Autar Kaw, an India-born professor of mechanicalengineering at the University of South Florida, is among the four recipients ofthe 2012 US Professor of the Year award.
The sponsors US Council for Advancement and Support ofEducation (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teachingdeclared Kaw, a USF professor for 25 years, Outstanding Doctoral and ResearchUniversities Professor.
This annual prestigious award recognises exceptionalprofessors for their ability to engage and influence students, according to amedia release from the Tampa Florida based university.
Kaw, an early adopter of new technologies and social mediato teach complex mathematical calculations, is one of four professors -selected from more than 300 nominees - to receive the award that is consideredthe nation's highest honour for undergraduate teaching.
Kaw is known to tens of thousands of engineering studentsaround the world as the "Numerical Methods Guy" through his HolisticNumerical Methods Institute website, his blog and YouTube video lectures.
He has dedicated his career to eliminating one of the mostsignificant obstacles to engineering students being successful by providingstudents everywhere free access to supplemental lessons, the release said.
"Dr Kaw's selection reaffirms what the University ofSouth Florida and his students have long known about this exceptional professorand outstanding individual: his commitment to education and his dedication tohis students knows no bounds," said USF President Judy Genshaft.
Kaw is a fellow in the American Society of MechanicalEngineers and a member of the American Society of Engineering Education.
In 2011, he was awarded the National Outstanding TeachingMedal from the American Society for Engineering Education. A prolific writer,he has authored four text books and scores of academic articles.
Born in India, Kaw received his bachelor's degree inmechanical engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani,India, and his master's and PhD in Engineering Mechanics from Clemson University.
Kaw said his use of technology stems from a basic concernfor student learning: he saw students struggling with the same conceptssemester after semester. If that was happening in his classroom, it wasprobably happening elsewhere, he surmised.
