The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering office of Student Affairs new Center for Experiential Learning is launching this winter with inaugural director, Sarah Furtney, Ph.D. The Experiential Learning Center is a single place where students, faculty, advisors, and industry partners can go for information and support about co-curricular, outside of the classroom, formative experiences for our Gator Engineering students.
Experiential learning through student organizations, design teams, study abroad, internships, co-ops, undergraduate research, makerspace skills, and other professional development activities are critical components of the development of our students in becoming engineers. This office will also coordinate experiential learning data for the college and research the educational impact of participating in these co-curricular activities on our engineering undergraduate students.
Sarah Furtney, Ph.D. will serve as the inaugural Director of Experiential Learning. Furtney comes to the college from the UF Biomedical Engineering Department. She is an extraordinary educator, mentor, and advocate for our students. She earned her PhD from Clemson University in Bioengineering and bachelor’s in biomedical engineering from the University of Miami. She joined the UF BME Department in 2017. Furtney’s teaching experience and course development includes the BME introductory course and the junior wet-laboratory course. She is the Undergraduate Coordinator of BME and supervises the day-to-day efforts of advising all department undergraduates. She has received awards for her teaching, research, and mentoring, including the 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year Award, 2020 UF BME Teaching Excellence Award, 2020 TERMIS Educational Award, 2021 ASEE Best Paper Award Biomedical Engineering Division, 2020-2021 Mentor of the Year Award, and 2019 UF BME Service Excellence Award.