'Be a Scientist - Save the World'

Following a publically broadcasted invitation from President Barack Obama, children and parents from around the country gathered at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for the U.S. Science and Engineering Festival on Oct. 23 and 24.

Hosted by the global security company, Lockheed Martin, the festival strove to re-invigorate the interest of the nation’s youth in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by producing and presenting the most compelling, exciting, educational and entertaining science gathering in the nation. The festival had over 100 sponsors, including the university.

According to Dr. Ray Johnson, chief technology officer of Lockheed Martin, the idea for a national festival originated after the success of the San Diego Science Festival last year, which he helped organize.

“It attracted over 100,000 people – a crowd so large for Balboa Park that officials had to start turning away cars wanting to enter the park on the afternoon of the expo,” he said. “Reflecting later on the festival’s success, I thought, if a local event excites this many kids, what could we accomplish with a festival on a national scale?”

Johnson explained that his main hopes for the festival were to encourage young people to be creative and to inspire the kind of innovation that has been the cornerstone of U.S. economic growth throughout the nation’s history.

“Never have the global security challenges been greater, and never have we needed a STEM-educated workforce in the U.S. more than we do today,” Johnson said.

The festival took place on the heels of a new report delivered to Congress by Norm Augustine, former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin. The report highlighted that American science and math education have fallen behind other countries since 2005, when a similar report demonstrated that the current rankings were already alarmingly low.

“Our country, a world leader in just about every respect, ranks 48th in terms of STEM education,” Johnson said. “Nearly half of all Americans cannot say how long it takes the Earth to circle the sun. Our education system is simply not graduating enough engineers to keep the U.S. competitive.”

With over 500 exhibits, the diverse science and engineering projects targeted children of all ages.

AguaClara – a project team in the civil and environmental engineering department that aims to improve drinking water quality – presented an exhibit entitled “Water for the World.” The exhibit encouraged children to operate a demonstration plant and learn what it takes to make clean water without electricity.

“Municipal drinking water treatment has had limited success in resource-poor communities due to high capital and operating costs and the use of non-resilient technologies,” AguaClara Director Monroe Weber-Shirk said. “The AguaClara team has created resilient technologies that do not require electricity or external power sources for the treatment of high turbidity surface waters.”

Other festival participants presented research on topics, such as how the iPhone functions, how to extract DNA from strawberries, how algae can help fuel the future, and how to configure a virtual reality city. The festival also presented a mobile lab, showcasing renewable energy sources created through biotechnology, and much more.

Johnson shared his hope that the wide array of exhibits would entice students to pursue careers in science and engineering. “It is as simple as this – students need to know that engineers and scientists, like those in my corporation, create the future. They work on high-tech projects that make a profound difference in our world,” he said.

There are numerous careers in science and engineering for students to pursue, Johnson explained. “[They can go into] space systems, high-performance airplanes, clean energy solutions, cyber security and national security technologies that I can’t even talk about,” he said. “Great careers ­­­await them if they just sign up for those tougher courses in calculus, chemistry and physics.”

The festival marked the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the Buckminsterfullerene carbon molecule – one of the building blocks of nanotechnology.

“Nano is a field rich with possibilities. Like plastics a generation ago, it promises to revolutionize the way we live,” Johnson said.

One member of the Nobel Prize-winning team that made the discovery, the late Dr. Richard Smalley, was outspoken about using science to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. In light of America’s recently poor performance in world education standings, Johnson asserted that Smalley’s message is important now more than ever: “‘Be a scientist - Save the World