GatorKits Lab - UF

Nicole Kershner, our senior graduate student in GatorKits Lab - UF, represented the lab at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida graduate student recruiting poster session. Nikki showcased her work on educational lab kits used for engineering Virtual Exchange with our Egyptian partners at Aswan University. This work is sponsored by The Stevens Initiative at the Aspen Institute through the U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs [https://lnkd.in/gEjBBu-y]. #GoGators?? | #LabKits | #StevensInitiative | #USDeptOfState | #VirtualExchange

I was thrilled to represent Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida at Kanapaha Middle School's Science Night using Educational Fluid kits created by GatorKits Lab - UF. Through simple demonstrations at my station, middle school participants learned about hydrostatics, pump curves, minor flow losses, Bernoulli's equation, momentum conservation, and viscosity. Thanks to Nicole Kershner for preparing the kits! The Educational Fluids Kits are sponsored by The Stevens Initiative at the Aspen Institute through the U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs [https://lnkd.in/gEjBBu-y]. #GoGators?? | #LabKits | #K12Outreach | #StevensInitiative | #USDeptOfState

Students of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida: This 2025 Spring semester, I will again be offering the hands-on Virtual Exchange Energy & Fluids laboratory course where participants interact with engineering students from Aswan University in Egypt. Successful completion counts as extra credit in select MAE energy-related courses. Please contact me at [email protected] for details. The class meets Tuesday & Thursdays from 9:35 - 10:25am from March 11 to April 22. This program is sponsored by The Stevens Initiative at the Aspen Institute through the U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs [https://lnkd.in/gEjBBu-y]. #GoGators?? | #VirtualExchange | #LabKits | #StevensInitiative |#USDeptOfState

My holiday gift to my 2025 Spring Mechanical Engineering Capstone Senior Design students is this functional ARTME-3D benchtop filament extruder, which I built from a kit over the holiday break. Our Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida students will use this setup as inspiration to design, build, & test a 3D print filament recycler for our clients, UF MAE alums Ryan Araque & Alexander Lacerna. #GoGators ?? | #ARTME-3D | #3DPrinting

Congratulations to Nicole Kershner, our senior GatorKits Lab - UF graduate student, on acceptance of her presentation proposal to the highly competitive Florida Online Innovation Summit hosted by UCF Digital Learning! https://lnkd.in/g_z2nigr Her talk, "Five Modes for Hands-On Experiment-Based Learning within Virtual Exchange” compares hands-on virtual exchange offering methods for global learners. Many entities support this work including The Stevens Initiative at the Aspen Institute, a grant through the U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs [https://lnkd.in/gEjBBu-y] and the University of Florida International Center Office of Global Learning. Hat tip to Tara Harvey, Ph.D. of True North Intercultural for relevant experiential international training. #GoGators?? | #VirtualExchange | #StevensInitiative | #USDeptOfState

I am proud to announce that Alexander Lacerna has earned his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree from the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida! Alex is the founding graduate student of GatorKits Lab - UF. He completed a multi-year research project that provided hundreds of educational lab kits to the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering's Introduction to Engineering Course while proving the hands-on experiences these kits enable is equally rich and effective for remote learners as for in-person students. Congratulations, Alex! Your research has changed the way engineering educators approach kit-based distance learning.

I was pleased to serve on a presentation panel at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Conference on Global Learning with UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering faculty colleagues Ana Maria Porras and Fernando Merida. We discussed internationalizing engineering curricula via Virtual Exchange. Thank you to Carrie Martins for facilitating the discussion and to the University of Florida International Center Office of Global Learning for supporting our AAC&U conference attendance. Engineers: What international experiences have you enjoyed in your technical courses?

I am humbled, honored, & elated to announce my election to the 2024 Class of Fellows of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society! "This distinction will be awarded on a competitive basis to members who have been recognized by their peers for exceptional contributions to Sigma Xi and the scientific enterprise." Thank you Prof. Lawrence Ukeiley of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida and Prof. Muhammad Akbar of Tennessee State University's Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering Department for nominating me. Thanks also to Prof. Warren Dixon who encouraged me to pursue this honorific and expressed confidence in me when I doubted myself. Hat tip to Jamie Vernon, Sigma Xi's Executive Director & CEO,?for his guidance and support through the selection process. #SigmaXi

We were pleased to invite Carrie Martins from the University of Florida International Center to give a Virtual Exchange primer to Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida students enrolled in the HEAT Program exchange with Aswan University, Egypt. Carrie led a thought-provoking cultural profile activity that helped my students and me benchmark our personal cultural dimensions against norms in Egypt. The HEAT Program is sponsored by The Stevens Initiative at the Aspen Institute through the U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs [https://lnkd.in/gEjBBu-y]. #GoGators?? #VirtualExchange #LabKits #StevensInitiative #USDeptOfState

#SessionSpotlight University of Florida's Matthew Traum will dive into 3D printing and shared physical artifacts in virtual exchanges in one of our compelling breakout sessions Friday at IFoRE '24. Explore more confirmed sessions and register today to join us next month in Washington, DC: experienceIFoRE.org