UF sending 25 students to national science and engineering event

April 16, 2014

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Twenty-five University of Florida undergraduate students will go to Washington, D.C., next week to participate in the USA Science and Engineering Festival.

The event is scheduled April 26-27, with a special VIP sneak peak April 25. UF student societies will take center stage in a 10-by-30-foot booth and conduct hands-on activities and demonstrations. This outreach aims to maximize interest and interaction from participants from elementary school to high school through modeling experience. Some of these activities include how to build a “mousetrap car,” or create the strongest possible bridge using dry spaghetti and marshmallows. Even a full scale, student-built rocket is on site so visitors can appreciate first-hand the extent and success of student research work.

Groups scheduled to present include the Society of Women Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, National Society of Black Engineers, and American Nuclear Society, Women in Nuclear, Aeronautical Engineering Society Rocket Team, Materials Advantage, the Society of Physics Students, and the Student American Chemical Society. Each student society has a different themed hands-on activity, as well as a talk or demonstration to show the wide diversity of STEM activities related to the University of Florida theme for the festival – “Design, Create, Innovate!”

“This is the third time that the University of Florida has participated in the USA Science and Engineering Festival, and attendance at this event promises to surpass the 150,000 people who attended the 2012 event,” said Ata Sarajedini, a professor of astronomy and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Sarajedini is organizing UF’s participation in the expo in collaboration with Nancy Ruzycki, a faculty lecturer in the department of materials science and engineering.

The festival’s mission is to re-invigorate the interest of America’s youth in science, technology, engineering and math by producing and presenting the most compelling, exciting, educational and entertaining science festival in the United States.

UF’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering, the Office of Admissions, and the Office of the Provost are supporting the students’ participation.

For more information, visit http://www.usasciencefestival.org/.

For social media: http://www.usasciencefestival.org/exhibitor/partners-promoting-the-festival.html.