About

I am the Joseph L. Vaughan Professor of Humanities and Professor of Computer Science (Academic General Faculty) in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia, having joined the department in 2007. I am currently the Associate Department Chair for Undergraduate Programs and Director of the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degree program in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. I also serve as Secretary on the ACM SIGCSE Board (2025-2028). My teaching interests include software engineering, video game design, and mobile app development. My research interests are in CS education, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), and gamification.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Mathematics education
• Psychology
• Engineering
• Mathematics
• Medical education
• Pedagogy
• Political Science
• Sociology
• World Wide Web
• Programming language
• Knowledge management
• Operations research
• Medicine
• Operating system
• Library science
• Management science
• Engineering management

Selected publications

• Addressing Challenges in Teaching-Track Faculty Promotion

  2025-02-18 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Interest in teaching-track faculty positions has been steadily increasing as enrollments in computer science degree programs continue to trend upward. While departments have welcomed these new teaching-track faculty members, senior faculty, department chairs, and university committees often struggle with how to best evaluate these faculty members during the promotion process. In our experience, some universities try to use a "watered-down" version of the tenure-track promotion standards with the intent of uniformity. Other universities have created whole new processes, which may be better at capturing the differences in teaching-track positions, but also can create a "second-class citizen" status for the teaching-track faculty members.

  PublisherDOI

• Thermal Analysis of Power Electronic Modules with Parametric Model Order Reduction

  2025-09-15

  articleOpen access

  This study presents a new approach for conducting parametric analyses via exploring model parameters of a power electronics module (PEM) thermal model, integrating finite element analysis (FEA) with a parametric model order reduction (pMOR) method. A three-dimensional model has been utilised for thermal analyses using a pMOR method, parametrising the heat-source parameter, i.e., the internal heat generation (IHG) rate, and the convection parameter, i.e., the film coefficient of the coolant's channel surface, of the PEM. This approach allows for the exploration of various cyclic thermal loads observed in power cycle experiments. The ‘pMOR by matrix interpolation’ method has been employed for the global parametric reducedorder modelling study, and PRIMA, a Krylov subspace and Arnoldi process-based model order reduction (MOR) technique, for local model order reductions and the generalised trapezoidal rule (GTR) for numerical analysis procedure, have been utilised within the modelling procedure. The local models of the parametric reduced-order model (pROM) have a total degree of freedom (DOF) of just 20, in contrast to the local models of the parametric full-order model's (<tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathbf{p F O M}$</tex>) total DOF of <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathbf{1 8 5, 4 8 9}$</tex>. The pROM solutions have been validated by comparing corresponding pFOM solutions and experimental data, which demonstrate that the proposed parametric reduced-order modelling approach provides valid solutions and significantly reduces computational requirements, e.g., time, by over 99 % for the case presented. The developed parametric reduced-order modelling approach for thermal analyses, addressing the parametric (global) analysis of power electronic components, has been implemented via MATLAB programming (.m) environments.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Investigation of On-Chip Temperature Measurement in Power Cycling Using Fibre Bragg Grating Sensors

  2025-09-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Condition monitoring techniques underpin the successful drive towards the net zero economy, providing more accurate predictive maintenance for electrical infrastructure and hence increasing system service life. Fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors provide an electrically isolated temperature measurement, which can be utilized for fast and accurate semiconductor junction temperature estimation. Compared with traditional temperature-sensitive electrical parameters, FBG temperature measurement is immune to electromagnetic interference and is not affected by device ageing. In this paper, the procedure of on-chip FBG temperature measurement is presented in the context of power cycling for silicon diode test vehicles. Accuracy of the sensor transient response is discussed, alongside mitigating factors and potential avenues for future improvements.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Partial Discharge in Silicone Gel on Power Module Substrates in High-Humidity Conditions

  IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation · 2024-05-22 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Partial discharge (PD) has been shown to affect quality of insulation in power electronics modules. This paper provides a comprehensive characterisation of PD activity in gel-encapsulated direct bonded copper (DBC) power module substrates when subjected to fast unipolar square excitations. PD characteristics in low and high humidity environments are compared. PD inception voltage (PDIV) testing and time-resolved PD (TRPD) analysis is performed to investigate discharges in each condition. Two PD groups were identified, categorised by their amplitude, and prompting further investigation of the weaker group with a statistics-based approach. The strong group did not vary with humidity and is attributed to discharges between the top and bottom copper of the DBC. The weaker group varied significantly with humidity and is attributed to discharges within the lateral trench gap of the DBC top copper.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Investigation of the impact of temperature and humidity on the capacitance of dielectric gel used for power electronics

  IET conference proceedings. · 2022-07-05 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Offshore wind turbines are subjected to harsh environmental conditions which can include high temperatures and elevated levels of ambient humidity. Failure of wind turbines can often be the result of damage over time to the power devices used within converters, leading to significant downtime and maintenance costs. The absorption of moisture within the silicone gel used as a dielectric in power modules poses a potential reliability concern due to its altered electrical properties. Samples of a commercial dielectric gel recommended for use in power modules are subjected to harsh environmental conditions consisting of high temperature alone, high humidity alone, and combined high temperature and humidity. The electrical properties of the gel during these tests are measured using bespoke sensors, and the results of this testing are discussed. A notable increase in the capacitance of samples is observed for the combined high-temperature, high-humidity condition.

  PublisherDOI

• Training Computing Educators to Become Computing Education Researchers

  Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education · 2022 · 4 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Mathematics education

  The computing education community endeavors to consistently move forward, improving the educational experience of our students. As new innovations in computing education practice are learned and shared, however, these papers may not exhibit the desired qualities that move simple experience reports to true Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We report on our six years of experience in running professional development for computing educators in empirical research methods for social and behavioral studies in the classroom. Our goal is to have a direct impact on instructors who are in the beginning stages of transitioning their educational innovations from anecdotal to empirical results that can be replicated by instructors at other institutions. To achieve this, we created a year-long mentoring experience, beginning with a multi-day workshop on empirical research methods during the summer, followed by regular mentoring sessions with participants, and culminating in a follow-up session at the following year's SIGCSE Technical Symposium. From survey results and as evidenced by eventual research results and publications from participants, we believe that our method of structuring empirical research professional development was successful and could be a model for similar programs in other areas.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Engineering a Complete Curriculum Overhaul

  Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education · 2022 · 6 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Sociology
  • Computer Science

  We present an eight-year curriculum redesign effort impacting al-most every course in our computer science department. Having not made a major update to our curriculum in two decades, complications began to arise from significant increases in enrollment and instituting multiple degrees in computing in the same department. Starting from a desire to adjust a few courses, we systematically collected a broad set of requirements and blue-sky ideas from many stakeholders, resulting in an unsatisfiable set of content, ordering, and course boundary constraints. After multiple rounds of conversation with our stakeholders in and out of the department, we evolved and relaxed several of our constraints, allowing us to develop a compromise plan for seven new courses and a new prerequisite system. We then piloted five of the new courses and collected feedback on results, iterating on these courses each semester for two years. We worked with registrars, advisors, and administrators to develop a transition plan from old to new courses. This paper presents highlights of each step of this process, a summary of the resulting curriculum design, and reflections and recommendations for other departments that may want to undertake a similar update.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Training Computing Educators to Become Computing Education Researchers

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2021-10-11

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  The computing education community endeavors to consistently move forward, improving the educational experience of our students. As new innovations in computing education practice are learned and shared, however, these papers may not exhibit the desired qualities that move simple experience reports to true Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We report on our six years of experience in running professional development for computing educators in empirical research methods for social and behavioral studies in the classroom. Our goal is to have a direct impact on instructors who are in the beginning stages of transitioning their educational innovations from anecdotal to empirical results that can be replicated by instructors at other institutions. To achieve this, we created a year-long mentoring experience, beginning with a multi-day workshop on empirical research methods during the summer, followed by regular mentoring sessions with participants, and culminating in a follow-up session at the following year's SIGCSE Technical Symposium. From survey results and as evidenced by eventual research results and publications from participants, we believe that our method of structuring empirical research professional development was successful and could be a model for similar programs in other areas.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• SIGCSE 2021 technical symposium

  ACM SIGCSE Bulletin · 2021 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Library science

  The 2021 Technical Symposium is quickly approaching and we could not be more excited to welcome you to the first-ever virtual Symposium! We are equally thrilled by the quality of the program that we have the honor to share with you. The schedule is available at https://sigcse2021.sigcse.org/schedule/.

  PublisherDOI

• SIGCSE 2021 technical symposium recap

  ACM SIGCSE Bulletin · 2021-07-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the community for everything that you did to support the 52nd SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, our first (and hopefully only) fully-online Technical Symposium! From presenting papers and posters, to being session chairs, to simply participating, everyone engaged with the Symposium with a desire to make it work. And because of you - it did!

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Transforming Computer Science Education Research Through Use of Appropriate Empirical Research Methods: Mentoring and Tutorials

  NSF · $129k · 2015–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Sarah Heckman

  North Carolina State University

  25 shared

• Ahmed Almahdy

  King Saud University

  24 shared

• Laurie Williams

  19 shared

• T F Watson

  King's College London

  18 shared

• Salvatore Sauro

  18 shared

• Avijit Banerjee

  King's College London

  18 shared

• Jörg W. Bartsch

  Philipps University of Marburg

  12 shared

• Jeffrey C. Carver

  University of Alabama

  9 shared

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Computer Science

  North Carolina State University

  2007

• Master of Science, Department of Computer Science

  North Carolina State University

  2004

• Bachelor of Science, Department of Computer Science

  Wake Forest University

  2002

Awards & honors

• UVA ACM Professor of the Year 2021
• IEEE Computer Society Mary Kenneth Keller Computer Science a…
• UVA All-University Teaching Award 2012
• UVA ACM Professor of the Year 2011
• Trigon Engineering Society Thomas E. Hutchinson Faculty Awar…