Frank Vahid Professor Emeritus Computer Science & Engineering Univ. of California, Riverside

Status

After 30 years at UCR, I have retired to join the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as Deputy Director for Digitally-Enabled Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Around 2010, seeing so many CS and STEM majors failing nationwide, I shifted my research focus to improving college-level CS and STEM education, and started a company (zyBooks) to support those efforts. In the past 5 years, my obsession became to improve success rates for all college students, especially less-privileged students, and especially in college gateway courses where DFW rates can approach 50%. I've always been a huge fan of the Gates Foundation's efforts to help all people live healthy productive lives, and am super-excited to join their amazing Higher Education team.

Recent activities

• Founded CollegeStudentAdvocates.org
  • Non-profit to help college students succeed and to resolve common issues.
• Co-founded zybooks.com
  • Mission: Improve STEM college graduation rates. How: Interactive web-native textbook/homework replacements and more.
  • 2023: 1000 universities, serving 500,000 students annually, 150+ employees, growing -- acquired by Wiley 2019 (article), still operating as unit.
  • Deep thanks to NSF SBIR program for >$2M early support.

Info

• CV   Bio   Pubs+Talks
• zyBooks: Interactive online books on C++, C, Embedded Systems, Digital Design, Computer Systems and Assembly Programming, Computing Technology, Java, and more (2013 - present).
• Book: Digital Design + VHDL/Verilog books (Wiley 2006, 2011).
  • Latest version: zyBook on Digital Design (Interactive/Auto-grading)
• Book: Embedded Systems Design (Wiley 2001).
  • Latest version: zyBook on Programming Embedded Systems (Interactive/Built-in microcontroller/state-machine simulators).
• Creating practical models for embedded systems programming and circuit-design
  • ProgrammingEmbeddedSystems.com   RI tools   RIOS scheduler

  More

  • Advice to graduate students
  • Baha'i Faith
  • LearnSoccerLaws.com
  • The letter that changed my family's life
  • LinkedIn page

  Students

  
  
  
  "Be good to the people in your life; if anything really matters, they do." --Frank
  
  "Wisdom is, if you drop an ice cube, knowing to put it in the sink and not the waste basket." --Frank