The award, announced Thursday, May 30, by EPE executive director Dale Harris, recognizes outstanding contributions of Purdue faculty to EPE's distance education program. The winner is determined by EPE's distance-education students who nominate faculty and support the nominations with comments and evaluations.

Harris cited two student comments in announcing Ramani as the winner:

"Professor Ramani was a great professor that allowed us to think on our own and think outside the box while leveraging the principles he taught us in class. His class was unlike any other I've taken and I got a lot more out of it than I had expected because of his teaching style."

"Professor Ramani was always well-prepared for class and outlined course objectives that clearly showed his knowledge of what engineers in the field today are working on and the issues they face. He was always available by email and set up conference calls over the weekend throughout the semester to give distance students feedback. ... I would recommend both that class and Professor Ramani to future students."

Ramani will receive a plaque and $2,000.