Profs' ingenuity saves students $100,000 in textbook costs

The Ohio Board of Regents recognized in March MSE professors Pete Anderson and Kathy Flores as among Ohio’s best faculty in developing innovative ways to improve learning while reducing the cost of materials.

Anderson (left) and Flores developed digital content for three engineering courses that included online lectures, interactive online homework, wireless student feedback devices that permit assessment of student comprehension, and the introduction of 3D glasses to understand the three-dimensional nature of crystal structures. It’s estimated that these creative teaching tools saved the nearly 700 students enrolled in the courses a total of $100,000 that they would have needed to spend on traditional textbooks.

The Board of Regents recognized their creativity by selecting them among the 10 winners of the University System of Ohio’s 2011 Faculty Innovator Award.

Anderson holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University. He joined MSE in 1988 after serving as a postdoctoral research assistant at Cambridge University for two years.

Flores (left) holds a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Stanford University. She joined MSE in 2002 after getting a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington and a master’s degree in materials science and engineering from Stanford.

The courses that benefitted from the digital content developed by Anderson and Flores were “Materials Science and Engineering,” “Preparation for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam,” and “Materials Science Engineering.”

 University System of Ohio faculty were nominated for the annual award by colleagues or students aware of each professor's course materials and the impact they had on student savings.