UVA women introduce middle schoolers to engineering

February 25, 2026
Two middle school studented working with a UVA engineering student

Two middle school students work on creating a circuit Sunday as third-year computer engineering major Chloe Gao supervises during the University Students Taught Engineering Program at Olsson Hall. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

University of Virginia engineering students gave up a big chunk of a recent Sunday to teach pre-teens lessons on topics ranging from electric circuits to machine learning through the University Students Taught Engineering Program.

The Society of Women Engineers at UVA sponsored the event for about 80 middle schoolers from across the region. Gathered in the basement of Olsson Hall, about 40 volunteers divided the students into four color-coded groups – pink, blue, purple and green – and led three different classes for each group during a four-hour workshop, with a break for a pizza lunch.

Class lessons included “How circuits really work,” “The chemistry of heat transfer” and “How to design a life-saving system.”

Third-year computer engineering major Chloe Gao asked the middle schoolers to work with their hands as well as their minds to build a circuit powered by a 9-volt battery that lights an LED bulb.

Third-year electrical and systems engineering major Sofia Luis explained how machine learning works by showing how a computer program could distinguish between visually similar yet distinct images of a toy bear and a toy beaver. The middle schoolers were encouraged to work together on projects to make the lessons more interactive.

Candid of Chloe Gao working with a group of middle school students

Third-year computer engineering major Chloe Gao oversees an interactive experiment with middle school students while teaching them how electric circuits work. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Darrah Sheehan, a fourth-year biomedical engineering student in charge of middle school outreach for the Society of Women Engineers, said about 40 members worked the event as teachers, coordinators and greeters.

“We recruit female engineering students to teach a class of their interest,” Sheehan said. “It’s always something STEM-related, but it could be more of an aerospace focus, such as something about rocket ships, or it could be something forensic science-related.”

The engineering students selected their teaching topics, with the Society of Women Engineers providing any needed materials.

Biomedical engineering major Stella Perini and systems engineering student Abigail Crow taught the “How to design a life-saving system” class, which they explained was actually about problem-solving.

“A systems major is really focused on how to solve problems and break them down,” Crow said. “We really try to use that side of things. And then my friend Stella is a biomedical engineering major, so we really just try to combine the medical side of things with the systems way of thinking in the way in which you really think about how to look at problems and solve them.”

Several students said they found teaching as enjoyable as engineering.

“It’s fun to watch the kids expand their perspective a little bit and show them a little bit about what systems engineering is in practice,” said Katie Fidler, a fourth-year systems engineering major.

The attendees were selected randomly from the roughly 170 applicants. USTEP, which started in 2019, was initially only for girls, but in recent years the society has opened it to all. The middle school group was roughly evenly split between boys and girls, with about 30% of the students coming from the Charlottesville area.

Candid of Brooke Huntington and Sheryln Zamudio teaching a group of middle school students

UVA engineering students Brooke Huntington, left, and Sheryln Zamudio explain fingerprints as an element of forensic science to a group of visiting middle school students at Olsson Hall on Sunday. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

“It’s a completely free event for the middle schoolers to learn about STEM,” Sheehan said. “We have students from all over Virginia, from Washington, D.C., from Maryland. People do travel to come to this event, which is awesome.”

Sheehan, a Charlottesville native, reached out to the Society of Women Engineers while she was still in high school and trying to determine her path.

“I started helping them with this back in 2020, right before the pandemic hit, because their mission resonated with me at the time, even when I was in high school,” she said. “Meeting college women in engineering definitely helped me envision myself more in it. I ended up at UVA and continued my involvement from the very first club fair.”

鶹ƽ Society of Women Engineers chapter was founded in 1977, with Doris Wilsdorf, a University Professor of Applied Science, as its first adviser.

Sheehan, who has conducted middle school outreach for several years, said students are being exposed to technical studies younger and younger.

“We’ll say, ‘Raise your hand if you’ve done this sort of coding or used this platform before,’ and there's 70% of the kids who raise their hands,” Sheehan said. “When I was in middle school, I would not have seen that at all. People are definitely learning things earlier. And I think we do a good job breaking things down for beginners, but in interactive ways, so people who have learned about it won’t feel like it’s being dumbed down.”

Media Contacts

Matt Kelly

University News Associate Office of University Communications

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