Chief Delphi - USA Science and Engineering Festival

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USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

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USA Science and Engineering Festival
Festival Dates: Oct. 10-24, 2010
Expo on the National Mall in Washington DC: Oct. 23 & 24, 2010

I am posting this now because the Festival is accepting proposals from students to bring an exhibit to the Expo on the Mall and giving $250 grants to help. Due Jan. 31, 2010.
https://scholarnexus.wufoo.com/forms...lication-form/

Read about the Festival, the Expo, the satellite events, the jingle contest, the 150+ exhibitors to-date here: http://usasciencefestival.org/

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

So, is this where all the FIRST teams are supposed to bring their robots?

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Quote:

Host a Satellite Event

Help us make the USA Science & Engineering Festival a truly national experience by hosting a Satellite Event in your area. Whether you are a student club, school, university, community organization or company, why not put on your own celebration of science the same weekend that thousands of people celebrate science in the National Mall?
Our goal is to have hundreds of Satellite Events throughout the country, anchored to the USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo on the Mall on October 23 and 24, 2010. You can make it as small or as big as you want. It can be a single activity put on by your student club, a small celebration at your school or company, a larger event that involves organizations from your community, or a full fletched Festival modeled after the USA Science & Engineering Festival.

You create it, and we help you market it by including your information on our website and in our newsletters. That way, anyone in the nation can check our website to see what’s happening in their backyard the weekend of the USA Science & Engineering Festival. It’s a great way to get your community excited about science, and to put your organization on the national map.

Linking Festivals across the Nation

Then join the fun by having your event attendees participate in a nationwide activity to take place at all locations at the same time. While we are exploring several options in terms of what this activity might be, we do welcome your ideas! It will have to be something science-related that is easily replicated in many locations - similar to initiatives like “Earth Hour”, where households across the globe were asked to switch off their lights at the same time. Ideally, it would be an activity that allows us to collect digital data from across the country which could be displayed on a huge digital map in real time. This could involve texting, a wordle (www.wordle.net), twitter or other tools. Or it could be something completely different. We welcome your ideas! Please send them to Ruth Kiefer at rkiefer at mindspring.com

Why host a Satellite Event in your community?
• It’s fun to organize!
• Get people in your community excited about science and engineering!
• Be part of the biggest celebration of science & engineering in the World!
• Get media coverage in your community by linking your activity to the USA Science & Engineering Festival.
• Increase awareness of your organization by having your event listed on the USA Science & Engineering Festival website.

Three easy steps to get going:
Review the “Recipe for a Satellite Event” below to give you some ideas
Fill out the form below to let us know that you are interested in organizing a Satellite Event in your community
Once you have figured out the date, time, location and what you will be doing, fill out our online Satellite Event form to have your information listed on our website (this form will be made available at a later date)

Our promise to you:
• We will list your event information on our website so people can find you
• We will announce the Satellite Events on our homepage and in our newsletters with a link to the listings on our site
• We will keep you up to date on the national community activity and other relevant information to make your event a success
• We will provide USA Science & Engineering Festival graphics for you to download from our website so you can use them in your own marketing materials
• We will provide you with the opportunity to buy USA Science & Engineering Festival T-shirts at a discounted price for use at your event

Your commitment:
• You will organize the Satellite Event in your community
• Your event must be free of charge for attendees
• You will participate in the national USA Science & Engineering Festival activity (details to be determined)
• You will provide a post-event report through an online form we will provide, so we can track how many people participated in the USA Science & Engineering Festival nationwide

Recipe for your Satellite Event
Here are some ideas for you that have worked for us:
• Decide what you want to do
• Your date(s) will be the same as the USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo: Oct. 23 & 24, 2010
• Choose a location
• Invite local organizations, schools, colleges and universities, and scientists and engineers to participate by putting on fun, hands-on, interactive science activities for children (we typically provide a 10x10 festival tent to each organization, but depending on your location and the number of exhibitors you might be able to make the space bigger, or not need tents at all)
• Ask each participating organization to provide you with a catchy title and short description of their activity
• Market your event to the local community by:
• asking participating organizations to spread the word to their communities through their e-newsletters and websites asking local school districts and universities and colleges to help you spread the word to their student body
• sending out a press release to local media mentioning that you are part of the Inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival
• sending out email announcements
• listing your event on local online community calendars
Would you like to host a Satellite Event? Then please fill out the form below to let us know what you are planning to do (even if you don't know all the details yet.) This will allow us to stay in touch with you with new accouncements pertaining to Satellite Events. Thank you for making the USA Science & Engineering Festival a truly national experience!
We are proud to partner with COPUS to inspire people across the nation to organize Satellite Events.

I have an idea -- Everywhere there is a Regional we set up a Satellite event... This would be great publicity for FIRST! A great off-season event also!! *hopes this is Dean's homework*

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoboMom (Post 892820)

USA Science and Engineering Festival
Festival Dates: Oct. 10-24, 2010
Expo on the National Mall in Washington DC: Oct. 23 & 24, 2010

I am posting this now because the Festival is accepting proposals from students to bring an exhibit to the Expo on the Mall and giving $250 grants to help. Due Jan. 31, 2010.
https://scholarnexus.wufoo.com/forms...lication-form/

Woot! On this Festival web page (09_SDSF_Recap_Video), you can see guests using the 5th Gear simulation of FIRST's Overdrive game at the recent 2009 San Diego Science Fair.

Freeze the video at 1:12 to see the 6 student/player's faces.
Freeze it at 1:13 to see the simulated robots and track balls on a laptop screen.

I looked for other FIRST material in the video but didn't spot any. Regardless, I think there were (at least) a few San Diego area bots exhibited in that festival.

Blake

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Dean had made a reference to 'robots on the Mall'.....is this the event he was referring to? I agree we should organize Satellite events. It's a great opportunity.

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon236 (Post 893104)

Dean had made a reference to 'robots on the Mall'.....is this the event he was referring to?

That would be a great question for HQ!

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Sign up for Rubik's Cube contest (open to teams from VA/DC/MD-registration closes April 30)
and learn about the Expo on the Mall in DC (field trip!) and all the
exhibitors.
Lots of opportunities to be involved in Expo or to host a satellite
event.

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

K-12 Students: Tell us why Science is Cool!
USA Science & Engineering Festival Kavli Science Video Contest opens April 1.
Have your video screened on the National Mall, win prize money and possibly even a trip to the Expo in Washington D.C.!

http://www.usasciencefestival.org/in...92&It emid=93

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Exhibits and performances posted:
http://www.usasciencefestival.org/2010festival/expo/

There are a few FIRST-related booths, including one for an individual FRC team.
Also a booth for The Dean of Invention: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=86708

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

This is the week. http://www.usasciencefestival.org/2010festival/expo

FIRST can be found at NM-3 Booths 341-357 (numbering makes me smile...) I have no details to give, but know teams have been invited.

Lots of Robotics Education and Competition Foundation representation in the Lockheed Martin Tent #3. (located NM-4, across from Air and Space Museum). There will be numerous playing fields with a specially designed game using VEX robots, cycling students/guests through hands-on driving.

Come by and say hello!

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Glad to hear the Teams will be there!

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

We're lucky enough to be bringing a subset of our team to run a booth. I don't know if it's the one that Jenny is referring to, but I've heard we're going to be in the a tent with the Discovery Channel and DEKA. We'll have our 2006 robot and possibly our 2010 robot on display. Stop by and say hi if you're in the area.

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Dave, from the map and your description it looks like you will be:
Dean of Invention -- Science Channel by Science Channel Section NM-1, Booth Number(s) 103

I will be hanging with the RECF/VEX folks both Sat. and Sun. Seems like there may be some opportunities here for a, ahem, mentor executive board meeting, one of the evenings.

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoboMom (Post 977569)

Too bad you can't overlap with the Sanity Rally.....THAT would be an interesting mentor meeting!

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Team 341 will be there, along with our 2010 robot!

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoboMom (Post 972833)

In addition to the NM-4 tent Jenny mentioned (more or less across the street from the Air & Space Museum) where Jenny and I will be introducing a few thousand of our new best friends to the RECF/VRC; up at the foot of the Capital building steps, in the NM-1 area, Lockheed Martin and FIRST are filling a tent with a 5th Gear set-up and a 20' x 30' mini-field where guests will able to drive some Breakaway bots.

That's where you will find Jared and reps/robots from 5? other FRC teams.

Both of these exhibits are in big 30 x 80' tents - It will be hard to miss them.

See you there!

Blake

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Team 241 is hosting the ONLY satellite event for the USA Science and Engineering Festival 2010 in New England. It is free and you should all check it out. www.nhtechfest.org

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Blake,
Maybe we'll be able to see your display. The DEKA tent is not far from the Capitol. Looking forward to a great event.

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz (Post 977686)

Blake,
Maybe we'll be able to see your display. The DEKA tent is not far from the Capitol. Looking forward to a great event.

Al - That will be a delight - I probably won't get to see any of the Expo beyond "my" tent's walls. :(

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

SolidWorks will be there too in booth (tent) 1365. Stop by and say hi. Engineers at play. Marie

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by gblake (Post 977631)

That's where you will find Jared and reps/robots from 5? other FRC teams.

Yep, there are 6 FRC teams from PA, MD, and VA who are participating in this exhibit (I won't try to name them because the only information I have is somewhat outdated).

Come drive our robots!

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

What a great day to be an engineer and love robots! If you are anywhere near the Washington DC area, this is the place to be today. The USA Science and Engineering Festival is filled with amazing exhibits that makes you want to explore, touch and experience science, math and engineering that is just fun. I saw Dean yesterday during an interview with Engineering.com and he talked about his passion, FIRST and his new TV show Planet Green. SolidWorks is on Pennsylvania Avenue between 13th and 14th we are sharing a 30 foot tent with the STEM Academy, they have a large track out front with cars you can race. Our new robot tutorials www.SolidWorks.com/Robotics are a big hit.

More information can be found at my blog http://blogs.solidworks.com/teacher/...stival.html#tp - I am so excited to be here.

Marie

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Hey everybody. We are at the USA Science & Engineering Festival! We are doing a stage presentation at 2pm today on the Wilson Stage. If anybody is out here for teh event come see us!

We are doing a presentation called Building ROV's for Underwater and Space.

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by falconmaster (Post 978187)

We are doing a presentation called Building ROV's for Underwater and Space.

Awesome! That's going to be an interesting presentation, I'm sure.

Hope everyone is having a great time at the USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010.

Jane

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

I went on Sunday and spent most of my time at the RECF/VEX/LM tent. (How can anyone pass up a chance to hang out with Jenny for the day?) It was very impressive with all the future roboteers that came through. (4,000 on Sat, I'm guessing about that number for Sunday too) They had a blast playing robot soccer with the VEX robots.

Lots of kids had on the "I Love Robotics" stickers and were excited about what they had seen. We also had lots of roboteers that were interested in Lego and I sent them "down the street" (go to the big space capsule and turn left) to learn more about FLL,

We also had a batch that knew how to drive the XBox like controller already, they had been down at the ROV tent driving around. Those kids were really excited about that.

I was able to walk around before things got going at 10. The huge numbers of Science related tents was amazing. All the people were jazzed about what was going on and all the stuff to see. In mid afternoon people were saying that they were coming next year for two days so they could see it all. (And I got to meet Bill Nye the Science Guy, almost as cool as hanging out with JVN)

The sponsors of the event should be very proud of what they've done. Thanks Lockheed Martin for your support, I'm guessing we'll have 100's of new roboteers joining us soon.

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

I discussed some of my experiences at this wonderful event here:
http://jvengineering.blogspot.com/20...on-part-2.html

Very, very cool. Kudos to Lockheed Martin for everything they did to make this happen...

-John

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

6 FRC teams had hundreds of little kids driving their robots. I'm sure our robot got more field time there than all of our previous robots combined :ahh:.

The teams were
7 (MD)
341 (PA)
623 (VA)
1389 (MD)
1885 (VA)
2068 (VA)

Total drive time on the field was about 2 hours per robot. Talk about lessons in quality! There were some great nuances that came from it too:
- Children will tell you exactly how complicated your 'simple' controls are. Even kids who play Halo are not necessarily more inclined to like halo-style controls for a live robot.
- Long endurance usage of Mecanum drive is not recommended due to excessive maintenance
- Jaguars do not mix with dust & humidity
- Use locktite if you use the tapped end of an AndyMark transmission shaft to keep your sprockets/hubs on the transmission, especially if the transmission powers the drive wheels
- AndyMark Toughbox Nano's are beastly so long as they're kept clean. Throw in some dust and carpet lint and they'll start grinding down down just like any other transmission. Keep them clean and they won't give any problems, even if the wheels are cantilevered directly onto the output shafts (assuming the wheel is as close to the transmission as practical)
- After coming off of the field: a cold motor is burned out; a warm motor is good; a hot Window Motor makes a very unhappy student or mentor.

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by JVN (Post 979402)

I discussed some of my experiences at this wonderful event here:
http://jvengineering.blogspot.com/20...on-part-2.html

As to this comment in John's blog

Quote:

Wildstang's itsy bitsy robot pen -- Raul, I don't think the swerve was important in this application.

Here's a picture that shows the *enormous* amount of carpet that we had to drive on. So enormous in fact that I don't think we could have turned 90 degrees if we wanted to :)

http://wildstangpictures.shutterfly.com/59

Feel free to browse the entire gallery here

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

There a few pictures posted on the Mythbuster's website. Check one of our student's getting his shirt autographed by Kari Byron.

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/my...l-expo-09.html

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

The organizer Larry Bock is asking for photos.

PM me if you need his email.

Re: USA Science and Engineering Festival - 2010

I didn't want to start a new thread yet.
Unfortunately the Festival dates for 2012 (they are skipping fall 2011) overlap with FIRST Championship in St. Louis.