In 2023, the Office of the University Provost at Arizona State University launched an initiative to recognize faculty members whose work exemplifies the university’s core commitment to student success, public impact and community well-being. Through a competitive nomination process, selected faculty are named ASU Charter Professors for three-year terms and receive funding to advance projects aligned with those values.
The 2025 honorees — Daniel Frank and Laura Hosman — are both affiliated with The Polytechnic School, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU, and are the first faculty members from the Fulton Schools to receive the Charter Professor title. Their work reflects the university’s mission to measure success expanding opportunities and delivering tangible benefits to the communities it serves.
A wave of impact
Frank, an associate teaching professor of engineering, is involved in a range of teaching and community-based engineering projects that align with the ASU Charter and help students apply engineering concepts beyond the classroom.
He is known for his volunteer efforts in support of the Firewheel STEM Institute, formerly known as the Si Se Puede Foundation, where he mentors high school and collegiate robotics teams. Among them is Desert WAVE, an all-women collegiate robotics team who has competed and won at the international level. The high school robotics teams Frank works with learn that engineering is engaging, accessible and purposeful.
“It is a tremendous honor to receive this award,” he says. “The charter was actually one of the reasons why I chose to work at ASU. I knew I wanted to do work at a place that recognized the importance of being able to give back to the community, of doing research that created value and that everyone is brought to the table.”
One project he is particularly passionate about is his work adapting Power Wheels ride-on toys to provide affordable mobility solutions for children. Roughly half a million children are diagnosed with mobility challenges when they are born and are unable to obtain a power wheelchair until after they are two years old.
In the project, students work directly with families to design, adapt and refine the small electric cars, applying engineering principles while responding to the needs of individual children. These adapted devices give the children the ability to move independently and explore the world around them.
When the students see a child they’ve helped in their car and recognize what needs to be improved to make the product better, they become more invested and don’t want to let the child down.
For the children, receiving the mobility devices can mean an improved quality of life. For the students, they learn that while these projects may not change the world at large, they play a role in making a meaningful difference for the children and families involved.
Over the next three years, Frank intends to use the funding associated with the award to build additional mobility devices for children and explore opportunities to expand these efforts nationwide.
“I love working at ASU because it gives me the opportunity to be who I am as an engineer and become the best version of myself,” he says. “I wouldn’t feel like I was living up to my potential if I wasn’t able to do these types of projects, and I never feel that limitation here.”
Opening digital doors for all
Hosman, an associate professor in ASU’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society with a joint appointment in The Polytechnic School, is also the co-director of the ASU SolarSPELL Initiative, an effort designed to bring educational resources to communities without reliable internet access. SolarSPELL offers offline libraries filled with locally relevant educational content, as well as resources to help users build digital and information literacy skills.
The project has gained international recognition and was recently named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025 in the social impact category.
SolarSPELL came to fruition after Hosman and her co-founder Bruce Baikie were asked to provide internet connectivity for laptop programs in communities around the world. They quickly realized that internet access was not enough. Without the skills to navigate information effectively, access wouldn’t lead to empowerment or long-term learning. They decided instead to focus on creating libraries tailored to local information needs, while simultaneously helping library users build internet-ready skills in a safe, offline environment.
“We’re transforming lives around the world by bringing access to information as well as the skills people need to thrive in the digital age,” Hosman says.
Hosman says that while also inspired by ASU’s design aspirations, the charter gives her a “true north,” guiding her on what to aim for as she brings together experiential learning and global impact.
“It’s so energizing to be honored in this way at a university that lives and breathes the ASU Charter and the kind of work that SolarSPELL is doing,” Hosman says.
One of the primary aspects of SolarSPELL is that it is team-based and multidisciplinary, depending on the contributions of all team members’ individual expertise to help ensure the project’s success. Together, they get to see how they can contribute to something bigger than themselves.
SolarSPELL continues to expand in scope and reach. For instance, SolarSPELL will be launching a library in Senegal this spring, introducing French and Pulaar into the platform for the first time.
Back at ASU, students in The Polytechnic School have spent several semesters developing an offline, artificial intelligence-enabled soil sensor application that integrates with the library system to help SolarSPELL’s agriculture partners assess how conservation practices are improving soil health.
The application is scheduled for testing in Rwanda with, B2R Farms, a non-profit organization that aims to reduce food insecurity and environmental impacts from farming. Funding from the ASU Charter Professorship will support the continued growth of SolarSPELL and enable more ASU student involvement.
Learning by doing
Both Frank and Hosman emphasize project-based learning, working in teams and addressing community and global challenges. This type of approach is a hallmark of The Polytechnic School, where students get to apply ideas, test solutions and operate within actual constraints.
“My favorite form of teaching is the project-based class,” Hosman says. “Students are working in teams and engaging with a partner somewhere around the world to create real-world solutions that lead to real change.”
Both professors teach project-based classes that are put on display at Innovation Showcase, an end-of-semester exhibition that highlights what students are doing both inside and outside the classroom. For many students, the showcase lands at a pivotal moment as they graduate and prepare to enter the workforce.
Through each experience, they’ve gained technical knowledge and learned from professors whose lessons will help them stand out as they move to the next chapter in their academic and professional journeys.
“Engineers are special people,” Frank says. “They see the world not for what it is, but for what it has the potential to be.”
