By Kritin Karkare
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| UC San Diego bioengineering students at the USA Science as well as Engineering Festival inwards Washington, D.C. |
In early on April, Washington, D.C. is flooded amongst scientific discipline exhibitors, enthusiastic parents, children, as well as all things scientific discipline as well as technology scientific discipline at the annual United States of America Science as well as Engineering Festival (USASEF), which drew an estimated 370,000 visitors this year. USASEF is pose on past times Science Spark, a non-profit scientific discipline outreach organisation that also hosts the San Diego Festival of Science as well as Engineering; the festival is sponsored past times organizations such every bit Lockheed Martin, the Department of Defense’s STEM program, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation as well as more.
This year, 8 members from the UC San Diego Bioengineering Graduate Society (BEGS) as well as 4 members from the undergraduate Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) flew to D.C. to engage the adjacent generation of scientists as well as engineers amongst their model of an extracellular matrix, as well as larn to a greater extent than virtually scientific discipline as well as technology scientific discipline outreach on a national scale. The next are excerpts from interviews done amongst Jacobs School of Engineering undergraduates Julie Yip, Taylor Martin, Reo Yoo as well as Katherine Nguyen, as well as BEGS outreach vice president Julia Hardy. They’ve been lightly edited for length as well as clarity.
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| Bioengineers instruct festival attendees virtually the extracellular matrix as well as drug/fluorescent targeting. |
Q: How did you lot acquire interested inwards outreach?
Katherine Nguyen: I come upwardly from a Vietnamese community as well as a lot of what greatly affects the decisions for what nosotros produce is that our parents lived through a state of war as well as came over to the U.S. to travail to alive life as well as survive. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 lot of my life I've been pushed to produce something that volition acquire me money. But growing upwardly inwards America, you lot tin sack produce whatever you lot want! It felt really dissimilar for me. During my senior twelvemonth of high schoolhouse I was dealing amongst the grapple to figure out what major I should choose. I didn't conduct keep whatsoever clue, but I had an older mentor who also came from Vietnam. She told me produce whatever you lot desire to do: if you lot desire to live an engineer, you lot tin sack live an engineer. I realized that sometimes people only need that i ‘yes’ to force them to produce corking things. I wanted to relay that same persuasion as well as tell immature children you lot tin sack produce engineering, fifty-fifty if you’re non certain however that you’ll live successful at it. I wanted to live that i ‘yes.’
Julia Hardy: It was pretty natural for me, I couldn't imagine non doing it. I was involved inwards a lot of community service run as well as I got into technology scientific discipline at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I saw inwards high schoolhouse how I was treated when I said I was going to acquire into technology scientific discipline as well as I saw this confused aspect on peoples’ faces. They run across this athlete who's outgoing, going into technology scientific discipline as well as think, ‘Why would you lot desire to produce that?’ I knew I wanted to produce technology scientific discipline since I was inwards 7th grade. Why wouldn't I desire to produce that? I knew that past times talking virtually it I could encourage other girls inwards my degree as well as girls younger than me that I mentored inwards high schoolhouse to acquire into engineering. I wanted to proceed spreading that give-and-take as well as demo girls that they could produce whatever they want, particularly technology scientific discipline because they may experience it's non cool to live into scientific discipline as well as engineering.
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| Bioengineering students at their booth at USASEF |
Taylor Martin: The BEGS president told me it was going to live big. I was similar okay, it's going to live bigger than SDFSE.
Katherine Nguyen: That was an understatement.
Katherine Nguyen: That was an understatement.
Taylor Martin: It was huge. There was a flying simulator - you could pose 10 people inwards this petty pod as well as it would movement around to imitate an regular army aircraft. There were multiple convention rooms.
Reo Yoo: Because of how the convention middle was setup, in that place was fifty-fifty an undercover component.
Katherine: There was an upstairs too.
Taylor: You'd run across at the firstly of every 24-hour interval this mess of people coming downwards the escalator. The other affair I hadn't actually idea virtually was the form of booths. There were Army, Navy as well as defence booths addition technology scientific discipline companies, academy labs— then many dissimilar things.
Katherine: All these things were actually enjoyable. USASEF is to a greater extent than frequently than non geared toward children, but because of how large the scale was they were able to adapt for a lot of people. Johns Hopkins University brought a motor then that you lot could laid your ain battery motor. It was actually fun for college students as well as parents to acquire relish scientific discipline every bit well.
Reo: For me, it actually changed the perspective of SDFSE. I experience similar when nosotros acquire every bit UCSD, we're such a large bargain inwards San Diego. When nosotros went to USASEF, nosotros were this tiny booth— nosotros got some human foot traffic, but in that place was then much more.
What was your favorite memory?
Julie Yip: I had a expert conversation amongst a sophomore inwards high school. She was actually interested inwards organic chemical scientific discipline as well as liked programming as well as said that she wanted to a greater extent than experience programming. I talked to her for virtually one-half an threescore minutes to forty-five minutes but virtually what she could produce to acquire to a greater extent than experience, trying to motivate her as well as talking to her. She was cool as well as passionate.
Katherine Nguyen: There are then many stories virtually how cute or smart they are. This grouping of girls asked us some expert questions. I asked them if they were actually interested inwards science. And they said 'Oh yeah, nosotros conduct keep our ain booth where nosotros demo experiments to people.’ This was a grouping of iii sisters, the oldest was peradventure 13, the 2nd was around 10, the 3rd around 8. I was blown away.
Taylor Martin: Their mom was in that place as well as they had shirts. That was then cool. These girls had taken then much involvement inwards scientific discipline as well as were willing to produce something that I would conduct keep been terrified to produce at that age, acting every bit an authorisation at this large giant festival. They were then confident as well as involved.
Reo Yoo: It’s nerve-wracking. It’s non but kids there. There are professors as well as doctors who are in that place to present.
Julia Hardy: My favorite experience at the festival itself was a grouping of around fifteen six-year olds that came to our booth. They were similar ’Science!’ They were then excited virtually science. One kid was crying that he couldn't touching our demo. He was then poor that he couldn't interact amongst the demo, since in that place were also many people inwards forepart of it. So nosotros passed it around as well as he lastly got to touching it. It was the petty kids that acquire then excited. That’s what nosotros demand to nurture. Give kids the the world as well as they'll produce amazing things amongst it.
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