As part of the Kosove endowment, Harri and Ruth designated funds to create a professorship to recognize USF professors whose careers have brought them national distinction in teaching and service.
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In 2010, the Kosove society and the Kosove alumni began the initial stages of bringing this professorship to fruition. The alumni board spent many months drafting the award criteria and an application. Furthermore, the board decided to create two awards; one to recognize undergraduate teaching and one to recognize graduate teaching. Next, the board needed to find a permanent home for the two awards, a USF governing body who was capable of soliciting applications, screening nominees, and ultimately nominating a recipient to be approved by the USF Provost’s office on a permanent basis. A Kosove alumnus and board member, Heather Agazzi, serves as a USF Faculty Senator representing the College of Medicine. She introduced the idea of the Kosove Professorship to the Faculty Senate, Senate Executive Committee as a potential award for their Honors and Awards Council (HAC) to administer. In the spring of 2012, the HAC unanimously approved to award the Kosove Professorship alongside other prestigious professorships administered through this governing body. The HAC worked collaboratively with the Kosove Society to finalize the award criteria and application, and in May 2013 the first two professorships were named.
2023 Outstanding Professorship Awards
Dr. Alexandro Castellanos
Kosove Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Service Award
College of Engineering
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Alexandro Castellanos received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida in 2006. He is a faculty member in the Electrical Engineering Department at the college of engineering. His research interests lie in the area of cyber physical systems, embedded systems, Internet of things (IoT) and control theory for industrial applications in the areas of Mechatronics, Robotics and Industrial Automation.
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Dr. Castellanos has 25 plus years of distinguished research, education, and service experience. Previously he worked in industry and served as department chair and dean of engineering at the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico.
Professor Castellanos’s dedication to undergraduate teaching and service is remarkable. He has contributed broadly to his department’s teaching goals and the whole college of Engineering. He has also significantly contributed to core courses, such as Foundations of Engineering and Mechatronics. His dedication to covering fundamental concepts and pedagogical principles has been at the core of his mission – online lectures and videos. He teaches over 600 students each year. He has contributed in different engineering fields with a large number of publications collaborating with different educational institutions in Latin America, Europe and USA. He received the USF’s Latin Faculty of the year award among other international awards.
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Dr. Castellanos is known as the “hands-on” instructor in the department. He includes hands-on projects in all his courses. He requires the students to “build and test” devices utilizing hardware and software skills. During an interview with the ABET engineering accreditation program evaluator, the electrical engineering students identified hands-on experiences as one of the top two strengths of the electrical engineering program. Dr. Castellanos' continuous impact on the department, students, and local community extends beyond the College of Engineering, including local High Schools.