The Virginia Middle School Engineering Education Initiative (VMSEEI) has received a National Science Foundation Planning Grant from the Bridges for Engineering Education program. The one-year, $100,000 grant and VMSEEI program involve faculty and students from the Engineering School and the Curry School of Education. Also, the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering has initiated a new senior design course focused on developing Engineering Teaching Kits (ETKs). Five teams under the supervision of Larry Richards, Hilary Bart-Smith, Gaby Laufer and Pepe Humphrey are working on ETKs on these topics: solar car design, design for sustainability, simple machines, gels and brain perfusion, and the Manta Ray submersible vehicle. VMSEEI began several years ago with a grant from the Payne Family Foundation and Accenture, among others.

For more information about the VMSEEI grant, see the description.