Adora Svitak

'Humanities Folks' Need to Pay Attention to STEM, and Vice Versa

carlyo — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 00:24:12 +0000

'Humanities Folks' Need to Pay Attention to STEM, and Vice Versa

Guest Blog by Adora Svitak
USA Science & Engineering Festival Youth Advisory Board Member

Note: See Adora as part of the Teen Inventors Panel at the Festival on the Lockheed Martin Stage!

When I was little, I hated a lot of things. I refused to practice piano or violin. I didn't eat my leafy vegetables. But most of all I hated math. By extension, I disliked anything that stank of equations: physics, chemistry, technology, engineering. After falling in love with Corinthian columns and the University of Washington's collegiate-Gothic buildings, I wanted to be an architect... until I realized that you needed to use math, and then my dreams dissolved faster than a tiny quantity of solute in an overwhelming amount of solvent.

Of all the things I could've picked to hate, math and science seemed to make sense. It was publicly reviled; lots of people said openly, "I'm bad at math and science."

And then something changed. Beneath my feet, I felt a sea change in public opinion about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Once, you were something special if you knew how to program; now, people were calling coding the new literacy and saying that you were lost in the 21st century if you didn't know at least a few computer languages. Suddenly C++ and C#, Python and JavaScript, HTML/CSS and Ruby on Rails came up in everyday conversation. The Math Team nerds became some of my best friends. Everywhere I went, people were talking about the importance of STEM.

The evolution of my own opinions about STEM culminated with joining the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Youth Advisory Board, a team including peers who have won the Intel Science Fair, started companies, and founded research journals. Needless to say, I felt a tad bit out of place. Whether in school or at work, it's tempting to treat disparate fields as entirely separate disciplines, to describe ourselves as "humanities folks" or "STEM people" alone. But I've realized through my work on the USASEF board that interdisciplinary learning is absolutely crucial to me as a "humanities person" and to my friends in STEM.

Studying the intersection of STEM and the humanities reveals a rich history of cultural progress and social change. Isaac Asimov taught biochemistry at Boston University and wrote bestselling science-fiction stories that remain classics to this day. Hedy Lamarr acted in acclaimed films and helped develop an essential technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping. John James Audubon's ornithology would be hardly as famous were it not illustrated thanks to his skillful painting ability. In the modern day, graduate student Jie Qi at the MIT Media Lab brings together "high-low tech" with her artistic designs that blend electronics and computation with paper -- for instance, a complex network of LEDs beneath a traditional Chinese painting of a dandelion, sending lit-up dandelion "seeds" scattering at a single breath. Standing in front of her artwork as a 15-year-old still struggling against the "I hate STEM" mindset, I could hardly believe that the beauty I was seeing was the child of circuits and code.

In an age where public interest in the arts (ask yourself when the last time you went to the art museum, the ballet, or the symphony was) seems to be waning, and worried parents often criticize humanities majors for not choosing a more "stable" field, perhaps an interdisciplinary approach is what we need. With approaches like Jie's that seamlessly weave together art and science, we can reach wider audiences. Instead of taking an adversarial approach, let's recognize a simple truth: STEM and the humanities need each other.

On the USA Science and Engineering Festival youth advisory board, I quickly realized that my skills as an event organizer and writer worked well in concert with the science and research-heavy skills of my fellow board members. Needless to say, today I'm not the same kid I was when I declared, "I hate math!" In fact, I've reclaimed something entirely different from my childhood. Despite my aversion to formal lessons about science and math, I can remember always being in awe of the nature and beauty around me. I asked as many "what if" questions as I could. I got excited when my dad drove my sister and me out of the range of city lights to deserted rural trails to get the best view of meteor showers. There, I'd stare up at the stars and try to trace every constellation.

In an effort to bring that feeling to everyone, no matter how distant childhood seems to be, the USASEF youth advisory board is hosting an event, STEMspiration, on April 24 in Washington, D.C. We've coined the term "STEMspiration" to mean "the process of being mentally stimulated or motivated to change the world through science and technology." Though my STEMspiration may have come later for me than for many of my peers, I'm still soaking up the benefits. If those of us in STEM want to create technology that makes sense, we need to understand the human condition and all the sensitivities, emotions, and experiences that can't be put into algorithms. If those of us in the humanities want to fully understand the qualities of being human in this day and age, we need to realize that it encapsulates developments outside our libraries and philosophy classes too. In short, knowing how to program an Arduino and use HTML doesn't make me any less of a "humanities person." In fact, I'd argue that it makes me a better one.

Follow Adora Svitak on Twitter: www.twitter.com/adorasv

carlyo Wed, 04/23/2014 - 20:24

Meet the USA Science & Engineering Festival Youth Advisor Board! Join our Twitter Chat Tonight!

carlyo — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 17:25:47 +0000

Meet the USA Science & Engineering Festival Youth Advisor Board! Join our Twitter Chat Tonight!

You could call them child or teen prodigies – wunderkinds, who at remarkable young ages have already begun making their mark upon science and technology as innovators and visionaries. The USA Science & Engineering Festival not only applauds such young achievers, but is recruiting some of the best of them to serve on its new Youth Advisory Board.

The achievements of these recently-appointed board members will not only help us further excite, inspire and reach out to more students during the Festival next week, but will also call attention to the impressive cadre of young talent that is on the horizon nationwide in STEM innovation and entrepreneurship.

Our Youth Advisors will participate in our "Teen Inventors: It's Never Too Early to Make Your Mark in STEM" panel on the Lockheed Martin Stage show on Sunday, April 27th at 3 PM. They will also host STEMspiration; the first STEM conference of its kind - a completely student-led event bringing together leaders, doers, makers and thinkers of the highest caliber on Thursday, April 24.

Tonight we will host a twitter chat at 6PM EST with members of our Youth Advisory Board. Follow us on twitter @USAScienceFest and use #Scifest hashtag.

The chat will feature:

Sixteen-year-old Adora Svitak will serve as emcee of the Expo's Teen Inventors presentation. She has been exploring what she can do with the written word since age 4: everything from championing literacy to raising awareness about world hunger. She taught her first class at a local elementary school the year her first book, Flying Fingers, debuted. At age 12, she delivered the speech, "What Adults Can Learn from Kids", at the prestigious TED conference. That video received more than one million views and has been translated into over 40 different languages. Follow Adora on Twitter @adorasv

Param Jaggi, age 18, has been formally researching environmental and energy technologies since age 12. When he was 14, he designed a highly effective algae bio-reactor using household materials. Param is currently a junior at Vanderbilt University where last summer he founded EcoViate, a green-tech startup that focuses on inexpensive, efficient and disposable green products. Follow Param on Twitter @ParamJaggi

Jack Andraka, a 16-year old Baltimore high-school student, recently set the medical science community abuzz by developing (at age 15) an innovative diagnostic test that detects pancreatic cancer and is 368 times more sensitive, 150 times quicker and 26,000 times cheaper than the medical standard. This research innovation earned him more than $100,000, including the grand prize of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Youth Award. Follow Jack on Twitter @jackandraka

Ritankar Das, 18, is the youngest University Medalist (top graduating senior) in UC Berkeley’s recorded history. He is now a Master of Science degree candidate in bioengineering at Oxford. At UC Berkeley he served as an Academic Senator where he helped manage a $1.7 billion budget and founded the Berkeley Chemical Review research journal. Ritankar, who began researching alternative energy at age 12, has been lauded by the Smithsonian as a “future Nobel Laureate.” Follow Ritankar on Twitter @ritankardas

Erik Martin is a Game Designer and education activist. He works on games that help people and society, and leads the Edvenger Initiative to create a set of alternative education standards called the Student Bill of Rights. He has been involved in a number of to give students a voice in their education focused around STEM engagement, such as the ScienceOnlineTeen unconference. Erik got his STEM start leading a virtual guild in World of Warcraft to overcome severe health issues, and has been working on games since. Follow Erik on Twitter @EriKlaes

carlyo Thu, 04/17/2014 - 13:25

Young Innovators Appointed to Serve on Festival's Youth Advisory Board!

carlyo — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 17:12:07 +0000

Young Innovators Appointed to Serve on Festival's Youth Advisory Board!

The achievements of these recently-appointed board members will not only help us further excite, inspire and reach out to more students during Festival 2014, but will also call attention to the impressive cadre of young talent that is on the horizon nationwide in STEM innovation and entrepreneurship.

Here are just some of the remarkable innovators who will be serving on our Youth Advisory Board:

Param Jaggi, 18 – Keenly curious about the world around him since childhood, at age 12 he began formally researching environmental and energy technologies, and at age 14, he designed a highly effective algae bio-reactor using household materials. His achievements in green technology research have garnered him numerous honors, including being featured twice in Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 List, and recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency. A junior at Vanderbilt University (where he is majoring in Environmental Sustainability and Economics), last summer Param founded EcoViate, a green-tech start up that focuses on inexpensive, efficient, and disposable green products.

Jack Andraka, 16 –This Baltimore high-school student recently set the medical science community abuzz by developing an innovative diagnostic test that detects pancreatic cancer and is 368 times more sensitive, 150 times quicker and 26,000 times cheaper than the medical standard, at age 15. This research innovation earned him over $100,000, including the grand prize of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Youth Award. Jack was recently named a White House Champion of Change and is the founder and president of Gen Z, a team of young people competing for the Qualcomm Tricorder X-Prize. He has spoken at TED and Clinton Global Initiative, and serves on the faculty of Singularity University. He has also been featured in several award-winning documentaries and over 100 news media outlets around the world including Forbes, BBC, CNN, Fox and ABC. Jack is also serving as a Nifty Fifty speaker for Festival 2014.

Ritankar Das, 18 Chair – Not only did this California native complete a double major in Bioengineering and Chemical Biology from UC Berkeley in 3 years, he became the youngest student in at least a century to be named the year's top graduating senior. An Academic Senator at Berkeley, Das helped manage a $1.7 Billion budget and founded the Berkeley Chemical Review research journal. Lauded by the Smithsonian as a future Nobel Laureate, Das began scientific research at the age of 12, and has won over a dozen top scientific awards. He has also earned over 30 other awards totaling more than $400,000 including the prestigious Goldwater, Udall, and Pearson awards. He is featured in over 100 media outlets worldwide and in an upcoming National Geographic documentary. A current Whitaker fellow at Oxford and an inductee into the prestigious Berkeley Wall of Fame, Ritankar founded See Your Future, an education NGO that reaches 75 million people worldwide. He is currently authoring a book on education reform and is a celebrity partner for the UN World Food Program.

Sara Volz –This next-generation scientist made national news when she won the coveted $100,000 prize in the 2013 Intel Science Talent Search for inventing a method to boost the natural oil content of algae for alternative fuel development. Equally amazing, Sara (who is also serving as a Nifty Fifty speaker for Festival 2014), conducted her groundbreaking research from a laboratory constructed in her bedroom! She is currently a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with plans to follow her passion for biochemistry.

Omar Abudayyeh – His research interests are at the intersection of engineering and biology where he is developing better tools to explore such realms as cancer, liver fibrosis and neuronal plasticity. Omar is currently an MD/Ph.D. student at Harvard Medical School where he is a 2013 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow and graduated in 2012 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Henry Ford II Scholar. He earned a perfect 5.0 GPA as a mechanical and bio-engineering major, was editor-in-chief of the MIT Undergraduate Research Journal and co-president of the MIT Bioengineering Society.Following his freshman year at MIT, Omar worked with an NIH research team on the design of a vaccine based on engineered nanoparticles. In subsequent nanoparticle research he helped design sensitive tests for cancer and liver fibrosis, which led to co-authorship of a paper in Nature Biotechnology and presentations at scientific conferences. Omar is also passionate about entrepreneurship and building organizations, and to that end he recently co-founded Modalyst, a business-to-business online wholesale platform for connecting designers and boutiques, and the Harvard Medical Review, a peer-reviewed journal for student written articles.

Jonny Cohen – An 18 year-old Columbia University Mechanical Engineering Student. In 7th grade Jonny used his curiosity and prowess in science to invent an aerodynamically shaped air shield (known as Greenshield) for the front of school buses that reduces bus fuel use by 10%. The GreenShield redirects the airflow, decreases drag and increases gas mileage, saving money for school districts and decreasing CO2 emissions. Jonny has been recognized for the Forbes "30 Under 30" Energy List in 2012, and 2013.

Adora Svitak, 16 – Since the age of four, Adora Svitak has been exploring what she can do with the written word: everything from championing literacy and youth voice to raising awareness about world hunger. Hoping to instill her love of learning in other children, she taught her first class at a local elementary school the year her first book, Flying Fingers, debuted; since then, she has spoken at hundreds of schools, classrooms and conferences around the world. She co-authored her second book, Dancing Fingers—a collection of poetry—with her older sister Adrianna in 2009. At 12, she delivered the speech "What Adults Can Learn from Kids" at the prestigious TED conference. That video received over one million views and has been translated into over 40 different languages.

carlyo Fri, 11/15/2013 - 12:12