James L. Hollis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
This award was established in 1971. The Engineering Honors and Awards Committee makes the selection based on the following criteria:
- Innovation in course development, laboratory development and classroom instruction;
- Well-respected by students and colleagues; and
- Demonstrated competence and enthusiasm for instruction.
Awardees receive a $2,500 cash prize.
Criteria for nomination
The nomination process is coordinated by the department head or department awards committee. Nomination packets include the following items of support for the nominee:
- Letter of nomination (can include comments/input from peers and students).
- Current curriculum vitae.
- Summary of outstanding instruction in undergraduate courses that address the following:
- All undergraduate courses taught within the last two years (include course number, title, credit hours/contact hours and number of students enrolled).
- Use the included form: Summary of courses taught.
- Include TEVAL summaries of the above undergraduate classes. Include course number and title, term, number of students and TEVAL summary scores.
- Use the included form: Student ratings of classroom instruction.
- All undergraduate courses taught within the last two years (include course number, title, credit hours/contact hours and number of students enrolled).
- One-page (maximum) statement that addresses:
- Nominee's teaching philosophy.
- List of other undergraduate educational contributions made by the nominee within the last two years, such as advising student organizations, undergraduate research and/or other creative inquiry activity, major course/instructional enhancements, educational grants/contracts, workshops, professional society engagement and other related scholarship. Do not include general student curricular advising.
Current recipient
Parth Panchmatia
This year’s recipient is Parth Panchmatia, assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering.
Since joining K-State in 2019, he has taught a wide range of civil engineering courses, restructured a senior-level course into the sophomore-level CE 241 and developed three one-credit courses, CE 501, CE 502 and CE 503, helping ensure the civil engineering curriculum covers all topics on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam.
Panchmatia received the college’s 2024 Dean’s Award of Excellence for Teaching and consistently earns strong student evaluations.