Honors

1. Nominated and selected to attend the Eighth Annual Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium of the National Academy of Engineering, September 25—28, 2016, Irvine, CA.
2. NYU Tandon’s Mechatronics and Control Lab has been designated as “Quanser Center for Excellence” by Quanser Consulting, Inc., Canada. Fall 2015.
3. Invited by the RET Site Program of the National Science Foundation to participate in a Panel at the NSF STEM Forum. V. Kapila and J. Jadav (RET alumni), NSF STEM Forum, Washington, DC, November 9, 2015. “Lessons from a Research Experience for Teachers Site.”
4. Received the 2014 Ray H. Spiess Award given annually to the outstanding ASEE CoED Journal paper on mobile teaching aids and computation techniques. J. Laut, V. Kapila, and M. Iskander, “Exposing Middle School Students to Robotics and Engineering through LEGO and Matlab,” ASEE Computers in Education Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2—13, 2014.
5. Received a 2015 NYU Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Kapila was nominated as a candidate for the award by an ad hoc committee of NYU SoE faculty. The award consists of a medal and a grant of $5,000 to be expended at the discretion of the recipient.
6. Received a 2014 Jacobs Excellence in Education Award at NYU-SoE. The award citation reads in part “Your courses are held in high esteem, and your students appreciate … the professionalism with which you treat them. Your exemplary dedication to education extends beyond the traditional classroom. … You are selfless regarding the needs of your students, who are privileged to have you as their mentor. Your colleagues … are proud to count you as one of their own….” The award carries a grant of $10,000 to be expended at the discretion of the recipient.
7. Invited by the Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Site program personnel at NSF to attend an important workshop to discuss best practices and future directions of the NSF RET in Engineering and Computer Science program. The workshop was conducted on April 28 and 29, 2014. Prof. Kapila collaborated with the RET program personnel at NSF in the planning of the workshop, including inviting participants from K-12 schools, colleges, and industry. Moreover, he presented a plenary talk on NYU Tandon School of Engineering K-12 STEM Education programming and model.
8. Invited to serve as a Member of the Advisory Board for America's Amazing Teen Project, an online competition to identify, honor, and mentor exceptional teens whose discoveries will change the world. The project is receiving support from UPenn, Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and NYU, among others.
9. Received NYU Tandon’s Inaugural Distinguished Award for Excellence in the category Inspiration through Leadership, October 2012.
10. Invited to the U.S. National Science and Engineering Expo, Washington, DC, April 27—29, 2012. Our showcase “Mobile Apps for Robotics,” was one of only 16 NSF-funded research and education projects selected by NSF to be featured at the event.
11. Invited to an NSF/AAAS workshop (October 21, 22, 2011) to develop a GK-12 How to Guide. The Guide was expected to have 12 chapters organized into three sections. Prof. Kapila was invited by the NSF GK-12 Program Manager to coordinate the section on “Sustaining GK-12 Program.” From fall 2011—spring 2012, Prof. Kapila collaborated with the national GK-12 community to coordinate chapters titled: Evaluating Projects (Chapter 9); Communicating Project Success (Chapter 10); Sustainability and Sources of Funding (Chapter 11); and Evidence of Success of the GK–12 Approach (Chapter 12). He is a co-author of the chapter Sustainability and Funding Resources. The 170+ page Guide containing 12 chapters was published in July 2013.
12. Received a 2011 Jacobs Excellence in Education Award at NYU Tandon for “pioneering programs to promote K-12 STEM education and receiving national recognition through an Outstanding Project Award from the National Science Foundation.” The award carries a grant of $10,000 to be expended at the discretion of the recipient.
13. Awarded the 2011 Outstanding Project Award for Efforts in Sustainability and Media by the National Science Foundation at the GK-12 Fellows Project Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, March 13, 2011.
14. Invited to the U.S. National Science and Engineering Expo, Washington, DC, October 23—24, 2010. Our showcase “Mechatronics Mania,” was one of only 15 NSF-funded research and education projects selected by NSF to be featured at the event.
15. Invited to represent our NSF-funded Science and Mechatronics Aided Research for Teachers (SMART) project at the 2010 Teacher Research Experience Conference in Washington, D.C. from October 22-24, 2010. Our project was one of only 55 Teacher Research Experience (TRE) programs invited on behalf of NOAA and its partners, as part of a coordinated effort to share best practices among institutions and programs that provide teacher research experiences for K-20 educators.
16. Invited to speak to the new PIs of National Science Foundation’s GK—12 Fellows Program, March 2010, on “Sustaining GK-12 Projects.”
17. Received a 2008 Jacobs Excellence in Education Award at NYU Tandon for “creating several nationally recognized programs to promote interest among elementary, junior high, and high school students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), critical areas of study for students preparing to compete in an increasingly global economy.” The award carries a grant of $10,000 to be expended at the discretion of the recipient.
18. Selected for a three-year term as a Senior Faculty Fellow of NYU Tandon’s Othmer Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (Fall 2004—Summer 2007).
19. Presented an invited Plenary Lecture titled “Hands-on Mechatronics Education: A Brooklyn Poly Perspective,” at the 17th Florida Conference on the Recent Advances in Robotics held at the University of Central, Orlando, FL, May 2004.
20. Inducted as an eminent engineer in Tau Beta Pi, The Engineering Honor Society, upon invitation from student members of Polytechnic chapter, the NY Rho (November 2003).
21. Invited to represent our “Research Experience for Teachers Site in Mechatronics” at the 2004 NSF Design, Service, and Manufacturing Grantees and Research Conference, January 2004, Dallas, TX and the Research Experience for Teachers (RET) National Conference titled Assessing, Determining, and Measuring the Impacts of the Research Experience (ADMIRE), November 2003, San Francisco, CA.
22. Received the 2003 Distinguished Teacher Award at NYU Tandon. The award carries a grant of $10,000 to be expended at the discretion of the recipient.
23. Received a 2002 Jacobs Innovation Grant at NYU Tandon to develop “A Toolkit for Mechatronics Projects.” The grant provides $10,000 to support our new undergraduate sequence in mechatronics.
24. Received a 2002 Jacobs Excellence in Education Award at NYU Tandon for “demonstrated educational innovation and excellence in creating an internationally recognized web-based control laboratory funded by a National Science Foundation grant.” The award carries a grant of $10,000 to be expended at the discretion of the recipient.
25. Invited to participate in the NSF Showcase with “special focus” on engineering labs and distance education at the American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference, June 2001, Albuquerque, NM. Our showcase title: “Mechatronics/process control remote laboratory.