Newsletter No. 16 - May 17, 2010  |
Festival Dates: Expo Dates:
10/10/10 - 10/24/10 10/23 & 10/24
Teachers and Principals in the DC area:
Apply NOW to host a Nifty Fifty speaker at your school. Application Deadline is May 31. View Speaker Bios Here. Go straight to the application form.
Exhibitors:
You will receive an email later this week with lots of important information, including the signage template.
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An d the Science Idols are...
Ryan Miyakawa
and Daniel Rubalsky and his band State the Name!
You voted and we listened: the winner of the USA Science & Engineering Jingle Contest is Ryan Miyakawa and his song "Come and Play at the USA Science & Engineering Festival". The runner-up was so close behind that we created a 2nd prize for Daniel Rubalsky and his band, State the Name, and their song "The Science Festival is Coming".
Ryan Miyakawa is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in applied science and technology at UC Berkeley. Daniel Rubalsky is a 15-year old tenth-grader from Reisterstown, MD.
Although their backgrounds are seemingly as different as night and day, both used their individual talents as songwriters to pen the winning entries in the USA Science & Engineering Festival's Jingle Contest..
More than 100 individuals entered the contest from various parts of the country.
Ryan Miyakawa
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Placing first in the competition for a prize of $500 was Ryan's composition, "Come and Play at the USA Science and Engineering Festival!"-- an uplifting, catchy tune sung by UC Berkeley undergraduate Glory Liu (with help from two talented children singers).
Winning second place for $250 (a prize Festival organizers added due to the large number of votes from the public for this song) was Daniel and his four-member band, State the Name, with their song, "The Science Festival is Coming," a cleverly-written rock tune with an infectious chorus and grunge feel.
Both songs will be receiving ample "air play" before and during the Festival as we look to unite and inspire everyone toward the common goal of the Festival: motivating and educating the next generation of scientists and engineers.
How did these tunesmiths come to write their award-winning songs? Both seem to have been encouraged by one of their teachers or academic advisors who had heard of the USA Science & Engineering Festival and its Jingle Contest. "For me, it was one of my advisors, Jeff Bokor,a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Berkeley," says Ryan, a songwriter with eclectic tastes in music and who began his musical training on the piano 15 years ago.
Prof. Bokor encouraged Ryan to enter the contest with Ryan's music partner Glory Liu, a Berkeley student who had studied voice and sung competitively in high school. Since meeting as teaching assistants in a Physics of Music class four years ago, Ryan and Glory have teamed up as songwriting partners various time, including writing the catchy "Nano Song" - a song they penned for a video contest for the American Chemical Society. The song went viral on YouTube last year. Glory will graduate with a dual degree in classics and political economy this month and then plans to enter Cambridge University in England for a one-year Masters program.
Kassie Demopoulous, Glory Liu and Noa Perlmutter on the UC Berkeley campus. | To give their winning Festival composition more of a fun "kid's feel" in the vocals, Ryan and Glory enlisted the help of seven-year-old Noa Perlmutter (daughter of well-known UC Berkeley astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter) and 11 year-old Kassie Demopoulous (daughter of Glory's thesis advisor).
"The song took us about a week to write, with Ryan doing the music and most of the lyrics," says Glory. "From the start, we wanted the verses to be jingle-like and the chorus, catchy while fitting the entire title of the Festival in the chorus."
Here's a sampling of what voters in the competition had to say about the song:
"Beautiful melody, very creative, a lovely song."
"The children singing is really a nice way to include kids!"
"Makes me want to go to the USA science festival."
"This is so well done! I love it!"
For Daniel an d his band, State the Name, encouragement to enter the Festival contest came via Daniel's former math teacher, Shari McCormick at Gerstell Academy in Finkburg, Maryland, whose school had already entered the Festival's Rubik's Cube Contest when she saw the notice for the jingle competition.
"I'm glad she advised us to enter the song competition -- people are singing our song all over the school!" says Daniel, who attends Gerstell Academy in the day while taking night classes in calculus at nearby Carroll Community College. He is thinking of becoming a computer scientist.
State the Name, formed in 2008, consists of Daniel on lead guitar and vocals, Matt Fairhurst, 19, on bass, Justin Fairhurst, 16, on drums, and Nitzan Frock, 17, on vocals and rhythm guitar.
Matt attends the University of Maryland-Baltimore County where he majors in statistics, while Justin and Nitzan (who likes physics and art) attend Franklin High School in Reisterstown.
Recorded in Daniel's basement, "The Science Festival is Coming," represents a cool chemistry of rock musical influences that have inspired the band -from Radiohead and Guns 'n' Roses to MCR and Buckethead.
"In the song, we tried to convey the excitement of the Festival so that listeners can jump on the bandwagon and participate in the event," says Nitzan. "And we wanted a chorus that was catchy, something that stuck in your mind," added Daniel. "We never wrote a jingle before, but it seems to have worked because we have people coming up to us saying they can't get the song out of their heads."
Voters in the competition seem to agree. Here's just a sampling of what they had to say about the song: "I like the rock and roll music which seems like a contradiction with what is
typically associated with scientists."
"I like the unique rock style. I think it's more suitable for the population of the kids of variable ages."
"Very catchy melody, very unique."
Listen to Ryan's and Daniel's songs
Click here to view the USA Science & Engineering Festival video set to Ryan's song on YouTube.
Congratulations to the winners and a big thank you to the other top contenders and all who submitted!
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Festival Update:
New Nifty Fifty Speakers, New Nobel Laureates, New Sponsors and Media Partners
From Climate Change to Military Defense-here are our newest Nifty Fifty: High-school
Teachers in the DC area: Click here to apply to bring one of these teachers to your school
Robert Armiger, biomedical engineer, Johns Hopkins University, gives students details about his mission to develop the most advanced prosthetic arm for patients who have lost their arms, including amputee soldiers returning from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Marilyn Fogel, biogeochemist, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Geophysical Laboratory, regales audiences about her research expeditions to the far corners of the world to discover what ancient carbon reserves can tell us about the origins of life and climate change.
Mark Perks, senior lecturer in chemistry and biochemistry, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, rekindles in students the same passion and unflagging curiosity about chemistry that attracted him to the profession in students more than 30 years ago. Len Arnetta, assistant professor of science education, North Carolina State University, takes students into the near future when computer gaming technology will be used to create "virtual reality" classrooms where students can hone skills in science, math and other subjects. Daisy Pistey-Lyhne, senior educator and policy liaison, Alliance for Climate Education, injects hip hop music, humor and magic to make climate science education come alive for young learners. Zachary Lemnios, director, Defense Research and Engineering, U.S. Department of Defense, tells how he uses the latest technology in research and engineering to keep the nation safe from military attack. Katie Gerbensky Serrano, biomedical engineer and Commissioner's Fellow, Federal Drug Administration, describes two ways that students can get a jump on careers in science and engineering after entering college: learn a foreign language and take advantage of undergrad research programs and internships. Jim Kohlhaas, vice president, Energy
Initiatives at Lockheed Martin, informs youngsters how he keeps Lockheed Martin competitive in an
expanding global energy market. Two New Nobel Laureates join Lunch with Laureate series:Harold Varmus | Peter Agre
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Thank you to our New Festival Sponsors:
Intel, Celestron, Thirty Meter Telescope ProjectThank you to our New Media Partners: Discovery Science ChannelTechnology Review published by MIT Epoch TimesWAMU - American University RadioChemical & Engineering News (C&EN)Northern Virginia Tech Council |
Nobel Laureates coming back from the dead to be part of Nifty Fifty Program:
  Teachers and Principals in the DC area: Apply now to host Marie Curie (portrayed by Susan Frontczak), Albert Einstein (portrayed by Marc Spiegel), or one of 48 other speakers at your school. Application deadline is May 31, 2010. Find out more. |
Addition of Alexandria Real Estate Helps Spur Continued Festival Sponsorship
As momentum for the USA Science & Engineering Festival continues to build, we are excited to announce another Festival sponsor: Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a leading provider of real estate to the science industry.
No stranger to supporting Science Festivals, Alexandria has helped sponsor other such events from Cambridge, MA to San Diego, CA. In addition, for Festival attendees, Alexandria has hosted gatherings such as "The Science of Wine" and "The Science of Food."
The com pany's commitment to science awareness starts at the top, with Joel Marcus, founder and CEO of Alexandria. Says Joel: "Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are the most important areas of education for the future of our country's competitiveness in the world wide economy. We are going to need many more great scientific thinkers and engineers to design and build innovative technological products for the 21st century."
Events like the the USA Science & Engineering Festival, he emphasizes, "offer an unmatched opportunity for business to open their doors to the public and the next generation of budding innovators. Alexandria chooses to support these events as a way to collaborate with the community, as well as with our tenants, in a unique and fun way."
In guiding Alexandria to success in the competitive field of real estate in the science industry, Joel has managed to combine his experience in law, accounting, real estate, science, and biotechnology markets into a cutting-edge career designed to support the scientific research community worldwide. His experience has helped him create proprietary products to quickly incubate and support companies that have made groundbreaking discoverers such as the drug Viracept, which played a key role in the early development of anti-HIV cocktails.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. is a pioneering entity of LabspaceŽ which focuses on designing and improving properties to lease to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and life science research companies and other entities. Alexandria creates and builds innovative, state-of-the-art facilities worldwide for some of the most brilliant minds focused on scientific discovery, research, and the development of human health care products.
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NPR's WAMU 88.5 Radio Joins Festival as Partner
Through the powerful influence of our News Media Partners, we continue to spread the word about the USA Science & Engineering Festival to wide and diverse audiences. Our latest Media Partner, we are proud to say, is National Public Radio news station WAMU 88.5 in the nation's capital.
"WAMU 88.5 is proud to support multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary programs and events such as the USA Science and Engineering Festival -- the country's first national science festival," says Lauren Zumpano, WAMU's Communications Manager. "The Festival's mission of re-invigorating the interest of the youth in science, technology, engineering, and math," he says, fits well with station's goals of fostering an informed public.
A member-supported public radio station, WAMU 88.5 focuses on covering the news, telling stories, and providing analysis that will help inform an engaged local, national, and global community. Nearly 800,000 people in the Washington, D.C., metro area tune in to WAMU 88.5 each week for shows such as Science Friday and Science in Action that provide listeners with educated, balanced perspectives on themes, trends, and discoveries that affect everyone, says Lauren.
You can tune in to WAMU 88.5 - all day, every day - at 88.5 on the FM dial, or on HD Radio, or the web at wamu.org.
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 THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
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NuVasive - FEI Company
Case Western Reserve University- LifeStrawMicrosoft
Silicon Valley Bank - Bechtel
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Space X - Research in Motion
SciVee - SchoolTube
Thirty Meter Telescope Project
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Visit us online at www.usasciencefestival.org
New logo design by MORRIS
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Festival Host:
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Science is Cool and
The Kavli Foundation
is challenging K-12 students
to explain why.
Submit your video now
for a chance to win
cash and electronics prizes!
Click here for more info
In partnership with
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Register your team for our
You Can Do the Rubik's
Cube Tournament
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In partnership with
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Are you a Fan of the Festival?
Tell others by posting our
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on your Facebook page, website, blog or wherever else you share information.
The logo is available for download on our
"Resources" page
In return, we will gladly post
a link to your site. Provide us with your basic info and your Fan "ShoutOut" about the Festival, and we will add you to our website...
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