A team of innovators from the University of Florida has created an award-winning tool that’s transforming the way students learn to code and saving them money in the process.
Edugator is a browser-based, AI-enabled tool for teaching engineering and computing education across UF and other Florida universities. It was developed to support instructors of introductory computing courses by simplifying how they create and deliver interactive content. Emphasizing strong collaboration with former students, the project is led by Amanpreet Kapoor, Ph.D., instructional associate professor with the Department of Engineering Education (EEd), and with UF’s Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) alumni Marc Diaz, Dustin Karp and Prayuj Tuli.
The project is turning heads. On Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, the team received the 2025 Florida TaxWatch Government Productivity Award at the Florida Historic Capitol Museum in Tallahassee, Florida. They have also received the 2025 UF Innovate Innovation Fund Award and the Procter & Gamble U.S. Higher Education grant.
The platform allows instructors to generate lessons and programming problems using generative AI and enables students to complete exercises in a web-based coding environment with real-time feedback. Students also have access to an AI tutor chatbot powered by a large language model, which nudges them toward explaining how to think through a problem or approach a solution without directly giving the answer.
“By embedding AI-TA chatbots with pedagogical guardrails directly into course activities, we try to provide a fair, structured environment where all students benefit and learn with personalized feedback,” said Kapoor.
Former student Tavienne Millner praised the platform for its ease of use.
“When I took data structures and algorithms, it was one of the first semesters where Edugator was implemented fully, and I thoroughly enjoyed completing problems on the platform,” she said. “Edugator prepared me for technical interviews, and now, as a teaching assistant, I use it when I need to debug students’ programming quizzes with them.”
Instructors can embed coding problems, multiple-select questions and create custom content for their courses.
“I use the Edugator platform to administer weekly programming quizzes. Creating coding questions with public and hidden test cases is straightforward, and the sync with Canvas is seamless and accurate, which makes both grading and record-keeping efficient,” said Lisha Zhou, instructional assistant professor with UF’s Department of Computer & Information (CISE).
EEd Instructional Assistant Professor Laura Cruz Castro, Ph.D., said Edugator is a great platform for short autograder assignments, with a clean and intuitive interface.
“It’s a proud UF product that puts students’ financial needs first,” Cruz Castro said. “Built through collaboration between students and faculty, I’m excited to see it keep improving as feedback shapes its future.”
Since its inception, Edugator has served over 7,000 students at UF and other universities. According to Kapoor, UF students have saved more than $500,000 by using Edugator since 2021 compared with an earlier platform, Zybooks. Additionally, the students will continue to save nearly $150,000 in annual costs.
The platform has attracted external support, including a P&G Higher Education grant and funding from the UF Research Foundation, to expand its infrastructure. The long-term vision is to scale it beyond UF through UF Innovate, offering a low-cost solution to institutions nationwide.
“The goal is to keep the learning loop intact. From our research and other literature in this area, a large subset of students wants tools to help them learn and interact with AI in a safe space with pedagogical guardrails,” said Kapoor.
Edugator’s team also won the 2023 Affordable Access Award from the Center for Teaching Excellence at UF and the 2022 Course Transformation Grant by the Center for Teaching Excellence & George A. Smathers Libraries at UF.
Instructors interested in using Edugator can request it at no cost.