Włodarski Named Wimmer Fellow

Rafał Włodarski, assistant teaching professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been named a 2025-2026 Wimmer Faculty Fellow at the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation. This program is designed for junior faculty members interested in enhancing their teaching through concentrated work with an Eberly consulting team. The Wimmer program, now in its 20th year, is supported by a grant from the Wimmer Family Foundation. This grant provides a stipend to each Fellow to acknowledge the intellectual work it takes to be an effective educator.

Włodarski's research interests lie at the intersection of software engineering (software development methods in particular) and pedagogy (a focus on bridging the gap between software engineering education and industrial needs). He currently investigates use of generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in the context of auto grading, formative assessment and gamification.

In the course of his dissertation work,Włodarski evaluated iterative and sequential software development lifecycle models applied by student teams in order to create a hybrid approach that is best suited to projects in the higher education setting.

His professional career outside of academia includes several years of experience in software development and management.

Włodarski is currently teaching 18-653: Software Design and Architecture, a popular software engineering course for Masters students. His project focuses on restructuring several in-class activities to enhance student engagement, clarify key concepts, and promote deeper application of course material to project-based work. Włodarski will be working with the Eberly team to increase the transparency and instructional alignment of class activities and track students’ impressions of the clarity, helpfulness and engagement with these revised activities.

This year’s cohort will be recognized at the next Teaching and Learning Summit event this Fall.