STEM
carlyo | April 3, 2015Why is InfoComm International, the leading trade association for the audiovisual technology industry, returning this year as the sponsor of the Festival's prominent Nifty Fifty school visit program? The primary reason, says InfoComm executive Betsy Jaffe, is Nifty Fifty's powerful potential to transform students' attitude and performance in STEM. Which is why, she reports, InfoComm's involvement will be even more exciting and student-focused in 2015!
Read full blog here.
carlyo | March 4, 2015
Why can't we inspire kids to become just as excited about science and engineering as most are about sports and entertainment celebrities?
Get ready as MedImmune, the global biopharmaceutical leader which wowed audiences as a major sponsor of the Festival's X-STEM Symposium last year, returns for Festival 2015 this spring to help answer this key question!
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carlyo | February 20, 2015
In observance of African American History Month in February, the USA Science & Engineering Festival recognizes the accomplishments of African American pioneers and the important role they have played in paving the way for modern-day African American STEM leaders and innovators including Festival X-STEM and Nifty Fifty Speakers.
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carlyo | February 16, 2015By Nifty Fifty Host Carol Bengle Gilbert
Very often, even the host can't helped but be inspired by the Nifty Fifty talks. Monday, I listened to Dr. Ellen Stofan, NASA's chief scientist, address middle school students at the Nysmith School for the Gifted in Herndon, Virginia. The school decided to announce the science fair winners in conjunction with our event. (The kids in front of our sign in the photo are a few of the many winners.) This was a fun touch!
Her talk brought out many interesting aspects of the work NASA does, but it was a student comment that really got me thinking. Dr. Stofan…
gregladen | February 7, 2015From FiveThirtyEight:
You probably don’t know the name Grace Hopper, but you should.
As a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, Hopper worked on the first computer, the Harvard Mark 1. And she headed the team that created the first compiler, which led to the creation of COBOL, a programming language that by the year 2000 accounted for 70 percent of all actively used code. Passing away in 1992, she left behind an inimitable legacy as a brilliant programmer and pioneering woman in male-dominated fields.
Hopper’s story is told in “The Queen of Code,” directed by Gillian Jacobs (of “Community” fame). It…
carlyo | February 4, 2015 Image Via NASA
In our recent STEM in the News blog, X-STEM Festival Speaker and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci discusses the importance of childhood vaccinations and his frustration with the recent Disneyland measles outbreak, Festival Nifty Fifty Speaker and Material Scientist Dr. Ainissa Ramirez breaks down the science of "Deflategate", NASA holds the first ever "State of NASA" event, find out what causes the smell of rain and learn about exciting STEM scholarships and fellowships. Click here to read more.
catdynamics | January 4, 2015One of the joys of the holidays and the University turning off the heating and locking us out, is that it provides time to catch up on things: papers, refereeing, recommendation letters, grading, syllabi, proposals, all the stuff one can rarely get to during actual working semester hours.
And, sometimes, there is time for real life: casual reading, family, catching up online...
One of the ye olde blog things I like to look over occasionally is Scott Aaronson's shtetl-optimized, for the latest on P!=NP news, or polemic on quantum computing.
This time, what caught my eye was his take on the…
carlyo | December 18, 2014The ‘Nifty Fifty (times 4)’, a program of Science Spark, presented by InfoComm International, are a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, D.C. area in the 2014-2015 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools.
Meet Nifty Fifty Speaker Dr. Erica Ellingson
Her research is key to shedding further light on how the cosmos began and its future development.
"My work focuses mostly on topics concerning the evolution of galaxies and quasars, and observational cosmology-- the origin, contents and…
carlyo | December 9, 2014The Hour of Code is back! The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Learn how you can participate here: http://hourofcode.com/us
http://youtu.be/FC5FbmsH4fw
carlyo | December 1, 2014
Tomorrow is #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back. On #GivingTuesday, please support the USA Science & Engineering Festival and our mission to stimulate and sustain the interest of our nation's youth in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by producing and presenting the most compelling, exciting, and educational Festival in the world with a tax-deductible donation.
Your donations to the USA Science & Engineering Festival will:
Keep the Festival Expo Finale FREE and open to the public with thousands of hands-on exhibits, stage shows and much more!…
carlyo | November 26, 2014
Continuing our efforts to celebrate STEM all year long, we have joined forces with Raw Science to create a Youth Category for their film festival. The Raw Science Film Festival celebrates the exciting world of film and science. "We wanted to create a film festival that significantly supported filmmakers who share the wonderful world of science and technology through exceptional film and video content," explains Mitchell Block, Executive Director of Programming for Raw Science. "Our goal is to find, present, award and promote the youngest generation of student filmmakers all the way to the…
carlyo | November 25, 2014By participating as a Sponsor in the upcoming Festival, your organization will be aligned with the nation's leading science and engineering institutions that recognize the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and its impact on our country.
In our most recent Festival in 2014, more than 1,000 organizations participated, including our Festival host Lockheed Martin, in addition to Northrop Grumman Foundation, Chevron, Caterpillar, WalMart, U.S. Air Force, MedImmune, NIH, NASA, NSF, State Department, DoD, USDA, EPA, CIA, Georgetown, University of…
carlyo | November 18, 2014The ‘Nifty Fifty (times 4)’, a program of Science Spark, presented by InfoComm International, are a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, D.C. area in the 2014-2015 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools.
Meet Nifty Fifty Speaker Dr. Jennifer Elisseef
Each year in medicine the low availability of donor tissue and organs for transplantation grows even more acute, but scientists -- working in an emerging, high-tech frontier called tissue engineering -- are helping to address the crisis by…
carlyo | November 13, 2014The ‘Nifty Fifty (times 4)’, a program of Science Spark, presented by InfoComm International, are a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, D.C. area in the 2014-2015 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools.
Meet Nifty Fifty Speaker Dr. Jordan Green
As a researcher, Jordan Green, Ph.D. is on the front lines of creating innovative technologies and therapeutics that can directly benefit human health.
Specifically, this involves employing techniques in cellular engineering and nanobiotechnology…
carlyo | November 10, 2014The ‘Nifty Fifty (times 4)’, a program of Science Spark, presented by InfoComm International, are a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, D.C. area in the 2014-2015 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools.
Meet Nifty Fifty Speaker Dr. Tim Chartier
As a mathematician and researcher par excellence specializing in numerical linear algebra, Tim Chartier, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Davidson College, is known for pushing the boundaries of…
carlyo | November 4, 2014The ‘Nifty Fifty (times 4)’, a program of Science Spark, presented by InfoComm International, are a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, D.C. area in the 2014-2015 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools.
Meet Nifty Fifty Speaker Karen Elkins
Vaccines against diseases such as measles, polio, and whooping cough have greatly reduced deaths and suffering. These vaccines are designed to mimic the microbes that cause the disease. When given a vaccine, the body's immune system is inspired to…
carlyo | October 22, 2014Teachers in the D.C. Metropolitan area- we are now accepting applications for the Nifty Fifty (x4) Program! Click here to apply NOW to host a speaker at your school during the 2014/2015 school year. Nifty Fifty talks will take place during the months of February, March and April of 2015.
The deadline to apply is Friday, November 21, 2014. Submit your application by following this link and select your top speaker choices. Speakers are available for middle and high schools in Washington D.C. and surrounding areas.
Some of the new speakers joining our program include:
Deborah Bass, Ph.D. - The…
carlyo | October 20, 2014The ‘Nifty Fifty (times 4)’, a program of Science Spark, presented by InfoComm International, are a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, D.C. area in the 2014-2015 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools.
Meet Nifty Fifty Speaker Dr. Alberto Gutierrez
Welcome to the age of Personalized Medicine -- an emerging era of medical science which involves the development of drugs and other treatments that are tailored specifically to an individual patient, or a group, with certain genetic…
carlyo | October 17, 2014The ‘Nifty Fifty (times 4)’, a program of Science Spark, presented by InfoComm International, are a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, D.C. area in the 2014-2015 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools.
Meet Nifty Fifty Speaker Nick Schneider
When NASA's newest robotic explorer, MAVEN, was launched in the Fall of 2013 and rocketed toward Mars on an historic quest to unravel the ancient mystery of the red planet's upper atmosphere, it carried sophisticated technology designed and built by…
carlyo | October 8, 2014The ‘Nifty Fifty (times 4)’, a program of Science Spark, presented by InfoComm International, are a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, D.C. area in the 2014-2015 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools.
Meet Nifty Fifty Speaker Dr. Dacher Keltner
What are the origins our emotions, such as love, happiness, compassion and empathy -- feelings which help define us as humans?
Welcome to the research world of social psychologist Dacher Keltner where he is exploring the biological and…