Design, Make, Play

Last month, NYSCI entered the publishing world with our new book: Design, Make, Play: Growing the Next Generation of STEM Innovators. Published by Routledge, the book includes case studies of innovative programs throughout the country that get young people interested in science and technology. Programs like the Tinkering Studio at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, the MAKESHOP at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, and Design Lab here at NYSCI.

With a shortage of Americans in science and technology fields, this is a book everyone should read. As Ursula Burns, Chairperson and CEO of Xerox Corporation, said,

“If you care about the future of our country, you should read this book and then put its lessons to work.”

Where’d You Get Those Pants?

A quirky fashion trend has been spotted around the city: crazily patterned pants with blue plaid, harlequin checks, and orange and brown swirls. The pants have crossed age and gender lines, with males and females, young and old, wearing the trendsetting garments.

The pants can’t be found at your neighborhood Gap store or at your favorite vintage clothing shop. In fact, they’re not really clothing at all, but a small photograph of pants attached to a thin stick. Using the “StickPic”, the camera on your mobile device, and a willing fashion victim, you can create a fun photo of someone wearing the crazy pants. But to make the photo truly come alive, you’ll need to use a little math.

StickPics are part of Digital Design Lab, a new project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that will create mobile apps for use in classrooms throughout the country. The Fancy Pants app, to be released later this year, will be the first of four apps that will turn your mobile phone into a scientific and mathematical tool. Fancy Pants will focus on proportions and forced perspective photography – math concepts that allow you to take a photo of your friend “wearing” those outrageous pants. Digital Design Lab will also include web videos with science-based design challenges and a website where students can post their ideas and solutions.

The central part of this project, however, are the apps, which will allow users to measure and document unexpected phenomena – like that guy wearing those pink psychedelic pants.

Next at NYSCI: ReGeneration

New York Hall of Science Presents ReGeneration, Opening October 27

Ten artists present their interpretations of cultural sustainability

Queens, N.Y. – ReGeneration, a new exhibition exploring the relationship between sustainability and cultural vitality, opens October 27 at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI). The exhibition includes interactive works by 10 artists that inspire visitors to think about the notion of cultural sustainability through collaborative engagement and futuristic visions built upon the history and traditions of New York’s diverse neighborhoods. The exhibition runs through January 13, 2013.

Despite the near ubiquity of the term “sustainability,” there remains significant ambiguity about everything from the actual meaning of the term to overarching solutions to the challenges we face as a community. Technology and behavioral changes including energy production, agriculture, recycling and pollution reduction are all on the table as we work to understand and address the challenge of sustainability.

View the exhibition site here.

“ReGeneration is an exhibition about the future,” says NYSCI president and CEO, Margaret Honey. “We challenged the artists to take inspiration from science and imagine a future where we live sustainably, not just in the foods we eat or the materials we use, but in our fundamental approach to how we view our communities and the interdependence between people and our environment.”

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LOOK WHAT’S COMING TO WORLD MAKER FAIRE - Speakers Announced

Bre Pettis and Chris Anderson headline the World Maker Faire speaker series. Check out the highlights of who is speaking at World Maker Faire, with talks and how-to workshops from the leaders in the maker movement speaking about science, technology, art, and more. 

• Bre Pettis from MakerBot Industries and Chris Anderson from Wired and 3D Robotics, and author of Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. Pettis and Anderson will discuss the lessons learned in building big maker businesses and give a glimpse of where they think this movement is going, in the talk “Going Big: From Maker Movement to New Industrial Revolution.” On the morning of Sunday, Sept. 30, Anderson will also speak on DIY drones (remote control quadcopters) in “Why Should the Military Have all the Cool Stuff?”
• Jack Hitt, This American Life contributor and author of Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character, will talk about Meredith Perry, founder of uBeam and the latest amateur to break out of her metaphorical garage as the inventor of the wireless battery charger, and how she’s part of the coming DIY revolution.
• David Pogue, New York Times technology columnist, will recount his adventures in hang-gliding, landing on a nuclear carrier, handling 10-foot sharks underwater, firing an AK-47, slicing a brain in half, and pouring a $12 million gold bar for his presentation, “Should Science Be Allowed to be Interesting? One Man’s Insane Journey through a TV Career on PBS.”
• Mason Peck, NASA’s chief technologist, will provide an update on the Mars Curiosity rover and NASA’s connections to the maker community in his presentation, “Working with NASA on Innovative Space Technology.”
• Alton and Carrie Barron, hand surgeon and psychiatrist author duo, will speak about their research and recent book, The Creativity Cure, showing why and how making things is good for our minds, moods, earning potential, and the economy.
• Jonathan Lippincott, author of Large Scale: Fabricating Sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s, will present the history of the sculptures made at his family’s large-scale sculpture fabrication company, Lippincott, Inc. Founded in 1966, Lippincott was the first fabricator dedicated exclusively to prototyping and building large-scale sculpture; they were the makers behind many familiar works by artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Louise Nevelson, Barnett Newman, and Ellsworth Kelly.
• Catarina Mota and Dustyn Roberts, co-chairs of the Open Hardware Summit, will explain how, over the last few years, open source hardware went from an obscure hobby to a burgeoning movement. The pair will review the defining events of the last few years to draw a snapshot of the current state of the open source hardware movement and the impact it’s having in maker culture and beyond.
• Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions at MIT, will offer advice to young makers (and parents of makers) on how best to prepare for the college experience and application process.
• Allan Chochinov, founder of Core77, will moderate “Design and DIY: How Makers are Influencing Product Design,” an industrial design community debate featuring a panel of industry leaders, including Tad Toulis of TEAGUE, Gadi Amit of New Deal Design, Carla Diana of Smart Design, and Jared Ficklin of Frog Design.
• Invigorating panel discussions include:
  
  
  • “After the Kickstarter” - Real stories from makers “going pro” and delivering on successful crowdfunding campaigns.
  • The latest in 3D printing and digital fabrication.
  • Firsthand reports on the diverse range of exciting new models of makerspaces (shared workshop environments that are taking off around the world).
  • Peter Meehan, former food writer for the New York Times and co-editor of the fun and irreverent food magazine Lucky Peach, interviews a panel of food makers (chefs!) that he admires most.