USA Science & Engineering Festival
carlyo | February 21, 2015 Photo Credit: Focus Features
In our recent STEM in the News Blog, read how science is making waves at the 87th Academy Awards, our Youth Advisory Board is working to encourage more girls to pursue computer science, stereotypes need to be shifted and students in middle and high school can attend the ultimate STEM field trip. Click here to read the full blog.
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…
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.
carlyo | January 2, 2015By USA Science & Engineering Festival Nifty Fifty and X-STEM Speaker Dr. Jeff Goldstein
Note: The launch of the CRS-5 is set for 6:20 am ET, January 6, on SpaceX-5 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, adjacent to Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
I thought it would be important to put up a blog post on the October 28, 2014, loss of Orb-3 and the SSEP Mission 6 Yankee Clipper payload of experiments, something that could capture the experience in that moment. I think it is an important story to share with the thousands of SSEP students across the nation and in Canada who are invested in this…
carlyo | December 22, 2014
As Dean Kamen, inventor of such amazing technologies as the the Segway human transporter and one of the world's most advanced robotic arm prostheses, often says: "Our nation is enamored with sports and entertainment, but how can we groom kids to become as passionate about innovation?"
At the Festival's fascinating all-day X-STEM Symposium, presented by MedImmune next spring, you'll not only meet Dean but also a compendium of other renowned STEM visionaries to explore the passion and excitement of innovation!
Prepare to be amazed and inspired as X-STEM Extreme, set for Tuesday, April 28, 2015…
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 16, 2014By USA Science & Engineering Festival Nifty Fifty Speaker Jeff Potter
Jeff Potter's Patent-Violating* Chocolate Chip Cookies. Photo by Jeff Potter
One of the biggest advantages that home-cooked foods have over store-bought goods is time. Commercial products have to be shelf-stable, so manufacturers have to come up with clever tricks to mimic home cooking. What if we dug into the literature and tried using those tricks for ourselves?
A freshly baked cookie—“just like Mom used to make!”—ends up being crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. Some enterprising researchers at UC…
carlyo | December 1, 2014Tomorrow 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 27, 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. Briana Pobiner
What does it mean to be human? Like other scientists in the field of anthropology, Briana Pobiner, a paleoanthropologist and science educator at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, uses this question as an important framework as…
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 15, 2014Nearly 800 volunteers and exhibitors brought the Lockheed Martin 2014 USA Science & Engineering Festival pavilion to life last April 25-27, including more than 40 hands-on demonstrations from across the corporation in the areas of nanotechnology, data analytics, robotics, energy, advanced aeronautics, and scientific discovery.
A photo album is available online here, where you will see participants, young and old, flying cockpit simulators, trying on Antarctica cold weather gear, building and flying gliders, learning about 3D printing, and enjoying the many others activities in our…