Dr. Kara Bocan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Her primary focus is teaching with a secondary focus on engineering education research. She received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 2017, and her BSE in Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 2012 with a minor in Neuroscience. She performed her dissertation research on wireless implantable medical devices with the RFID Center of Excellence, where her use of computer-aided design was an entry point to the field of computational modeling. As a postdoc, her research focused on the use of computational modeling to enhance understanding of complex systems, and on the development of effective and usable modeling software. She began teaching courses for the Pitt ECE Department as a Visiting Research Assistant Professor in 2018, and has been teaching full-time as an Assistant Professor since 2020. She currently teaches courses on digital systems, data structures and algorithms, software engineering, and simulation and modeling. Her engineering education research interests include gameful learning and universal design to increase student engagement and accessibility.