In collaboration with the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, the J Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering hosted an educational outreach event for students from K-12 to foster diversity and inspire the next generation of engineers.

This one-day event hosted 44 students from Booker High School in Sarasota, Florida, and featured hands-on activities, presentations, and tours of engineering labs. Dr. Sarah Furtney, UF BME Lecturer & Undergraduate Coordinator, and BME undergraduate students facilitated hands-on activities in the Cellular Engineering Lab in the Biomedical Sciences Building.

Over the course of an hour, participating students completed three hands-on activities:

1. A tissue guess quest where histological samples were observed through a microscope, and students guessed the tissue type.
2. An EEG game where students placed an electrode on the forehead to control the movement of an external device.
3. A candy-based radioactive decay model to illustrate isotope half-life.

Students learned how biomedical engineers:

1. Try to regenerate tissues in the lab.
2. Create brain-computer interfaces to improve paralyzed patient quality of life.
3. Create medical imaging modalities.

BME undergraduate students who assisted:

• Alaina McCumber (BMES Director of Outreach)
• Rachel Peebles (BMES Director of Research & Design)
• Fiona Cheung (BMES member)
• Arman Tabarestani (BMEntor)
• Patrick Costello (BMES member)