The J.B. Coxwell Amphitheater is a 100,000-square-foot bowl of sloped lawn and a lighted stage on the University of North Florida campus, built to seat 6,000 people for concerts and homecoming battles of the bands. On the morning of Saturday, October 24, it will be given over to something less loud but arguably more consequential: robots, circuit boards, virtual reality headsets, and a table where kids can crack the binary code of a computer and walk away with their own keychain.
STEM on the Lawn Jacksonville runs from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is free, with no ticket required, though organizers ask families to register in advance. It is aimed squarely at K-12 students and their families, and it is the work of two universities that do not usually share a lawn: the University of Florida's Florida Semiconductor Institute, or FSI, hosting in partnership with UNF.
The pairing is newer than it might look. UF's Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering announced the creation of the Florida Semiconductor Institute in October 2023, positioning it as a campus- and state-wide coordinating hub for chip research and, just as importantly, for the workforce that chip research requires. The timing was not accidental. Congress had passed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act in 2022, pouring billions of federal dollars into bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States, and Florida — which already claimed the nation's fifth-largest semiconductor workforce — wanted a seat at that table.
"Microchips are an integral part of our society," UF President Ben Sasse said at the launch. "The Florida Semiconductor Institute will serve as a hub to coordinate activities that will support the development and manufacturing of these vital chips here in Florida."
Volker J. Sorger, the institute's director and UF's Walden and Paula Rhines Professor in Semiconductor Photonics, made the case more bluntly: "While some states are just now starting to invest in semiconductor technology, Florida's microchip industry is well established, and provides mission-critical chips for space, defense, and communication systems." The institute launched with more than 60 faculty members drawn from departments across the college, and the state had already put $50 million behind semiconductor manufacturing, advanced packaging, and development projects.
What brings FSI to Jacksonville is a larger institutional bet. In March 2025, UF leaders told the university's Board of Trustees that research space for the institute was expected to open in Jacksonville as early as that fall, while UF continued design and planning for a newly built FSI facility as part of a UF Jacksonville campus downtown. The institute's Jacksonville mission is specialty electronics — the chips that go into defense, space, and communications systems — which dovetails with the region's heavy military and contractor presence.
"The Florida Semiconductor Institute is a gamechanger for Jacksonville's economy," Mayor Donna Deegan said when the Jacksonville plans were announced. "It will accelerate our efforts to create good-paying, cutting-edge jobs and develop a workforce that is prepared for industries of the future. The focus on national security research will complement our large military presence and the companies that support that important work."
Mori Hosseini, chair of UF's Board of Trustees, framed it as a two-way street: "The Florida Semiconductor Institute will be a huge asset for Jacksonville and an enormous boost for Florida's economy, and having FSI in Jacksonville will be a huge asset for UF."
All of which explains why a semiconductor institute is running a family festival on a lawn. The institute's stated ambition is not only to advance research but to build a pipeline — to make sure that when the fabrication plants and design labs expand, there are Floridians ready to staff them. That pipeline starts earlier than most people assume. FSI's own framing of the event is that it is "designed to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, inventors, and problem-solvers."
STEM on the Lawn is not a one-off experiment. The institute held an earlier edition in Gainesville, with hands-on stations on circuits, virtual reality, and chemistry, live robotics and engineering challenges, a STEM selfie booth with science-themed props, exhibitor tables from UF departments and community STEM organizations, and free food. The Jacksonville date is the concept's expansion to the institute's new home region.
The Jacksonville program follows the same template. According to the event listing, attendees can expect hands-on activities including circuits, virtual reality, and chemistry experiments; a STEM selfie station; dedicated robotics and engineering zones; demonstrations of how microchips power everyday technology; and a showcase where visitors can meet faculty, students, researchers, and community organizations from UF, UNF, and across Northeast Florida. Complimentary refreshments will be available while supplies last. UNF's Professional and Lifelong Learning office has said it will staff a table where kids can decode binary and make their own UNF binary keychain — a small, tangible introduction to the language underneath every screen in the room.
The venue itself has a modest origin story worth knowing. The amphitheater opened in August 2010 as part of UNF's Student Union project, and it carries the name of J.B. Coxwell, owner of J.B. Coxwell Contracting Inc., who donated the labor and supplies that went into building it. A construction company's generosity produced a stage; years later, that stage hosts an event about the machines built from sand.
For families, the practical details are simple. The event runs 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, 2026, at the J.B. Coxwell Amphitheater on UNF's campus at 1 UNF Drive in Jacksonville. Admission is free and open to the public, with registration available through UNF's application portal. Parking and visitor information are posted through UNF.
There is a certain logic to holding it outdoors, on a lawn, rather than in a lecture hall. Semiconductors are the least visible technology most people depend on — nobody sees the chip, only the phone, the car, the satellite. An event built around meeting a robot, trying a headset, and asking a researcher a question is an attempt to make the invisible thing concrete while the audience is still young enough to find it magical rather than ordinary. The institute's bet, essentially, is that a Saturday morning on the grass is where a workforce begins.