Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award Winner Engineers Student Success

Incorporating technology in the classroom is a priority for Dr. Oziel Rios, professor of instruction in mechanical engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas.

His first-year mechanical engineering students in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science use laser cutters to make trusses and blades for model wind turbines. They measure how the trusses respond to stress with a tensile testing machine. And they evaluate their blade designs in a wind tunnel.

Rios also has developed an augmented-reality (AR) pilot program, which overlays 3D objects in the user's environment, to help students visualize shapes. He has created a flipped classroom model that blends online instruction with classroom activities.

For his innovative approaches, Rios has received the UT System's highest teaching honor - the Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award. He is among 12 faculty members representing the UT System's 14 academic and health institutions chosen for the award this year.

"This award is also a recognition of the students and everyone at UTD who have supported and encouraged me," Rios said.

When he was in high school, Rios dreamed of earning a PhD and teaching at a university. He grew up in Texas' Rio Grande Valley and was a first-generation college student whose parents came to the U.S. from Mexico.

"My mother's dream was to be an educator, but her circumstances - coming from a small town in northern Mexico - didn't allow for that," Rios said. "I became an educator to honor her."

Rios earned his bachelor's degrees in math and mechanical engineering from UT Pan American, now UT Rio Grande Valley, master's and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from UT Austin, and joined UT Dallas in 2011 when the Jonsson School introduced its mechanical engineering program. Since then, Rios has become known as an effective and supportive instructor.

"Dr. Rios' passion for teaching goes way beyond just the classroom; he's super approachable and was always willing to meet outside of class to offer advice and support for our academic and career goals," said Yara Almubarak BS'16, MS'18, PhD'21, now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Wayne State University. "What really strikes me is how much he genuinely cares about students' development."

Akshay Potnuru MS'13, PhD'18 said Rios helped him gain confidence as a teaching assistant.

"Dr. Rios believed in me before I did and gave me complete freedom to be myself with the students," said Potnuru, a senior lecturer in aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Southern California.

Dan Bouzolin BS'23, a mechanical engineering doctoral student and a McDermott Graduate Fellow who is working to develop new technologies for wind energy systems, said, "Dr. Rios takes on multiple roles, serving as an educator, a mentor and a friend to his students."

Rios was recognized with the UTD President's Teaching Excellence Award in Online/Blended Instruction in 2024. He was also recipient of a Center for Teaching and Learning Instructional Improvement Award in 2020 for design of the AR program, which he describes in a paper presented and published in the proceedings of the 2023 American Society of Mechanical Engineers International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition.

Dr. Dani Fadda, professor of practice in mechanical engineering, has seen Rios' teaching methods up close as a co-instructor for first-year engineering courses.

"Dr. Rios is focused on the learning outcomes of his classes and puts in a tremendous effort to make sure the students have everything they need to master the outcomes," he said. "This is what makes him an outstanding professor."

Jonsson School Chair Dr. Edward White, professor and department head of mechanical engineering, agreed.

"It would be hard to overstate how much time, care and skill Dr. Rios devotes for the benefit of our students. He's one of the very best instructors I've met, and it really shows in the students' experience. We're lucky to have him as a role model for exceptional teaching."