Over Coffee® | Stories and Resources from the Intersection of Art and Science | Exploring How to Mak Dot Cannon: Public Speaker & New-Media Reporter

At the Las Vegas Science and Technology Festival (https://www.scifest.vegas/), science and technology are multifaceted fun.Hands-on workshops, outdoor activities, tours and public talks occur throughout the nine days of this annual festival, presented by the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. All festival events are free.Started in 2011, the Festival has become the largest educational event in Nevada. Collaborators include the Clark County School District and the National Park Service,. A committee of community volunteers help to run the event.Programming is designed to make science and technology accessible and engaging to everyone--including guests who don't consider themselves primarily "science" or "tech" oriented. Art workshops, Aquarium tours, family crafts, hiking, and the BattleBots competition are just a few of more than 60 events that will span the nine days of this year's Las Vegas Science and Technology Festival, which begins on Friday, April 26th, and runs through Saturday, May 4th.And the ultimate goal: to continue to educate tomorrow's innovators, towards becoming a part of Nevada's growing STEM community."Our goal really is to spark an interest in STEM careers," says Las Vegas Science and Technology Festival Director Alexandra Liebman."It's...what happens outside the classroom, that can impact the students' interest."Alex talked about some of the upcoming Festival events, what's involved in the preparations, and the ways the Festival is breaking down barriers to future careers for future community leaders.

Are robotics for you?Absolutely, says author, researcher, educator and keynote speaker Dr. Carlotta Berry.Robotics, she continues, encompasses all areas of interest--including art, history, music and even creative writing.Carlotta, who teaches electrical engineering and robotics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana, has coined the term "NoireSTEMinist®" to describe her work. A "NoireSTEMinist®", she explains on her LinkedIn profile, "devises new and innovative ways to bring STEM to people and bring people to STEM in order to diversify the field".Her own new and innovative ways include writing black STEM romance novels (https://www.carlottaardell.com/), teaching "Robotics for the Streets" workshops to engage students and makers of all interests in robotics, and even creating hip-hop "Robot Slam Poetry" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKBBBkwgy9g&list=PL175eO9NwPXIaca48vKnUD46Fyc0cK4KO), combining robotics with Black history, on her YouTube channel.AND, as of March 2024, she's published her first in a children's book series, "There's a Robot in My Closet" (https://www.noiresteminist.com/post/children-s-books-coming-soon).(Carlotta also taught a virtual "Robotics for the Streets" workshop for the 2023 Make: Education forum, featuring a modular, open-source robot she created, which fellow educators could download and 3D print for use in their classrooms!)In this summer, 2023 interview, Carlotta discussed her professional journey, some of the ways arts-oriented students fit into the STEM professions and the story of creating her two nonprofits, Black in Engineering (https://blackinengineering.org/) and Black in Robotics (https://blackinrobotics.org/).

Over Coffee® is on spring-break hiatus. Please enjoy this reposting of one of our top episodes of 2023!Could you speak a 3D object into existence through AI?Well--not just yet.But ENGAGE XR (https://engagevr.io/) Senior Sales Engineer Chris Madsen says it's coming.While ENGAGE XR could technically be described as "an Ireland-based XR software firm", that phrasing doesn't capture the magic.ENGAGE puts XR content creation within everyone's reach--with or without coding or worldbuilding skills. They also have an AI assistant, as well as allowing you to bring people into your physical environment, to interact with the objects around you in 3D!Watching their journey has been especially exciting for us, as we first had the opportunity to meet and talk with Chris in 2019. (https://twomaverix.com/?p=20124)Since then, ENGAGE has celebrated multiple milestones.These included a landmark immersive event: last spring's Fatboy Slim “Eat Sleep VR Repeat” concert (https://engagevr.io/fatboy_slim_concert/)!And in this autumn, 2023 conversation, Chris indicated that much more is coming.We're looking forward to updates!

For award-winning educator Professor William Jackson (https://myquesttoteach.com/), imagination and creativity are the cornerstones of teaching.William is the Education Program Director for the World Metaverse Council (https://wmetac.com/). He is also a certified S.T.E.A.M. + M (science, technology, education and math, and the metaverse!) teacher, as well as a certified VR instructor. In addition, he is CEO of My Quest to Teach (https://myquesttoteach.com/) and MetaverseWP (https://metaversewp.com/).In collaboration with his wife, artist/educator Aida Correa Jackson (https://lovebuiltlife.com/), William teaches both virtual and in-person project-based learning classes. Using WordPress, they instruct students on website construction. And they're teaching globally, as well as locally. William and Aida have taught virtual classes in Africa, Pakistan and Taiwan, as well as their STEAM camps in Jacksonville, Florida. (Recently, they conducted a two-day S.T.E.A.M. camp where student projects were based on baseball principles!)In 2023, William and Aida were the recipients of the World Metaverse Award for Global Metaverse Education. Here is a link to the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSD4VLhAUJE) on one of their virtual classes, in which they taught VR, AR, AI, Metaverse , Ready Player Me and Spatial.io skills to university students in San Jose, Costa Rica,William talked about his experiences as an educator, explained how he and Aida create virtual worlds, and offered a preview of what's next.

Can artificial intelligence help to bridge the gender-based digital divide in our future tech workforce?That's exactly the goal of a brand-new initiative by global tech education nonprofit Technovation (https://www.technovation.org/).In January, Technovation announced "The AI Forward Allance". (https://technovationchallenge.org/)The AI Forward Alliance challenges teams of girls, ages 8 - 18 , to use artificial intelligence to come up with an app that solves a real-world problem. (It's also a completely-free program, accessible to any educators, community organizations and youth leaders who'd like to download the curriculum (https://technovationchallenge.org/curriculum-landing-page/)!)"Our thought was, 'why not bring all these voices together, to make sure women enter that global conversation around AI?'" explains Technovation Program Manager Abbey Mae Pitcher.And the young participants have created some pretty incredible applications (https://www.technovation.org/app-gallery/), addressing some of the real-world problems they've seen. Education, physical fitness, sustainability and entrepreneurship opportunities are just a few of the issues which their apps address.Abby Mae shared the story of the AI Forward Alliance, talked about her creative journey as an educator working with Technovation and offered a preview of what's next!

This post and podcast are not, in any way, shape or form, affiliated with, nor endorsed by, NASA. We are NOT employed by NASA. (We just think this is very exciting stuff!)"There is no better feeling you'll have in life, than achieving something or succeeding as a team,," says NASA Astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Captain Stephen G. Bowen (https://www.nasa.gov/people/stephen-g-bowen/).He would certainly know.Steve's career, so far, has included four flights to the International Space Station and ten spacewalksOn his most recent spaceflight, Steve served as Commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission. On March 2, 2023, he and his crew launched for the ISS aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. This particular mission would mark his longest stay aboard the ISS: a total of six months.On this most recent stay aboard the ISS, Steve had the opportunity to see how well his previous projects had gone. During his previous three, shorter trips to the International Space Station, he and his fellow astronauts had rebuilt parts of it!A view from the ISSWhile aboard the International Space Station, he and the crew conducted scientific research--with experiments from all around the world."We're doing hundreds of experiments at a time," Steve says. The space station, he explains, is a national laboratory, and he found a couple of the medical-science experiments, especially, "incredibly exciting".But intense workdays didn't preclude having fun."Every mission had its incredibly enjoyable parts," Steve says."...Just the people I've been able to spend time with on orbit...incredible human beings to have the opportunity to spend time with, and that just makes it so much fun."Steve talked about his background, offered a look at life aboard the International Space Station and explained some of the ways astronauts' work in space can improve life on Earth.