Month: June 2015

Meyer Gives the Keynote for Student Technology Conference

STC 2015Mike Meyer gave the keynote address on Wednesday, June 17, 2015, for the Student Technology Conference held in Houghton this week. The conference concerns content-rich academic, computing, and telecommunications technologies in student living areas. The keynote address was entitled “The Transition to Teaching 24:7.”

Meyer is a Senior Lecturer in Physics and the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning on campus.

The conference is a ResNet activity. ResNet is an international organization providing a forum for discussion, collaboration, and development for IT professionals in higher education. The conference runs June 16-19, 2015.

APOD is 20 Years Old

APOD VermeerAstronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) was launched this day in 1995. The massively followed online site is maintained by APOD co-founders Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell.

The 20th anniversary APOD image is a digital re-pixelation of a Vermeer using over 5,000 APOD images that have been featured on the site.

Nemiroff and Bonnell were interviewed by The Verge.

20 years of space photos: an oral history of Astronomy Picture of the Day

Exploring the cosmos one day at a time

APOD launched on June 16, 1995. In advance of its milestone birthday, I spoke on the phone with the two guys who have run the site by hand for two decades, a seemingly unfathomable task in the age of ephemeral content. How do they do it? A combination of Microsoft Word, a fiery passion for astrophotography, and lots and lots of emails.

So where did the idea originally come from?

Robert Nemiroff: Jerry Bonnell and I shared an office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and we were both — we’re still — active researchers. But the web was growing up, and so we brainstormed to try to figure out how we could contribute to this web. One idea, we thought, was maybe we can make lots of money, and buy a Hawaiian island or something. But that never worked out. [Laughs.]

Read more at The Verge, by Sean O’Kane.

Volunteers Needed for KSEF

KSEF GroupMichigan Tech and the surrounding community are joining together to host the inaugural Keweenaw Science and Engineering Festival to stimulate and sustain interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in the Keweenaw for all ages. ​This four-day festival is an open forum to showcase all facets of STEM in the Western Upper Peninsula. Current scheduled events have something for all ages and include the Michigan Tech Mind Trekkers, Nerd Night for teens with Tech’s Physics Department, the Family Engineering Day, Summer Concert Series, Science Pub Crawl, The Wonders of Physics, science comedian Brian Malow and David Gaynes presenting his documentary Saving Hubble and more! This event is scheduled for August 5 to 8, and most of the activities are free.

See the event calendar on the current schedule. Volunteers are still needed to help with the festival. If you would like to get involved and run a hands-on demonstration, assist with set-up, work the KSEF booth or have questions on how to volunteer contact Amanda McConnon at amcconno@mtu.edu.

From Tech Today, by Center for Pre-College Outreach.

Sun, sand, science
Festival intended to spark STEM interest

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Meghan Marquardt (subscription required).