Kaya is an assistant professor of education in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University. He has a Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction and teaches methods courses. He received his MS degree in computer science and engineering and holds a BS degree in chemical engineering. He coached robotics teams and was awarded several grants that promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and Computer Science (CS). He is interested in inspiring learners to code and engineer for social causes to increase participation and make STEM+CS accessible for all. He has been volunteering in many educational outreach programs including Code.org, Science Fair, and Robotics programs such as First Robotics competitions. Over the past five years, he published journal papers and presented at national and international conferences about computational thinking, K-12 computer science, robotics, and pre-college engineering education. Areas of research interest include K-16 computing and engineering education, STEM+CS, computational thinking, and robotics in K-12 STEM+CS education.

Kaya advocates his view that research, teaching, and learning are best practiced as a unified enterprise that benefits students and society. He has received numerous teaching awards as well as grants for his research from several foundations. Prior to academia, Kaya worked as a K-12 STEM+CS teacher at racially and linguistically diverse schools.

Examples of Kaya's research can be found at his Research Gate profile. To view more details about his work, please visit his personal webpage.