champion, one-pony pedagogy assailant, UDL believer, replicating education-research studies supporter.
AUTAR KAW
AUTAR KAW is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of South Florida. He is a recipient of the 2012 U.S Professor of the Year award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching. The award is the only national program to recognize excellence in undergraduate education.
Professor Kaw believes that the most important function of a university including research universities will continue to be on the learning side. As much as we need more qualified college graduates, we also need highly talented graduates to invent the next big thing – it could be an economic renewable energy resource or a cure for the chronic diseases of the mind and body. If we want to truly create opportunities for our future generations, we have to first address the socioeconomic divide in our country. To address it for higher education while even maintaining the current meritocracy which favors the wealthy, we as a society should fully sponsor the education of the top academic standing quartile who belong to the lowest income quartile families. After all, 17% of the brightest high school graduates in our nation do belong in that category.
Professor Kaw received his B.E. Honors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) India in 1981, and his degrees of Ph.D. in 1987 and M.S. in 1984, both in Engineering Mechanics from Clemson University, SC. He joined the University of South Florida in 1987.
Professor Kaw’s main scholarly interests are in engineering education research, adaptive learning, open courseware development, bascule bridge design, fracture mechanics, composite materials, and the state and future of higher education.
Professor Kaw’s research has been funded by National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Florida Department of Transportation, Research and Development Laboratories, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, and Montgomery Tank Lines.
Funded by National Science Foundation (2002-18), under Professor Kaw’s leadership, he and his colleagues from around the nation have developed, implemented, refined and assessed online resources for an open courseware in Numerical Methods. This courseware annually receives 1,000,000+ page views, 1,800,000+ views of the YouTube lectures and 100,000+ annual visitors to the Numerical Methods Guy blog.
Professor Kaw’s work has been covered/cited/quoted in many media outlets including Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, U.S. Congressional Record, Florida Senate Resolution, ASEE Prism, Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Tribune, WUSF, BayNews9, Fox13, WLRN, and Voice of America.
Professor Kaw has received several national, regional and university awards including the 2012 U.S. Professor of the Year Award, 2011 ASEE National Teaching Award, 2004 ASME Curriculum Innovation Award, 1991 SAE Ralph-Teetor Award.
Received 2021 USF Outstanding Research Achievements Award
Presented a gallery walk paper on comparing online flipped classroom with and without adaptive learning. Clark, A. Kaw, A. Yalcin, “Did Online Flipped Learning Improve Through Pre-class Adaptive Lessons?”, CIRCLS’21 Convening, September 14-15, 2021.
JUNE 2021
Attended the IUSE conference, “AAAS-IUSE SUMMER LABS Catalyzing inclusive, transformative undergraduate STEM education”, June 2021, June 3 – June 29, 2021. Presented the simulations for Numerical Methods during project office hours.
JANUARY 2021
Became certified to teach online through USF OIC which is a fully online four-week certification preparing USF instructors to teach online.
AUGUST 2020
Representing the College of Engineering in USF Faculty Champions to Force to facilitate Faculty Professional Development for Instruction and Learning Excellence
Presented a paper on the effect of using cumulative and practice tests on improving blended classrooms. The video presentation is here.
March 24, 2020
Webinar on Research on Flipped Classrooms in Higher Education for the Florida Distance Learning Research Consortium. The video presentation is here.
JANUARY 7, 2020
Keynote speaker at 2020 ISFT Conference. The topic was “A Framework for Including Multiple Pedagogies for STEM Education”
January 2020
Published a paper on Adaptive Learning in Blended Classrooms. Adaptive Learning in a Numerical Methods Course for Engineers: Evaluation in Blended and Flipped Classrooms,” Computer Applications in Engineering Education, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 62-79, 2020, doi: 10.1002/cae.22175
JULY 18, 2019
Mentioned in Chronicle of Higher Education about the online program we developed for analyzing multiple-choice tests. Learn how to use it – simply have a file that consists of responses and a file that has the key.
JULY 18, 2019
Gave an invited presentation at Course Hero headquarters on “How Effective is the Flipped Classroom?”, at the 2019 Education Summit in Redwood City, CA.
JUNE 18, 2019
Gave an invited ASEE Mechanics Division Banquet speech at the annual ASEE conference in Tampa. The title was “Solution to the Paradox of Choices, Lecturing, Blended, Flipped…
Dinner speech on “Journey of an Open Courseware” at the Mechanical Engineering Division Convivium, American Society of Engineering Education Conference & Exposition.
JUNE 25, 2018
Awarded 2017-18 Ralph Coats Roe Award from Mechanical Engineering Division of American Society of Engineering Education.
March 4, 2018
Led a workshop on “Adaptive Learning: Background, Applications and Lesson Building” at the ASEE-SE Conference in Daytona Beach, FL.
March 5, 2018
Gave a presentation on “Adaptive Lessons for Pre-Class Preparation for Flipped Classroom” at the ASEE-SE Conference in Daytona Beach, FL. Link to Abstract
January 2018
Published a paper on comparing flipped and blended classroom based on one course taught at three different schools. Link to Abstract and Full Article.
Published a paper in Composites: Part A on “Transverse shear modulus of unidirectional composites with voids estimated by the multiple-cells model” Link to Full Text
June 25, 2017
Presented a final paper of our Flipped Grant – “Blended vs. Flipped Teaching: One Course – Three Engineering Schools”, at the ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition in Columbus, OH Link to Full Text
March 10-11, 2017
Participated in a TPSE Chairs+1 meeting at University of Maryland College Park campus and led an invited workshop on How to Increase Cognitive and Affective Gains in Student Performance (Link to Slides)
March 2-5, 2017
Led a workshop on flipped classrooms, attended a workshop on Active Learning, and chaired a session on professional practice at the ASEE Zone 2 Conference, San Juan, PR.
January 5-7, 2017
Gave a TED style talk on Genesis of an Open Courseware followed by a panel discussion on Yearn to Earn and Learn at BITSAA Global Meet 2017 in Dubai, UAE.
Co-authored an article on Comparing the Effectiveness of Blended, Semi-Flipped, and Flipped Formats in an Engineering Numerical Methods Course in ASEE Advances in Engineering Education Fall 2016 | Volume 5 | Issue 3. Link to Full Text
December 1, 2016
Co-guest edited a special issue of ASEE Advances in Engineering Education on Flipped Classrooms in STEM. Link to Full Text
October 1, 2016
Received a two-year grant from NSF with Co-PI Mary Besterfield-Sacre of the University of Pittsburgh on improving flipped classroom via adaptive learning. Link to Award Summary.
Presented a poster on metacognition at the 2016 USF Celebration of Teaching. This document from Depaul University was helpful to the visitors.
January 18, 2016
Gave a keynote speech on learning strategies at the ISFT 2016 Conference in New Delhi, India. Link to Article
August 3, 2015
Conducted a workshop on a “Case Study of Flipped Class” for faculty from King Saud University at USF ATLE.
June 15, 2015
We presented an NSF Sponsored poster presentation at 2015 ASEE Conference and Exposition on How Do You Like Your Course – Semi-Flipped or Flipped? (Link to Abstract and Full Link)
April 12, 2015
Conducted a workshop on how to use the flipped class to teach effectively (Link to Slides)
2015
Guest co-editing for ASEE AEE Journal Special Issue on Flipped Classrooms in STEM (Link to Announcement)
2015
Collaborating with LearNERDs on Bite Size Engineering Challenges
2015
A journal paper has been printed on Comparing Different Formats of a Final Exam for a Numerical Methods Course in the International Journal of Engineering Education. (Link to Abstract and Full Text)
Open Courseware released for Introduction to Matrix Algebra and profiled on USF Textbook Affordability Project. Link to Open Courseware | Link to Article
June 16, 2014
Presented a poster at the annual ASEE conference on “Are Multiple Choice Questions Suitable for a Final Examination in a STEM course?” Link to Poster
May 13, 2014
Wrote an article for Chronicle Vitae: Let’s Meet in the Middle – a Case for Universal Design Learning Link to Full Article
Speaker/Panelist on “Limits of Online Learning” in National Academy of Engineers (NAE) sponsored Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) Symposium Link to Participants
September 30, 2013
Fox News Channel 13 profiled use of clickers in class
September 25, 2013
Autar Kaw gives a keynote speech and serves as a panelist on innovations in education at the 2013 WEEF conference in Cartagena, Colombia.
September 4, 2013
Autar Kaw leads with co-investigators from the Arizona State University, the Alabama A&M University, and the University of Pittsburgh to study flipped STEM courses at college level via NSF grant. Link to Announcement
September 2, 2013
Autar Kaw Interview with Mail Today, an Indian Tabloid. Link to Full Text
Interview with the U.S. Professor of Year on Bay News 9. Link to Article
January 28, 2013
Interviewed about the Holistic Numerical Methods Open Education Resource by Science World of Voice of America. Hear the interview: Link to Interview YouTube or MP3
January 17, 2013
Florida Board of Governors Recognize Autar Kaw’s Teaching Link to Recognition
January 17, 2013
NSF Discoveries covers Holistic Numerical Methods Open Education Resource: One Click Away: Online Course Ware Promotes Free Access to Math Instruction. Link to Article
Gave the keynote speech at the Ring Ceremony for the Fall 2012 Graduates. Read speech. Link to Transcript
December 13, 2012
Recognized by Board of Trustees of the University of South Florida.
November 15, 2012
Received National 2012 U.S. Professor of the Year Award from the Council of Advancement and Support of Education & Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Presented a paper “A Holistic View on History, Development, Assessment, And Future of an Open Courseware in Numerical Methods” at the 2012 ASEE Conference in San Antonio, TX. The paper was presented in the “Best of Computers in Education” session. The paper was also published by the ASEE Computers in Education Journal.
February 23, 2012
Gave an invited seminar to the College of Engineering at the University of Miami on the Numerical Methods Open Courseware.
Autar Kaw’s graduate student Daniel Miller was profiled in USF News about Patenting Body Armor. Link to Full Article
September 6, 2011
Gave an invited seminar to the Mathematics Department of the University of Nevada, Reno on the Numerical Methods Open Courseware.
September 2011
Autar Kaw profiled in ASEE Prism Magazine for Outstanding Teaching: “A Standout in Class and Online”. Link to Article
July 22, 2011
Autar Kaw was profiled for the Adopt-A-Textbook and Facebook Textbook Exchange Program at the Textbook Affordability Program webpage at USF (Read Article) and in Tampa Tribune blog.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3976-6375