This summer, more than 20 University of Florida student mentors will fan out across 16 Florida counties to help lead 39 engineering summer camps for nearly 400 students.
As part of UF Engineering’s 2025 Engaged Quality Instruction Through Professional Development (EQuIPD) camps, high school and middle school students will delve into design challenges that incorporate artificial intelligence, programming and machine learning with engineering design thinking.
Alongside UF student mentors, middle school campers will learn about electrical power in hands-on lessons about smart microgrids. In EQuIPD’s Rural Scholars Summer Program, students will explore AI in agriculture, visit smart farms and build self-driving tractors.
High school students will dig into machine learning through music and sports, as well as analyze AI data to develop hurricane forecast models.
Starting the first week of June, the free camps are designed to inspire early generations of engineers for a workforce already short on qualified professionals, especially in AI. The program has grown considerably since 2022’s inaugural Goldberg Gator Engineering Explorers camp, started with a $200,000 foundational donation from UF alumnus and tech executive Arnold Goldberg.