In July, Gavin Garner became the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science’s new director of experiential learning, a program that supports extracurricular hands-on projects for undergraduate students. It’s a position he is well-prepared to take on.
“Gavin brings a wealth of design, fabrication, teaching and mentorship experience to the role. When the position was announced, he even wrote to me, ‘I think this is my calling!’” said William Guilford, associate dean for undergraduate affairs and associate professor of biomedical engineering.
Garner is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and has a long tenure teaching courses such as Mechatronics, Advanced Mechatronics and capstone design, as well as advising student groups.
“The sorts of hands-on learning experiences that students encounter while working on these extracurricular teams are invaluable to their development as engineers,” Garner said.
Experiential learning is a cornerstone of UVA Engineering’s undergraduate program, and recent achievements in prestigious competitions demonstrate the exceptional caliber of student teams. UVA teams ranked No. 2 nationally in cyber defense and No. 1 in their category and second overall at the 2025 Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition, while the CAVCAR autonomous racing team zoomed to victory in the Indy Autonomous Challenge.
Hands-on Equals Real-World Learning
Garner has advised student groups like the Gizmologists, the 3D Printing Club and MARS, the Mechatronics and Robotics Society — all of which uniquely prepare him to direct UVA Engineering’s experiential learning program.
“This is how our students learn, and it is gratifying for me to facilitate such learning both inside and outside of the classroom,” Garner said. “What excites me is the passion and creativity our students unfailingly bring to their projects, whatever they might be.”
As director, Garner now oversees the school’s Experiential Learning Funds, which support student groups that provide engineering learning through real-world design and build experiences. In addition to cyber defense, rocketry and MARS, student-led groups include Virginia Motorsports; iGEM, the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition; and others.
As part of this role, Garner also oversees the Ann Warrick Lacy Student Experiential Center, a 20,000-square-foot facility designed to support the needs of students building extracurricular projects and competition entries ranging from rockets to experimental cars. This facility provides shops and tools for fabricating and prototyping plastic and metal components, space for assembling their systems and a collaborative environment for sharing their learning across student teams.
“Engineering usually starts with making informed design predictions based on mathematic modeling, as we emphasize in most of our classwork,” Garner said. “Much of real-world engineering design also involves prototyping things, diagnosing unforeseen problems and then continuously making refinements.”
Built for the Job
Garner has taught at UVA since he was a graduate student in 2008, when he developed the very hands-on Advanced Mechatronics course under the mentorship of his advisor, the late Professor Pradip Sheth. He still teaches the class today.
Mechatronics combines traditional mechanical engineering with electrical and software engineering. In the class, students use circuits, sensors, motors, signals and microcontroller programming to make creative devices, from electric guitars with custom effects pedals to robots, all with intelligent features.
With a bachelor’s in physics from Colby College, Garner earned his master’s and Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering at UVA in 2009. He is a two-time winner of the Jefferson Scholars Foundation Hartfield Excellence in Teaching Award and a recipient of the Trigon Engineering Society’s Thomas E. Hutchinson Award, the UVA Engineering Mac Wade Award, and numerous other service and teaching honors — including 10 Mechanical Engineering Faculty Teacher of the Year awards over the past 17 years.
Sheth, his former advisor, had a lot to do with his trajectory, Garner said. It’s a testament to the ripple effect of excellent teaching.
“Pradip tragically passed away a few months after we developed Advanced Mechatronics,” Garner said. “He’s one of the reasons I’ve stuck around at UVA and dedicated so much energy to teaching here since then.”
