Arthur Ball named Bradley Faculty Fellow of Education
Arthur Ball, collegiate assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering, has been named the Bradley Faculty Fellow of Education by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The Bradley Fellowship of Education was established in 2015 to support electrical and computer engineering faculty members who have an exemplary record of outstanding achievement and innovation in teaching, student mentoring, and curriculum development.
As a graduate student at Virginia Tech, Ball was a research assistant in the Center for Power Electronic Systems under the guidance of Fred Lee. In 2015, he joined the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an instructor, and he was promoted to collegiate assistant professor in 2021.
Prior to his appointment at Virginia Tech, he worked as a design engineer in the aerospace industry for 10 years, affording him a practical perspective in the classroom.
At Virginia Tech, Ball has contributed extensively to curriculum development. As the course content committee chair for a National Science Foundation Revolutionizing Engineering Departments grant, he led a group of seven faculty members — which later grew to 24 — to redesign the traditional course materials around threshold concepts and hands-on learning. As the result of this work, seven base courses in the college were replaced with eight new courses in 2019 and significant improvements were seen. Ball has revised several additional courses and created new lab components for all of them.
An extraordinary classroom teacher, Ball has a strong rapport with students, enthusiasm for the subject matter, and his experience in industry and academia allows him to cut to the essence of the material in the course.
In addition to his teaching and course development, Ball has been the faculty advisor for 10 engineering student teams and engineering-related student clubs. He currently advises five, including high-profile multidisciplinary teams such as the BOLT electric motorcycle team, the U.S. Department of Energy Collegiate Wind Competition Wind Turbine Team, and the Solar Car team.
Ball received two bachelor’s degrees from Bluefield State University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.
