Program Profile

University of Florida

Hands-on Energy and Thermo-fluids (HEAT) Program

  • Undergraduate
  • Graduate

The Hands-on Energy and Thermo-fluids (HEAT) Program creates an international energy and water engineering learning community with college-aged youth from Egypt and the United States. The program addresses three Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century identified by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering: advance personalized learning, teach energy engineering, and elucidate water management. The HEAT Program’s hallmark is deployment of educational laboratory kits used by students in both countries for focused hands-on instruction.

Activities

Through a combination of synchronous and self-directed learning, HEAT Program participants collaborate through Zoom to build and carry out a series of energy- and water-focused engineering experiments using their personal educational lab kits. Participants work together to test hypotheses, visualize phenomena, analyze data, evaluate theories, and draw conclusions. Learners then collaborate on international teams to create video and written reports, which are shared with the class to communicate outcomes and knowledge gained through their experiments.

Program Details

Number of Participants

505

U.S. States and Territories Reached
  • Florida
Countries and Territories Reached
  • Egypt
Length of Exchange

Five to seven weeks (one hour of synchronous activity per week; two hours of asynchronous activity per week; six hours of student self-directed experimentation and collaboration per week)

Hands-on Energy and Thermo-fluids (HEAT) Program is implemented by the University of Florida and is supported by the J. Christopher Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative (JCSVEI). JCSVEI is a U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs program administered by the Aspen Institute.