# Dr. Michael E. Cotterell — Full Academic Context & Site Content

> Comprehensive full-text context index for Dr. Michael E. Cotterell, Principal Lecturer and Undergraduate Coordinator in the School of Computing at the University of Georgia.

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## 1. Biographical Overview & Contact

- **Name**: Dr. Michael E. Cotterell
- **Titles**: Principal Lecturer, Undergraduate Coordinator, Director, CSUA Program, Chair, SoC Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
- **Institution**: University of Georgia (School of Computing)
- **Office**: Boyd Research and Education Center, Room 812
- **Email**: mepcott@uga.edu
- **ORCID**: 0000-0002-4302-0891
- **GitHub**: https://github.com/mepcotterell
- **Google Scholar**: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Kh7mlU8AAAAJ

Michael E. Cotterell, Ph.D. 2017, is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Georgia where he explores the intersection of open science and computer science education. He is also Director of the Computer Science Undergraduate Assistant (CSUA) Program.

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## 2. Teaching & Instructional Philosophy

### Philosophy Statement
My teaching philosophy reflects a long-term goal to integrate open science, active open educational resources (OER), and peer-based active learning in a way that facilitates effective, low-anxiety computer science education at scale so that as many students as possible can actively engage in discipline-specific activities while learning.

### Computer Science Undergraduate Assistants (CSUA) Program
**Director** — Computer Science Undergraduate Assistant (CSUA) Program
Directs the departmental CSUA program, training and mentoring undergraduate teaching assistants to support active learning, lab facilitation, and peer tutoring across lower-division computer science courses.
Program URL: https://cs.uga.edu/CSUA

### Courses Taught

#### CSCI 1300: Introduction to Programming with Python (Undergraduate)
An introduction to algorithmic problem solving using the Python programming language: objects, values, types, expressions, simple statements, compound statements, inputs, and outputs, intended for anyone interested in learning how to program.
Syllabus archive: https://cs.uga.edu/courses/csci-1300
#### CSCI 1301: Introduction to Computing and Programming (Undergraduate)
Introduction to algorithmic problem solving, procedural and object-oriented programming in Java, fundamental data types, control structures, methods, arrays, classes, and software testing.
Syllabus archive: https://cs.uga.edu/courses/csci-1301
#### CSCI 1302: Software Development (Undergraduate)
Software development techniques in an object-oriented language (Java) emphasizing systems methods, top-down design, unit testing, modularity, GUI design, streams, and structured techniques.
Syllabus archive: https://cs1302uga.github.io/
#### CSCI 1730: Systems Programming (Undergraduate)
Introduction to systems-level programming in C/C++ on UNIX/Linux platforms, process control, system calls, memory management, and socket programming.
#### CSCI 2610: Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science (Undergraduate)
Fundamental mathematical tools used in computer science: sets, logic, inductive proofs, recurrences, combinatorics, discrete probability, and graph theory.
#### CSCI 3030 / 3030E: Computing, Ethics, and Society (Undergraduate)
Social and ethical issues relating to computer science and information technology: privacy, intellectual property, open source, the digital divide, professional ethics, and current events.
Syllabus archive: /cs3030/2020su/schedule.html
#### CSCI 4300: Web Programming (Undergraduate)
Client-server web architectures, dynamic DOM manipulation, REST APIs, full-stack web applications, asynchronous JavaScript, and backend integration.
#### CSCI 4760 / 6760: Computer Networks (Undergraduate / Graduate)
Introduction to computer networks, focusing on the Internet architecture, protocol layering, application-layer protocols, transport layer (TCP/UDP), network layer (IP routing), link layer protocols, local area networks, network security, and network programming.
#### CSCI 4800 / 6800: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) (Undergraduate / Graduate)
Design, development, and evaluation of user interfaces for computer systems. Concepts in human factors, usability, and interface design, and the effects of human capabilities and limitations on interaction.
Syllabus archive: /hci/2023sp/index.html

### Teaching Awards & Fellowships

- **2024**: Teaching Excellence in Computer Science Award (School of Computing, University of Georgia) — Recognizing sustained instructional excellence and curricular leadership in computer science education.
- **2023**: Inducted Member, University of Georgia Teaching Academy (University of Georgia Teaching Academy) — Inducted on November 9, 2023 as one of 16 university-wide faculty members in recognition of outstanding commitment to teaching and pedagogical leadership.
- **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)) — Paper: Forecasting Traffic Flow: Short Term, Long Term, and When It Rains
- **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)

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## 3. Research & Sponsored Grants

### Research Overview
Exploring computing education at different scales, open educational resources and scientific data frameworks, educational psychometric models, and education-focussed human-computer interaction.

### Core Research Thrusts
- **Computer Science Education & SoTL**: Active learning techniques, peer-assisted learning through CSUA, and low-anxiety scalable computing curricula.
- **Open Science & Big Data**: Integration of semantic web technologies, provenance ontologies, and open scientific workflow modeling.
- **Human-Computer Interaction**: Usability, user experience evaluation, interactive learning environments, and accessible design.

### Funded Grants & Sponsored Projects

#### Continuous Improvement Grant: Supporting Content ($6,820)
- **Role**: Principal Investigator
- **Funder**: Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), University System of Georgia (Affordable Materials Grant, Round 28)
- **Investigators**: Michael E. Cotterell (PI), Bradley J. Barnes (Co-PI)
- **Duration**: 2026 – 2026
- **Description**: Developing additional interactive supporting content, assessments, and pedagogical extensions for open computer science curriculum materials.

#### Continuous Improvement Grant: Lesson Plans ($4,000)
- **Role**: Co-Principal Investigator
- **Funder**: Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), University System of Georgia (Affordable Materials Grant, Round 28)
- **Investigators**: Bradley J. Barnes (PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI)
- **Duration**: 2026 – 2026
- **Description**: Designing active-learning lesson plans and structured classroom activities aligned with open educational resources for software development.

#### Continuous Improvement Grant: Website and Porting ($8,670)
- **Role**: Principal Investigator
- **Funder**: Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), University System of Georgia (Affordable Materials Grant, Round 26)
- **Investigators**: Michael E. Cotterell (PI), Bradley J. Barnes (Co-PI)
- **Duration**: 2025 – 2025
- **Description**: Porting and modernizing web infrastructure and interactive digital textbook platforms for open-access software development education.

#### Continuous Improvement Grant: In-section Review Questions ($8,670)
- **Role**: Co-Principal Investigator
- **Funder**: Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), University System of Georgia (Affordable Materials Grant, Round 26)
- **Investigators**: Bradley J. Barnes (PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI)
- **Duration**: 2025 – 2025
- **Description**: 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 ($899,995)
- **Role**: Co-Principal Investigator
- **Funder**: Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education (Statistical and Research Methodology in Education (IES FY22))
- **Investigators**: Matthew J. Madison (PI), Minjeong Jeon (Co-PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI)
- **Duration**: July 2022 – June 2025
- **Description**: 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 ($60,000)
- **Role**: Co-Principal Investigator
- **Funder**: Center for Inclusive Computing (CIC), Northeastern University (Diagnostic Grant)
- **Investigators**: Thiab R. Taha (PI), Bradley J. Barnes (Co-PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI), Manijeh Keshtgari (Co-PI), Eman Saleh (Co-PI)
- **Duration**: August 2021 – July 2023
- **Description**: Investigating lower-division undergraduate computer science retention and structural curricular pathways to foster diversity and equity in computing.

#### Interdisciplinary Data Science for All ($25,000)
- **Role**: Co-Principal Investigator
- **Funder**: Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), University of Georgia (FY22 Learning Technologies Grant (LTG))
- **Investigators**: Shannon Quinn (PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI)
- **Duration**: July 2021 – June 2022
- **Description**: Developing interactive instructional tools and scalable pedagogical infrastructure for cross-disciplinary data science education across UGA.

#### Open & Active Course Materials for Software Development ($10,800)
- **Role**: Principal Investigator
- **Funder**: Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG), University System of Georgia (Textbook Transformation Grant, Round 14)
- **Investigators**: Michael E. Cotterell (PI), Bradley J. Barnes (Co-PI)
- **Duration**: May 2019 – July 2020
- **Description**: 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 ($5,000)
- **Role**: Co-Principal Investigator
- **Funder**: Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, University of Georgia (Provost’s Affordable Course Materials Grant)
- **Investigators**: Bradley J. Barnes (PI), Michael E. Cotterell (Co-PI)
- **Duration**: May 2019 – July 2019
- **Description**: Developing open educational resources and web tutorials that completely replace proprietary textbooks for hundreds of undergraduate CS students each semester.


### Student Research Supervision & Advisory Committees

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

#### Graduate Supervised Research
- **Matthew Pooser** (2020): MS in Computer Science
- **Matthew Chapman** (2020): MS in Computer Science

#### Undergraduate Mentored Research
- **Mohammed Khuffash** (2025): Undergraduate Mentored Research
- **Adriana Godamunne** (2024, 2026): Undergraduate Mentored Research
- **Jack Henry Forthman** (2024): Undergraduate Mentored Research
- **John Medlock** (2024): Undergraduate Mentored Research
- **Mitchell Casleton** (2021, 2022, 2023): Undergraduate Mentored Research
- **Alicia Pitts** (2023): Undergraduate Mentored Research
- **Marianne Delgado** (2022): Undergraduate Mentored Research
- **Isha Naidu** (2022): Undergraduate Mentored Research
- **Neha Kattoju** (2022): Undergraduate Mentored Research
- **Michael Runyan** (2018, 2020): Directed Study (BS in Biological Sciences Engineering, Minor in CS)
- **Dray Delosier** (2020): Directed Study
- **Bailey Nelson** (2020): Directed Study (BS in CS)
- **Yimin Yan** (2020): Directed Study (BS in CS & BBA in MIS)
- **Ziwei Wang** (2020): Directed Study (BS in CS)
- **Kevin Bonanno** (2019): Directed Study (ScalaTion Kernel) (BBA in MIS, Minor in CS)
- **Dat Le-Phan** (2018): Directed Study (ScalaTion Kernel) (BS in CS)

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## 4. Publications, Software & Educational Artifacts

### Books & Open Textbooks
- **CSCI 1302 Software Development (The Book)** (2025). Authors: Michael E. Cotterell, Bradley J. Barnes. Publisher: School of Computing, University of Georgia. URL: https://cs1302book.com/

### Refereed Journal Articles
- **Variational Bayesian Inference for a Q-Matrix-Free Hidden Markov Log-Linear Additive Cognitive Diagnostic Model** (2025). Authors: Hao Duan, James Tang, Matthew J. Madison, Michael E. Cotterell, Minjeong Jeon. *Algorithms*, 18(11), pp. 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). Authors: 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), pp. 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). Authors: 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). DOI: 10.1186/s40594-024-00475-6
- **The Effects of Measurement and Structural Model Misspecifications in Longitudinal Diagnostic Classification Models** (2024). Authors: Matthew J. Madison, Minjeong Jeon, A. Moore, S. Zor, M. Fager, L. Maas, S. Haab, Michael E. Cotterell. *Manuscript in Preparation / Under Review*. DOI: undefined
- **Automated Predictive Big Data Analytics Using Ontology Based Semantics** (2015). Authors: Mustafa V. Nural, Michael E. Cotterell, Hao Peng, Rui Xie, Ping Ma, John A. Miller. *International Journal of Big Data (IJBD)*, 2(2), pp. 43-56. DOI: 10.29268/stbd.2015.2.2.4

### Conference Proceedings
- **Forecasting Traffic Flow: Short Term, Long Term, and When It Rains** (2018). Authors: Hao Peng, S. U. Bobade, Michael E. Cotterell, John A. Miller. In *Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE International Congress on Big Data (BIGDATACONGRESS 2018)*, pp. 57-71. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-94301-5_5
- **Adding Support for Theory in Open Science Big Data** (2017). Authors: John A. Miller, Hao Peng, Michael E. Cotterell. In *Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE World Congress on Services (SERVICES 2017)*, pp. 71-75. DOI: 10.1109/SERVICES.2017.20
- **Using Semantics in Predictive Big Data Analytics** (2015). Authors: Mustafa V. Nural, Michael E. Cotterell, John A. Miller. In *Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE International Congress on Big Data (BIGDATACONGRESS 2015)*, pp. 254-261. DOI: 10.1109/BigDataCongress.2015.43
- **Supporting a Modeling Continuum in ScalaTion: From Predictive Analytics to Simulation Modeling** (2013). Authors: John A. Miller, Michael E. Cotterell, Stephen J. Buckley. In *Proceedings of the 2013 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC 2013)*, pp. 1191-1202. DOI: 10.1109/WSC.2013.6721507
- **An Economic Model for Distributed Energy Prosumers** (2013). Authors: Qun Sun, Aaron Beach, Michael E. Cotterell, Z. Wu, Santiago Grijalva. In *Proceedings of the 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2013)*, pp. 2103-2112. DOI: 10.1109/HICSS.2013.81
- **The Fundamental Value of Information and Strategy in Stochastic Management of Distributed Energy Storage** (2012). Authors: Qun Sun, Michael E. Cotterell, Aaron Beach, Santiago Grijalva. In *Proceedings of the 2012 North American Power Symposium (NAPS 2012)*, pp. 1-6. DOI: 10.1109/NAPS.2012.6336385
- **Towards a Cloud Infrastructure for Energy Informatics** (2012). Authors: Z. Wu, Michael E. Cotterell, S. Qin, Aaron Beach, Santiago Grijalva. In *Proceedings of the 2012 Energy Informatics Conference (EI 2012)*. DOI: N/A
- **Facilitating Knowledge Sharing and Analysis in Energy Informatics with the Ontology for Energy Investigations (OEI)** (2012). Authors: Michael E. Cotterell, J. Zheng, S. Qin, Z. Wu, C. Champlin, Aaron Beach. In *Proceedings of the 2012 Energy Informatics Conference (EI 2012)*. DOI: N/A
- **Suggestions for Galaxy Workflow Design Using Semantically Annotated Services** (2012). Authors: A. Dhamanaskar, Michael E. Cotterell, J. Zheng, Jessica C. Kissinger, C. J. Stoeckert Jr., John A. Miller. In *Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS 2012)*, pp. 29-42. DOI: 10.3233/978-1-61499-084-0-29

### Open Source Software & Packages
- **Code Visualizer (cs1302-code-visualizer)** (2025). Authors: G. Livengood, Michael E. Cotterell, Bradley J. Barnes. Repository: https://github.com/cs1302uga/cs1302-code-visualizer (MIT license). Interactive execution visualizer for CS1302 software development concepts.
- **Tracer (cs1302-tracer)** (2025). Authors: G. Livengood, Michael E. Cotterell, Bradley J. Barnes. Repository: https://github.com/cs1302uga/cs1302-tracer (MIT license). Program tracer and stepping utility for beginner and intermediate programmers.
- **TDCM: The Transition Diagnostic Classification Model Framework** (2024). Authors: Matthew J. Madison, S. Haab, Minjeong Jeon, Michael E. Cotterell. Repository: https://cotterell.github.io/tdcm (MIT license). Comprehensive R package on CRAN implementing transition diagnostic classification models for longitudinal assessment.
- **ScalaTion Kernel (scalation-kernel)** (2019). Authors: Michael E. Cotterell, S. Kulkarni, Kevin Bonanno, Dat Le-Phan. Repository: https://pypi.org/project/scalation-kernel/ (MIT license). Jupyter Notebook kernel for ScalaTion Big Data analytics and simulation DSL.

### Open Educational Resources (OER)
- **CSCI 1302 Software Development (The Book)** (2025). Authors: Michael E. Cotterell, Bradley J. Barnes. URL: https://cs1302book.com/
- **CSCI 1302 Code Style Guide** (2019). Authors: Michael E. Cotterell, Bradley J. Barnes. URL: https://github.com/cs1302uga/cs1302-styleguide
- **CSCI 1302 Tutorials** (2019). Authors: Michael E. Cotterell, Bradley J. Barnes. URL: https://github.com/cs1302uga/cs1302-tutorials
- **CSCI 1302 Class Exercises** (2019). Authors: Michael E. Cotterell, Bradley J. Barnes. URL: https://github.com/cs1302uga/cs1302-exercises

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## 5. Academic Service & Leadership

### University & Campus Governance
- **Executive Committee Member**: Teaching Academy Executive Committee (Fall 2025 – Present)
- **Executive Committee Member**: University Council Executive Committee (Summer 2025 – Present)
- **Co-Facilitator**: Teaching Academy Early Career Fellows Program (Fall 2024 – Present)
- **Member**: University Council (July 2020 – Present)
- **SoC Representative / Member**: Computer Science Endorsement Team (with Mary Frances Early College of Education) (Fall 2023 – Summer 2024)
- **Affiliate Member**: Engineering Education Transformations Institute (EETI), College of Engineering (2025 – Present)
- **Affiliate Member**: Scientists Engaged in Educational Research (SEER) Center (2019 – Present)

### Departmental & School Leadership
- **Undergraduate Coordinator**: School of Computing (Fall 2023 – 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 (2018 – Present)
- **Data Science Contact Person**: School of Computing (2021 – Present)
- **Member**: SoC ABET Assessment Committee & Program Review Committee (2021 – Present)
- **Member**: CS Catalyzing Action Team (CAT) & Instructional Action Team (IAT), DeLTA Project (NSF #1821023) (2018 – Present)

### Conference Program Committees & Organization
- **Program Committee Member (Experience Reports & Tools)**: 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2024) (2024) • Portland, OR
- **Program Committee Member (Position & Curricula Initiatives)**: 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2023) (2023) • Toronto, Canada
- **Program Committee Member (Papers)**: 25th Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2020) (2020) • Trondheim, Norway
- **Program Committee Member (Data Science Track)**: 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Systems (ICICS 2020) (2020) • Irbid, Jordan
- **Program Committee Member**: 2020 Southern Data Science Conference (SDSC 2020) (2020) • Atlanta, GA
- **Program Committee Member (Workshops)**: 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2020) (2020) • Portland, OR
- **Workshop Co-Chair**: 4th Open Science in Big Data Workshop (OSBD 2019), IEEE BigData'19 (2019) • Los Angeles, CA
- **Program Committee Member**: 2019 International Conference on Web Services (ICWS 2019) (2019) • San Diego, CA
- **Research Track Steering Committee Member**: 2019 Southern Data Science Conference (SDSC 2019) (2019) • Atlanta, GA
- **Program Committee Member (Workshops & Student Research Competition)**: 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2019) (2019) • Minneapolis, MN
- **Program Committee Member**: 3rd Open Science in Big Data Workshop (OSBD 2018), IEEE BigData'18 (2018) • Seattle, WA
- **Program Committee Member**: 2018 Southern Data Science Conference (SDSC 2018) (2018) • Atlanta, GA
- **Program Committee Member (Workshops)**: 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2018) (2018) • Baltimore, MD
- **Program Committee Member**: 2nd Open Science in Big Data Workshop (OSBD 2017), IEEE BigData'17 (2017) • Boston, MA

### Grant Review Panels & Manuscript Evaluation
- **Grant Review Panelist**: National Science Foundation (NSF) (2018, 2020)
- **Ad Hoc Manuscript Reviewer**: ACM Inroads Magazine (2020); PLOS ONE Journal (2018, 2019) (2018 – 2020)

### Student Organization Sponsorship
- **Faculty Sponsor**: UGA Hacks (University Hackathons), UGA DevDogs, UGA Esports
- **Judging & Mentorship**: UGA Hacks 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (2016–2021); Demosthenian & Phi Kappa Debate (2019)
- **Coach**: UGA ACM-ICPC Competitive Programming Team (Fall 2012 & Fall 2015)
- **Invited Panelist**: ACM Student Research Panel (Feb 2023), Data for Good Automation Panel (Feb 2020), Facial Recognition Panel (Nov 2019)

### Professional Society Memberships
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- ACM Special Interest Group on Computers & Society (SIGCAS)
- ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI)
- ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE)

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## 6. Articles & Writing Collections

### Coffee Musings
*Published: August 26, 2017 • URL: https://michaelcotterell.com/articles/coffee-musings/*

Coffee has always been an essential part of my daily routine, especially during intensive research and teaching preparation periods.

Over the years, exploring various brew methods—from pour-overs using Chemex and V60 to aeropress and espresso—has become both a scientific study in extraction variables and an enjoyable morning ritual.

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### Launching CSCI 1300: Intro to Programming with Python
*Published: April 4, 2020 • URL: https://michaelcotterell.com/articles/csci-1300/*

CSCI 1300 provides students from across UGA with a rigorous yet approachable entry point into algorithmic problem solving, computational thinking, and software design using Python.

The course emphasizes interactive coding exercises, hands-on lab projects, and practical applications in data analysis and automation.

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### Spring 2020 Directed Study Highlights
*Published: February 14, 2020 • URL: https://michaelcotterell.com/articles/directed-study-spring-2020/*

Mentoring undergraduate researchers is one of the most rewarding parts of academic life. In Spring 2020, students are exploring scalable interactive computing environments and open science tooling to support educational computing at scale.

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### Got My PhD!
*Published: December 28, 2017 • URL: https://michaelcotterell.com/articles/got-my-phd/*

I did it. I got my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Georgia in December 2017! It was a long time coming – I started the program in Fall 2011; however, it feels really good to be done with that particular part of my life.

## Dedication

My dissertation is dedicated to my parents, John and Emily, and to my Aunt and Uncle, Sheila and Jim.

## Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all those who, over the years, have helped me progress towards the completion of my doctoral degree. This includes my lab mates, Mustafa, Hao, and Nick, as well as my colleague Xiaoxiao, who all contributed directly to different aspects of my research. While too numerous to enumerate, this also includes the other lab mates, close friends, family members, and lizard people (i.e., my Tuesday trivia group) who helped keep me motivated towards the completion of my goals.

I would also like to thank Ping Ma for his guidance on the statistical aspects of my dissertation, especially the parts related to functional data analysis. I would like to thank my committee members, Maria Hybinette, Yi Hong, and Thiab Taha for their guidance. Their wise and generous constructive criticism was extremely helpful. Without their feedback, this dissertation would not have been possible.

I would like to especially thank my major professor, John A. Miller. He served as my faculty advisor during my undergrad and suggested that I take a directed study course under him. I did. That directed study was the catalyst that propelled me toward research in computer science. In my opinion, John’s general approach to problem solving and teaching is a healthy balance between pragmatism and practicality, both of which have been nothing less than inspirational. It has been an honor and a privilege working with him.

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### Developing CSCI 3030E: Online Computing, Ethics, and Society
*Published: August 17, 2019 • URL: https://michaelcotterell.com/articles/online-cs-ethics/*

As an Online Learning Fellow, I spent substantial time designing CSCI 3030E (Computing, Ethics, and Society) to ensure rich student discussions translate effectively into asynchronous and hybrid online modalities.

Topics include algorithmic bias, intellectual property, open source stewardship, privacy rights, and the ethical responsibilities of software engineers in modern industry.

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### The 4th Open Science in Big Data Workshop (OSBD 2019)
*Published: September 1, 2019 • URL: https://michaelcotterell.com/articles/osbd-2019/*

We are excited to organize the 4th Open Science in Big Data Workshop (OSBD 2019), held in conjunction with IEEE BigData 2019 in Los Angeles, California.

The workshop brings together researchers and practitioners interested in reproducible data science, semantic provenance, open educational resources, and big data infrastructures.

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### Website Redesign & Modernization
*Published: May 30, 2019 • URL: https://michaelcotterell.com/articles/site-redesign/*

Over the summer, I undertook a complete redesign of my website to ensure easier navigation for students looking for course syllabi, research papers, and office hours.

Key improvements included mobile responsiveness, accessible typography, clear separation of teaching resources, and streamlined publication listings with direct DOI and preprint badges.

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