Michael E. Cotterell
Michael E. Cotterell Principal Lecturer • UGA SoC

Michael E. Cotterell, Ph.D.

Principal Lecturer & Undergraduate Coordinator • School of Computing, University of Georgia

Academic Positions & Appointments

  • Principal Lecturer (August 2026 – Present)
    School of Computing, University of Georgia
  • Senior Lecturer (August 2021 – August 2026)
    School of Computing, University of Georgia
  • Lecturer (January 2018 – August 2021)
    Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia
  • Lecturer (Limited Term) (August 2017 – December 2017)
    Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia
  • Instructor (Limited Term) (August 2015 – August 2017)
    Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia

Affiliate Appointments

  • • Affiliate Member: Engineering Education Transformations Institute (EETI), College of Engineering (2025–Present)
  • • Affiliate Member: Scientists Engaged in Educational Research (SEER) Center (2019–Present)

Administrative & Curricular Leadership

  • Undergraduate Coordinator: School of Computing, University of Georgia (Fall 2023 – Present)
  • Executive Committee Member: University Council Executive Committee (Summer 2025 – Present)
  • Executive Committee Member: Teaching Academy Executive Committee (Fall 2025 – Present)
  • Co-Facilitator: Teaching Academy Early Career Fellows Program (Fall 2024 – Present)
  • Director: Computer Science Undergraduate Assistant (CSUA) Experiential Learning Program (2019 – Present)
  • Faculty Sponsor: UGAHacks Hackers Experiential Learning Program (2021 – Present)
  • Chair & Member: Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, School of Computing (2021 – Present)
  • Course Coordinator: Lower-Division School of Computing Courses CSCI 1300, 1301, 1302 (2018 – Present)

Education

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science (December 2017)
    University of Georgia, Athens, GA
    Dissertation: Supporting Open Science in Big Data Frameworks and Data Science Education
    Major Professor / Advisor: Dr. John A. Miller
  • B.S. in Computer Science (May 2011)
    University of Georgia, Athens, GA

Funded Grants & Sponsored Projects

Total Funding: $1,028,955
Continuous Improvement Grant: Supporting Content 2026 – 2026
Principal Investigator (Michael E. Cotterell (PI), Bradley J. Barnes (Co-PI)) • Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), University System of Georgia (Affordable Materials Grant, Round 28) • $$6,820

Developing additional interactive supporting content, assessments, and pedagogical extensions for open computer science curriculum materials.

Continuous Improvement Grant: Lesson Plans 2026 – 2026
Co-Principal Investigator (Bradley J. Barnes (PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI)) • Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), University System of Georgia (Affordable Materials Grant, Round 28) • $$4,000

Designing active-learning lesson plans and structured classroom activities aligned with open educational resources for software development.

Continuous Improvement Grant: Website and Porting 2025 – 2025
Principal Investigator (Michael E. Cotterell (PI), Bradley J. Barnes (Co-PI)) • Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), University System of Georgia (Affordable Materials Grant, Round 26) • $$8,670

Porting and modernizing web infrastructure and interactive digital textbook platforms for open-access software development education.

Continuous Improvement Grant: In-section Review Questions 2025 – 2025
Co-Principal Investigator (Bradley J. Barnes (PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI)) • Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), University System of Georgia (Affordable Materials Grant, Round 26) • $$8,670

Integrating formative interactive assessment and inline self-check questions directly into open textbook chapters for immediate student feedback.

Generalized, Multilevel, and Longitudinal Psychometric Models for Evaluating Educational Interventions July 2022 – June 2025
Co-Principal Investigator (Matthew J. Madison (PI), Minjeong Jeon (Co-PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI)) • Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education (Statistical and Research Methodology in Education (IES FY22)) • $$899,995

Advancing longitudinal and multilevel psychometric evaluation frameworks and open computational diagnostic toolsets for complex educational interventions and scalable learning environments.

Center for Inclusive Computing Diagnostic Grant August 2021 – July 2023
Co-Principal Investigator (Thiab R. Taha (PI), Bradley J. Barnes (Co-PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI), Manijeh Keshtgari (Co-PI), Eman Saleh (Co-PI)) • Center for Inclusive Computing (CIC), Northeastern University (Diagnostic Grant) • $$60,000

Investigating lower-division undergraduate computer science retention and structural curricular pathways to foster diversity and equity in computing.

Interdisciplinary Data Science for All July 2021 – June 2022
Co-Principal Investigator (Shannon Quinn (PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI)) • Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), University of Georgia (FY22 Learning Technologies Grant (LTG)) • $$25,000

Developing interactive instructional tools and scalable pedagogical infrastructure for cross-disciplinary data science education across UGA.

Open & Active Course Materials for Software Development May 2019 – July 2020
Principal Investigator (Michael E. Cotterell (PI), Bradley J. Barnes (Co-PI)) • Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), University System of Georgia (Textbook Transformation Grant, Round 14) • $$10,800

Creating and maintaining open-access, interactive course materials and software tutorials to eliminate textbook costs for students in CSCI 1302 Software Development.

Creation of Interactive Tutorials to Replace Current Text in CSCI 1302 Software Development May 2019 – July 2019
Co-Principal Investigator (Bradley J. Barnes (PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI)) • Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, University of Georgia (Provost’s Affordable Course Materials Grant) • $$5,000

Developing open educational resources and web tutorials that completely replace proprietary textbooks for hundreds of undergraduate CS students each semester.

Honors, Fellowships & Teaching Awards

  • 2024: Teaching Excellence in Computer Science Award — School of Computing, University of Georgia
  • 2023: Inducted Member, University of Georgia Teaching Academy — University of Georgia Teaching Academy
  • 2019: Teaching Academy Fellow — Teaching Academy, University of Georgia
  • 2019: Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (Finalist) — Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia
  • 2018: Best Student Paper Award — IEEE International Congress on Big Data (BigData'18)
  • 2018: Online Learning Fellow — Office of Online Learning, University of Georgia
  • 2018: Writing Fellow — Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Georgia
  • 2018: Teaching Excellence in Computer Science Award — Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia
  • 2016: Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award — Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia

Authored Books & Textbooks

  • CSCI 1302 Software Development (The Book) (2025)
    Michael E. Cotterell, Bradley J. Barnes • School of Computing, University of Georgia
    https://cs1302book.com/

Journal Publications

  • Variational Bayesian Inference for a Q-Matrix-Free Hidden Markov Log-Linear Additive Cognitive Diagnostic Model (2025)
    Hao Duan, James Tang, Matthew J. Madison, Michael E. Cotterell, Minjeong Jeon — Algorithms 18(11):675
    DOI: 10.3390/a18110675
  • Switching within STEM: Examining the motivational concerns that college students report considering when changing career plans within STEM fields (2025)
    Emily Q. Rosenzweig, Yuchen Song, Xiao-Yin Chen, Amy Baldwin, Michael M. Barger, Michael E. Cotterell, Jonathan A. Dees, Allison S. Injaian, Jennifer R. Walker, Craig C. Wiegert, Nandana Weliweriya, Paula P. Lemons — Journal of Educational Psychology 117(5):832-849
    DOI: 10.1037/edu0000939
  • Beyond STEM attrition: changing career plans within STEM fields in college is associated with lower motivation, certainty, and satisfaction about one’s career (2024)
    Emily Q. Rosenzweig, Xiao-Yin Chen, Yuchen Song, Amy Baldwin, Michael M. Barger, Michael E. Cotterell, Jonathan A. Dees, Allison S. Injaian, Nandana Weliweriya, Jennifer R. Walker, Craig C. Wiegert, Paula P. Lemons — International Journal of STEM Education 11(1):undefined
    DOI: 10.1186/s40594-024-00475-6
  • The Effects of Measurement and Structural Model Misspecifications in Longitudinal Diagnostic Classification Models (2024)
    Matthew J. Madison, Minjeong Jeon, A. Moore, S. Zor, M. Fager, L. Maas, S. Haab, Michael E. Cotterell — Manuscript in Preparation / Under Review
  • Automated Predictive Big Data Analytics Using Ontology Based Semantics (2015)
    Mustafa V. Nural, Michael E. Cotterell, Hao Peng, Rui Xie, Ping Ma, John A. Miller — International Journal of Big Data (IJBD) 2(2):43-56
    DOI: 10.29268/stbd.2015.2.2.4

Scholarly Conference Proceedings

  • Forecasting Traffic Flow: Short Term, Long Term, and When It Rains (2018)
    Hao Peng, S. U. Bobade, Michael E. Cotterell, John A. Miller — Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE International Congress on Big Data (BIGDATACONGRESS 2018)
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-94301-5_5
  • Adding Support for Theory in Open Science Big Data (2017)
    John A. Miller, Hao Peng, Michael E. Cotterell — Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE World Congress on Services (SERVICES 2017)
    DOI: 10.1109/SERVICES.2017.20
  • Using Semantics in Predictive Big Data Analytics (2015)
    Mustafa V. Nural, Michael E. Cotterell, John A. Miller — Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE International Congress on Big Data (BIGDATACONGRESS 2015)
    DOI: 10.1109/BigDataCongress.2015.43
  • Supporting a Modeling Continuum in ScalaTion: From Predictive Analytics to Simulation Modeling (2013)
    John A. Miller, Michael E. Cotterell, Stephen J. Buckley — Proceedings of the 2013 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC 2013)
    DOI: 10.1109/WSC.2013.6721507
  • An Economic Model for Distributed Energy Prosumers (2013)
    Qun Sun, Aaron Beach, Michael E. Cotterell, Z. Wu, Santiago Grijalva — Proceedings of the 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2013)
    DOI: 10.1109/HICSS.2013.81
  • The Fundamental Value of Information and Strategy in Stochastic Management of Distributed Energy Storage (2012)
    Qun Sun, Michael E. Cotterell, Aaron Beach, Santiago Grijalva — Proceedings of the 2012 North American Power Symposium (NAPS 2012)
    DOI: 10.1109/NAPS.2012.6336385
  • Towards a Cloud Infrastructure for Energy Informatics (2012)
    Z. Wu, Michael E. Cotterell, S. Qin, Aaron Beach, Santiago Grijalva — Proceedings of the 2012 Energy Informatics Conference (EI 2012)
  • Facilitating Knowledge Sharing and Analysis in Energy Informatics with the Ontology for Energy Investigations (OEI) (2012)
    Michael E. Cotterell, J. Zheng, S. Qin, Z. Wu, C. Champlin, Aaron Beach — Proceedings of the 2012 Energy Informatics Conference (EI 2012)
  • Suggestions for Galaxy Workflow Design Using Semantically Annotated Services (2012)
    A. Dhamanaskar, Michael E. Cotterell, J. Zheng, Jessica C. Kissinger, C. J. Stoeckert Jr., John A. Miller — Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS 2012)
    DOI: 10.3233/978-1-61499-084-0-29

Software Packages & Open Source Frameworks

Code Visualizer (cs1302-code-visualizer) (2025)
G. Livengood, Michael E. Cotterell, Bradley J. Barnes • GitHub (MIT)

Interactive execution visualizer for CS1302 software development concepts.

Tracer (cs1302-tracer) (2025)
G. Livengood, Michael E. Cotterell, Bradley J. Barnes • GitHub (MIT)

Program tracer and stepping utility for beginner and intermediate programmers.

TDCM: The Transition Diagnostic Classification Model Framework (2024)
Matthew J. Madison, S. Haab, Minjeong Jeon, Michael E. Cotterell • CRAN (MIT)

Comprehensive R package on CRAN implementing transition diagnostic classification models for longitudinal assessment.

ScalaTion Kernel (scalation-kernel) (2019)
Michael E. Cotterell, S. Kulkarni, Kevin Bonanno, Dat Le-Phan • PyPI / Zenodo (MIT)

Jupyter Notebook kernel for ScalaTion Big Data analytics and simulation DSL.

Graduate Student Advisory Committees

Yalini Nadar — MS (Non-Thesis) in Computer Science (2023 – 2024)
Initial Placement: Associate Application Developer, ADP
Jeongah Shin — Ph.D. in Polymer, Fiber, and Textile Sciences (2021 – 2024)
Initial Placement: Assistant Professor, Educator of Marketing, University of Cincinnati
Caleb Adams — MS (Thesis) in Computer Science (2019 – 2020)
Initial Placement: Senior Software Engineer R&D, NASA

Curriculum Vitae Sections & Portfolios

• On this page: Overview ↓