2019 STEM Career Showcase for Students with Disabilities

Morning. Annual. Stem career showcase first. My, name is Ed summers I'm a computer scientist. I'm also below master. Of ceremonies, for the event that, you all are here today, you'll. Meet. People. With a wide range of, disabilities which. Include science. Technology. Engineering, and, math. The. Representatives. From various organizations, to. Share opportunities, in STEM fields with, you. Now. This event would not be possible without, the generous support from our charitable, giving fund Plaxo. SmithKline jump. Red, Hat. This. Event would also not be possible without, the, hard work system. To. Come up and deliver, the welcome address on their, behalf. Alvin. Braswell. Good. Morning. You. Can do better than that good morning. Thank. You, i'm. An albatraoz we'll head them director, quite. A circle welcome all of you here to read this or I get long-winded, and you, put. Your department, or unit, I've. Been here in some capacity, almost. Ever since then, Uncle. Sam require my attention for a couple years at one you see, him in its mission in years we possibly can about the world around us and the. Share that knowledge as widely as we can, our. Ultimate goal is, to inform as many people as possible about, the world we live in and, depend on and. To, inspire a new generation of. Scientists. Museum. And SAS started. This event. In, 2013. We. Saw it as a wonderful opportunity to. Reach. As many people as, we could including. Some that occasionally, get overlooked. And. With this great turnout we've. Got a roomful, wonderful, turnout here. We. Have welcomed more than 2,000. People, to, be future scientists, over. The past seven years. So. With that thank. You all for being here and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day anything. The museum can do to help and this event where we glad to do it thank. You again. Okay. This. Log loves being in front of a crowd of people. He. Thinks it's about him. Let. Me get my notes out Thank You Alvin Braswell thanks to all the museum staff for all of your hard work let's. Cover a few logistics. Okay. Let's, cover a few logistics so, many. Of you hopefully had the opportunity, to complete, the. Free, survey, when you entered the room the museum, today. That's. Half of the survey the other half is a post survey that will take place after the. Event, and. If. You did not take the free survey that's okay we would love you to take a post survey and if, you did that would be fine too everybody please take, that post survey now when, you do that what you do is you help us improve this event so that the students that attend next year will, have a better experience. Okay. Let's talk about schedule. Okay. In just a minute we'll have our keynote address okay. Then. We've scheduled the end of twenty minute intermission. This, time. Then. Will followed up with our panel discussion. And. Then we have a few student mentors that are here to talk, with you as well. Okay. And then we'll, break for. Breakout. Sessions, which will take place in this room as well, as the opportunity, fair on the first and second floor of this building. From. Here at the Museum either. On the fourth floor of this building is, the acro cafe or, you can go over to the nature Research Center next door. And. Of course I hope you'll take time to enjoy the. Museum here for the rest of the day there's, so much one, so many wonderful things that are offered here the, museum is open till 5:00 p.m. so please join us for the rest of the day.

All. Right I've, been waiting for this keynote address for six months there's, been a lot of anticipation, here, in. 2011. Dr.. Shawn King earned his PhD in computer science from the information, school at, the University, of Washington and. In, 2016. He, was named a distinguished, alumnus, from that, school, today. Dr.. Kane is a professor of computer science at. The. University, of Colorado at Boulder. He's. Also the, director of the, super, human computing, lab which. Is devoted to the research of, accessible. Mobile, wearable, and, do-it-yourself. Technologies. Now. If you came here to see somebody with a disability, that's, thriving in stem look. No further this gentleman. Is freshing. It. And, delighted he's here. Please. Join me in welcoming. Dr.. Shawn king. Good. Morning everybody. Take. A second to orient, myself. Get. My timer out as. All, my students will tell you if I'm not timed I'll go over a. Lot. So I'm gonna try to stay on on schedule, here, so, thank, you edge for the warm introduction I will. Say even if you are crushing it and you're. A faculty member and you get through school, and you get through college and you get through grad school and, you. Get the academic, job and all those things you, still can end up here feeling totally nervous and. About this so today. Like maybe that's one lesson I can impart to you, so. I, want, to talk today about some, of the research that we've been doing over the last ten years I. Also. Won, with a physical disability and so, my perspective will come from that although I've. Had the great honor to work with people with a wide variety of abilities I'll. Talk about a, little bit about being someone in science. With. A disability, who studies disability, and and tries to make, things better so. All. Right so I'll just start a little bit by saying Who I am so I it. Gave that great. Introduction here I've, been a professor since, 2011, I went. To undergrad and around. 2 and graduate, around 2003. But. I always like to also point out where, the places where I might have got a little stuck so here's my timeline of failures right so I, always like to point, out not. Necessarily proudly, but I was a terrible high school student I had, bad grades I didn't go school and. You. Know luckily I had professors, who. And. People, in college who recognized. Maybe. I needed a little bit more support. And encouragement. Likewise. When I applied to grad school I had to do it twice before I got to the programs that I really, - and. So, you, know we can get to places that are. The. Right fit for us but I think, it's important to say like failure. And rejection and. Doing, it over is sometimes part of the process I like, to point that out. Okay. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the research that we do so I'm a professor, of computer science so, I spend. About half of my time teaching. And. I teach in the areas of accessibility. And human-computer. Interaction. And. I, spend the other half of my time doing research so we try to develop new technologies, to support people with disabilities. All. Right and the, big idea here is I care a lot about accessibility. Probably. Most of us here do and, you. Know there's a lot to learn about how, to make things accessible and how to make sure that the work that we're doing it contributes. To accessibility, but, I always like to point out also that doing. Research and accessibility is really fun, and really exciting, right, and it's creative, work it's, about an opportunity to solve interesting, problems that. A lot of times the world hasn't, actually. Solved yet right there are a lot of interesting problems out there and. One. Of the things I like to say is you know working with people. With disability is that there's sort of Daredevils, right we, work with technology, and. I work in developing, new ways to interact with technology and you. Know if you, create. A new kind of keyboard for a mobile phone, you. Know if you wanted this to have mainstream, success for everybody, probably. It needs to be twice, as good as everything out there all right we. Actually really want to have an impact but, for people with disabilities, you know a lot of times the, existing, tools that they have are not very good and so we have an opportunity to really have a substantial, impact on people and. As, my slide says you know people. With disabilities are already using the interfaces. Seeing. Voice. Input for. A long time they've been using you, know texting, for texting. Was cool they, were using wearable computer see, I. Have. Wearable. With. Computation. Right. And so. There's real opportunity. And. Complexities. Purgable. Disability. Playing, life on hardmode right. And. The idea is it's you know that, part of this is working. With people with disabilities in your research is a way to work with people, who are natural, problem solvers right, and who are used. Situations. And figuring, them out. Okay. And. You. Know I also talked, about human-computer, interaction, so those.

Of You who are not familiar with that term a lot of our work is is looking at how, do we make the ways that we interact with our computing devices more accessible. The. Rest of the world more accessible to. Student. Whatever, their disability is to learn how. To be a computer scientist, well, that student, is going to go off into the world and it's. Going to be able to make things more accessible all. Right so we're also, bootstrapping, here by. Making. The world more accessible so other people can carry that torch people. Like you all here today. So. I'm going to talk about a couple of the projects that we've worked on over the last number of years before, I go, off and do that I just wanted to point out that the all of this work is very collaborative so, on the screen right now is our pictures. Of my. PhD, advisor some, of my students, and other collaborators. Everything. That we do involves, help. From a lot of people I work, on the project so all of this I might, say I did, this or we do this but the truth is it's really a group of people and. So science. The, sort. Of work that we do only, works when you bring in people with diverse perspectives. And and/or, skills, okay. So. I'm going to talk about the research, that we do I show, off some of the projects, that I'm particularly. Proud of and, I will just say you know we work in accessibility. Across a range, of disabilities, and a range of problem, areas so. We don't focus necessarily. On one kind of disability, or one kind of problem and. That's one of the fun things in my about being a scientist, and being a professor if I. Can you know decide, tomorrow to work on a new project in a new area right, and we have a lot of control over what sorts of problems we get to work on okay. So. I'm going to talk about a few projects and give, you just a high-level overview and, tell, you more about sort. Of why we did them and. If you want to know you. Know more, about actually, the details please, come and chat with me or. If you want to reach out to me my name is Shawn cane sha. Un ka and E my, name is in the program also so. One. Of the projects that we worked on is looking. At how, do we make, power. Wheelchairs. Cooler. Basically. Right, so, we. Were thinking about sort. Of technology, and where can we make. Technology better and. We. Started with this problem of how. Do we make using. A power chair so. Cool that, everyone who is not doing it feels jealous right. And and, we can do that we have the you know capability, well we can add technology, we can add features, we can you, know add new kinds, of ways of interacting and, the. Idea is that we learned that, we could use a power wheelchair as, a place to put computation. And. I'll give some examples. I'll. Say you know learning, how to do this involves. Going, out into the field and working, with. Clinicians. Nurses. And, doctors and patients and, really, trying to understand their problems so one. Of the things I really like about the, work that we do is we get to go out into the world and learn, about these problem areas and then try, to try. To make changes. And. We. Also do a lot of prototyping, so. Our. Team went. Off and talked to people try, to understand, the, problems, understand, opportunities. And. Then, started, to build technology. Often. Starting, from a really, low tech stuff so we started. With this project with, cardboard. And, felt, and other sorts of things to try to understand, what. Could we actually do with. This kind. Of device, okay. So the big idea here was this notion. That, we think we invented called, terrible technology, alright so we know wearable, technology, probably all heard this well, why can't we also think about using. Wheelchairs as part of that all right so the idea is let's, build technology. That, can be added on to a wheelchair and take, advantage of everything you know about how a wheelchair, works right where, are their surface areas well we, have space on the armrest we might have space on the headrest and so, if we understand. Sort, of what people can do and how. To maybe, adapt this technology, to people then we can start to do cool stuff here. So. I'll. Briefly, show our project that we worked on this. Is called the jest rest and the idea was this is a piece of smart. Textile. That you could add to a wheelchair and use. It as a touch input so that you could use it to control your computer or your smart home or. Play. Games and. We built this to connect, with Bluetooth so the idea is we. Add, the capability, so but then people can decide how they want to use that and. This image on the slide here shows two. Versions of this right so you can see on the on the Left there is just an array of pressure, sensors and, then.

On The right there's a fabric, cover over it and. And one of the things that we learned, early. On was for. People who have upper. Body mobility impairments. That actually we, don't necessarily want to think about touch, sensing, when we talk about gestures, we want to think about pressure right. So this is an insight, about how to make technology more accessible right. So if we think about but, you know how a. User. Might interact with a touchscreen it, requires a lot of motor control right you need to be able to lift up you need to be able to touch down precisely, on the right location and lift up again well, that doesn't work for everybody so, we looked at you know could you make it so that someone could instead or, push down more firmly on it on their, armrest or roll. To the side are, those sorts of things and it turns out the answer is yeah we totally can do that right, we have the possibility. To do that and in doing so we might make technology, more accessible for more people, and. Here's just a an example Oh. And my. My. Clicker got a little out of sync, here's, a student this is Patrick Carrington, who was working on this and demoing, this out on our on our demo wheelchair, so we spent time sort of building this system. And. So. There's more to hear there's that this work has gone on into the future. But. I want to just sort of give you this idea of how, do we think about, technology. That. People with disabilities, use as a strategic. Advantage all right how do we make this an additive. Effect, and. Likewise. Here also we can think about when. We reconsider, what it means to interact with technology right all, of you probably. Use or, many of you used gestures, on your phone, well, can, we think about what it means to gesture, on a device, and actually change that to make it a little more accepting, to people, with diverse abilities. So. That's the kind of thing that we do I. Want. To talk about a few more projects so the next one is what. I'm calling, maybe not maybe this is a little bit arrogant but tactile. Graphics of the future right, so how do we think about our, sort, of future versions. Of tactile graphics there's. A lot of you. Know existing, technology, for creating tactile, graphics and one. Of the areas that we think about is where. We're, at actual graphics not, great. Right how do we where are the areas where we can it really improve them and so. Area, that our research lab is been working on for the past few years is around video. And animation right, so so, here we have, information. That might be a little bit more difficult, to represent through, a tactile graphic and. Can we actually through technology, find better better, ways or additional ways to represent that information, and. One, of the things that we really trying to do in our work is to. Focus. On solutions that, can. Happen today or soon right. Because we could spend time in the lab making. Some, prototype, system, that costs, a million, dollars and I've seen some of these and it's. Really cool and maybe there's a great video and a new story about it. But that doesn't help students. Who actually need this stuff right, so we try to spend time thinking of what's, the technology out there and how can we hack, it to do more, things and. So, I'm, gonna show a video I just want to do a heads up there's some blinking. Lights on the video there. It's pretty subtle but I just want to make sure that everybody knows that that's happened, in the videos like 30 seconds long so. So. This idea of how do we actually, represent. Moving. Information effectively, and. The idea here was we said well, can, we use robots. Robots. Move around and can. We actually control them to represent things that move and. So the video, that you can see here is a project, that our. Research. Team has been working on what we call a haptic video, player so. You can load up a video and, put. These toy robots on the screen these. Are ozo BOTS I raise. Your hand if you use ozo bots in the classroom anybody. All. Right - got two hands three hands up all right so, these. Are our low-cost, devices. Or about 50 bucks and, you. Can't buy, them and we just put them on a tablet and we made software to say okay, well can we have these move in particular, patterns can, we have these track an object in a video right. And so the idea is we, can make tactile.

Graphics That, represent, things that move, with. Stuff that you can go to the store and buy right so, it's not about waiting. For some, type, of technology to become affordable it's, already out there and the. The, magic. Here is not a reference necessarily. Fancy. New technology, but it's about understanding, the, kinds of problems that people experience, and, being. Creative all, right. And then here's an another example of a similar sort of idea, so, here we have a, system. That we call Ouija my. Student Hanukkah built this and the. Idea is how. Can someone who's blind. Or visually impaired follow, along with a teacher while, they're writing and drawing and, those sorts of things and so we took another, device, here which is called. A pen plotter that's, a little bit like a 3d printer except instead of shooting. Out melted plastic it's, just, the pen and, connected. This to tool. That a teacher can draw on a tablet and it, will move, the person's, hand to draw different sorts of shapes right. And so the idea here is, we. Can do things like guide a student's. Hand to a particular area we, can represent curves. When. We show this to teachers they talk about things like teaching concepts, and physics and. Other sorts of things and again, this is technology. That you can buy, for, a couple hundred bucks so. You. Know there's a lot of space here of, existing, technologies, that we can actually use to make things better and, more. Accessible, okay. A. Couple. More things I want to share so this. Is a project that was, in collaboration with Microsoft we've. Been working on for a number of years and, we. Started working with people with ALS so, als is a degenerative, motor condition, probably, the most famous person with ALS is Stephen, Hawking and, we. Started working with how. Could we make it so that someone with ALS could use a computer, and the. Most common way to do that it now is with technology called, eye tracking technology, where, you, the. Computer tracks where someone is looking and uses.

That For. Instance to type on the keyboard, and, our, idea, what this work is we were working a lot of typing but, we also said what, are other things what are the other sorts of things that we could do with this eye tracker and so, you, know being, I guess my this is my inclination was like what can we do that's fun so, we started talking about gaming, and we, started talking about music so we said okay well you. Know people with ALS as it progresses they, tend to lose the ability to move they, tend to lose the ability to speak it's a very, you. Know difficult condition, to live, with and. So how, we make it so they could just rock out and. Like really do something really fun and physical. And. So so, I started working on this project I was I was, visiting, at Microsoft, and I got. There's, an image on this slide here it's a child's. Drum set so it's probably about two, feet high and I, had this in the corner under my desk and I. Would only play it at like between like six and eight in the morning because otherwise people would yell at me for making too much noise, and we. Built a software. That somebody. Who, has. No movement of their body other than their eyes can. Actually, play, physical, drums, and we took, drums and we added on. Some. Mechanical, actuators, that actually played the drums so, I'm going to play a really short, video of that just to show you that I'm not, making this up so. This is a, gentleman. Who has ALS, who. Was. In a band formerly still. A practicing musician and. He's using eye gaze to play different patterns on the drum so I'm gonna play it and he'll be some sound if everything, works correctly. Part. Of the trick here is you. Know planning these patterns, in advance so, that he can switch between them while he's playing along with other people, but. Again just for I guess he's not moving at all. And. You, know at the time. When. I was trying, to get people on board for this project and to be honest trying to get money to buy all the things I needed you know my my. Research. Manager said why, does it have to be physical, why couldn't we just do this on on a screen and I said well, because the physical drums are awesome right like, that there's actually, like it does matter it does matter that this stuff feels, real, and feel loud. My. Original idea was like that we'd have like a trash can that you could bang on something there'd be really loud, and. I don't have unfortunately a video we, we took this to the South, by Southwest. Festival. A couple years ago and it had, blinking. Lights and other sorts of stagecraft so there's a lot we can do around. Making. Music, instruments, that work for people who even can't move at all okay. I'm. Just gonna mention one last project here and then wrap. Up with a few or, no high-level points about this so.

In. One area that we're. Very interested in at the University of Colorado is, accessibility. Of computer. Science education right. So again this. You. Know how do we get. People with disabilities involved so. That they can come in and bring their own expertise, and solve some of these problems and, so, one of the areas that we've, been working on is introductory. Software. Programming tools alright, quit, another quick show of hands so who's done programming in scratch, in. School. Okay. Few. More there oh actually you got more okay and. In, part of the ideas so scratch is really cool right it's a it's a way to get involved, in computer, science even if you. You. Know don't know much about computer, science when you start, but. It's, not very good if you can't see what things are on. The screen right it's all about visual. Interaction, and so, one of the areas we've been working for the past few years is, how. Do we actually make it more accessible and give more ways to take what's good about those sorts of programming, tools and make them more accessible so, there's, a video playing on this slide right now which is. I student who's assembling. Physical. Programs with physical blocks so, we thought well what if we had 3d printed blocks, instead. Of on-screen blocks and could you assemble them into, programs. And so that's, one of the things that that's that we're doing in this work and then the other side is how, do you make something that's fun, the, output for someone who, is blind or visually impaired so. This tool which I'm showing on the slide here that's called story blocks and, the idea is you write code with. These physical blocks but the output is audio, stories, or music, or audio, games, or those sorts of things so we need to think about not just how do we make the tools accessible, but how do we make the work more rewarding, so that students, are gonna do that works I actually do this right. Ok, so. So. You give a sort of a high-level view through this these are some of the projects we work on there's, a lot more a. Lot of this is around taking, existing technology, or new technology, hot off the presses and to, think, about how we can use that to be more empowering, for someone with a disability. Ok, so. If you think the way takeaways since I'm a keynote, speaker and I want to try, to share that, makes me feel a little bit old to be a keynote speaker but I, feel like I should impart some wisdom and be a professor, ok. So, you. Know I work in the area of accessibility and, one, thing I think is really important is to think about accessibility, not just as getting. To school getting, to work doing your homework but, about whole, people, right, so we need to make sure that we're supporting people and doing stuff that's fun and it's. Creative, and is interacting, with other people, and. So a lot of this is around sort, of how do we explore that space and. That doing this work can be really creative right a lot, of these accessibility, problems, some accessibility problems we know they answer to right and we just, need to figure out how to get it done but, a lot of times we need to invent the, solutions, to accessibility, problems, right so this is really creative, work. So. I'll. Also say you know for everybody who's here I'm really. Pleased. To see everybody here it's really great I, will say the world needs, you out there and since, death right and, people said this to me when I was a student and I will say. When I was a, high school student like I mentioned I was not a good student and, I, really. Didn't care about this stuff as much you know as much as I do now all, right I thought well I don't want to focus on being. A disabled, person in science because I, don't, want that to be the first thing that comes. Up and describing, me right I want to do my own thing and, one, of the things I felt over time is that I. See that it's. Important, for us to be out there and doing this work people. With disabilities are underrepresented, in STEM is probably all know especially. In higher ed and as. You're. Studying. As you're learning you're, learning.

Things That you can use to share. To others right. And. Even, if it's not. You. Know even if you don't necessarily feel this way the fact that you're out there doing this stuff is really important. To other people as well and. I feel really grateful I had a student, a number of years ago who really. Pushed me on this she has had a disability and she said you know dude, like you need. To be out there it's important, for representation that. People with disability can see other people with disabilities and, she. Was totally right right, and so I. You. Know even if I knew that before I said you could see you, know someone saying look, it's important, that you're out here I think it's had. An impact on me and so I'll say that to you guys right, it's important that you're out there doing this kind of work, and. Then. One. Thing I'll say here is you know if, when. We do, this sort of work we put ourselves out there people. Will react. To us as having, a disability right like we're people you know for most of us or any of us who have visible. Disabilities, people. Will associate, that. With who you are but, we do have some control over this space right we have control over the work that we do and how we talk about it and I. Have, an image, on the slide here of a person this is a project I saw about. 15 years ago before I went to grad school and it. Is an accessible, blacksmithing, station, and. So and I thought oh my god this is the most awesome thing. Yeah. We should be we should be making everything, accessible we, should be making the, things that are interesting and fun accessible. And you, know I carry this over into the work that we do now so the. Image on the slide right now is a tactile. Comic book all right so. I'm a nerd I love, comic books and all sorts of things and I'm just super human lab so probably you see this coming but part. Of this is oh hey. You. Know once. You're doing, this once you have these skills you can use them however you want you, know hopefully to make the world a better more. Accessible, place but if you care about comics, then, work, on comic accessibility, right we, do projects around gaming, we do projects around music and I. Do think you know I really sincerely believe that they're important, it's, important that these things are accessible but also like it's, fun and I like doing it so you know we have this opportunity to, put, ourselves into our work in this way and to share our perspectives. To other people, and. Again. You know as you're encountering. Challenges. And overcoming them think. About other people, right think about the people behind you who. Are encountering, these situations, the first time right, I, have had a disability my whole life and. You. Know every once in a while I'll hear from someone who, loses. A limb for instance and they're just this has just happened to them that's like oh wow, okay, you know I've had this lifetime of experience, learning how to deal with some of this stuff and for, you it's brand-new well, this is an opportunity for you to help other, people right. Okay. So, just. Briefly, you. Know I hope, you're, thinking. About college we're thinking about college I'm faculty of the University, of Colorado it's. Beautiful, there. And, it's, it did snow the other day but, all the other days it was really nice, we. Have it we have a really good computer science program, and.

For, Those of you who don't. Know about this I also want to point out that there's a program called access computing, so, and there's for, people, with disabilities who are interested, in careers, right it's related to computing and they help out with internships and all, other things as well okay. So, I'm gonna wrap up I always, like to put as my last slide an, accessible. Science checklist. Right so one of the things I say to everybody is like if, you're doing science you. Have to make it accessible right none, of you now who see this can, claim ignorance that, you don't know that these things are important and then you don't know at least the starting points of how to do it make your PD you know s accessible, when you present talk about your images, post, your slides make. Sure everything you put on the web is accessible, you can all do this so, with. That I'll wrap. Up and say thank you very much for your time. Thank You dr. Jain. You. Can tell but the, vast majority of people with, disabilities, including, the students, have. Hidden, disabilities. ADHD. Dyslexia. Learning. Disabilities, there's. A whole slew of hidden disabilities, which are by far we. Need to come back from intermission, you will meet a group of people that. I. Guarantee. You you will not be able to guess what their disability is when you see them on this date so. We will take an intermission, let's. Be back and let's see we're a little bit over but, we started late so let's. Take. 20 minutes let's be back in our chairs at 11:15. During. Intermission I want to invite you to stretch. Your legs use a restroom go out those doors behind you turn, left, there on your left if. You need a little bit of quiet time quiet space there's, a nice alcove, that purpose, in the. Corner. My left your right okay. And, if. You stay here you, will witness. Crazy. Wild. Science, experiments. That, include things like hot air balloons. Explosions. And blood, guns, so. If you want peace and quiet do not stay in this room. See. You in 20 minutes Thanks. I wish, you would. Hey, guys hello, hey. If you want to see any of the science experiments we don't have a lot of time for this but if you want to come up closer you're, definitely. You're. Definitely able to come, on up here and see some of this I will warn you some of there's some explosions sound so just, be aware of that and. You can certainly come up and take a closer look if you like I don't know if you could hear, sorry. Test, okay. We're gonna start off hopefully, with a bang here. This. Might be a little bit surprising. What. I have here is um looks, like a cannonball it might be I don't know but, it's, I left it outside and, it's totally rusted right now so, in. Order for you to understand, this reaction that's about to happen you have, to know what rust is so does anybody know trust is chemically. Yes. I, heard. Somebody say iron oxide, you would be so right okay, now, we have another cannonball, over here wrapped. Up in aluminum foil. Now. These, two things rust, and aluminum foil doesn't sound like that would do much of anything like. When I hit these two things together, I'm. Just kind of smacking, them together nothing. Happens and that's kind of what you would expect but. That's because we don't have enough what's called activation, energy, but, when you hit these together hard, enough believe, it or not we're gonna transfer, the oxygen that's in that iron oxide, that rust over to the aluminum, and turn it into lumen of oxide that, sounds kind of boring but, when you hit them together watch what happens sorry I gotta put the microphone down for you guys see this. Single. Replacement reaction, okay we're taking one element transferring. It to another. The. Other part that's really cool about this is. Okay. Is that what. Your team those parts that you see in flying off that is, 100%. Pure, iron, there's no rust in there that's. All it is all the the oxygen, that was on that iron has been transferred, over here and turned this into aluminum, oxide, so that's what's really going on that's how they weld railroad, rails, together on the railroad because in the old days they used to just pin them down next to each other but anyway let's do it one more time because I sort. Of like explosions, okay. We're. Gonna try another one here this, one only works at the time but I hope today is one of those days that it works so, what I built here is the little tiny cannon, I love, do woodwork home so I built a little tiny I can and out of some scrap wood the, difference is I hooked up a grill, lighter to it and, you can see but there's a little spark right there okay, well some of you can see it okay what, I'm gonna do is, take this old film canister, right here and, you can ask parents, what that is okay and. We're. Gonna try. To shoot that off, this.

Cannon So I'm going to put some fuel in there and I'm just using, alcohol. Rubbing alcohol we're. Gonna put that on there let, it evaporate because, you don't want it to be a liquid you want it to be a gas because, it'll explode a lot easier so remember what we have in here I guess I should point this somewhere else besides audience, sorry yeah. It's. Not my normal stage, where I'm normally, at so and you push this down hopefully. That spark, will ignite the. Alcohol. That is in there and set. This off okay actually. It probably should have. Thanks. For that reminder okay, so we're trying to count down it. Might be a letdown but, we could try a countdown and see, if this is because if it vibrates enough it, should ignite so five four, oh, yeah. Close. Up the sea so we're just gonna skip some of that close up stuff but just look I'll let you know I'm gonna be out on the floor with a bunch of this stuff so the things that you don't get to some of these science, mysteries, that you don't. Really translate well to a big crowd I'll be out on the floor that you can see some of these okay so the next thing we're gonna do is we, are a museum, that this is on biology so, up one, floor we have a very special exhibit, on. Poison. Dart. Frogs and I don't know if you've seen it before but they're extremely colorful, and that, helps them of course because they say hey don't, eat me I'm frightly colored if you eat me you're gonna die I'm gonna die right so and the other thing that's interesting about poison, dart frogs is they come out during the day time during, the day not, at night why would they do that because, if you're brightly colored what good would it do to come out during the night right so, they come out during the day so they advertise, the back don't mess with me, okay, so, the people that live, where. The. People who live where these frogs, they, quickly, found out that they could hunt much larger animals so what I have here are some real darts, by the way these are these, are a Cherokee Indian style darts which I'm out of thistle, and some and some wood you. Can only kill a small animal, so you're not gonna feed your whole family with that right, but if you have access to a poison dart frog, you. Can put the poison on the end of that dart and shoot a much larger animal but you're not gonna take your little dart and just like oh there's a wildebeest or whatever and throw it right that's not how you do it how are you gonna get that arrow. To fly through the air quickly. You. Could use a bow and arrow but that'd be a pretty small bone arrow we're, gonna use a dart, dart, gun a blowgun okay so, let me set this up and see if we can shoot. What. Did you think. Nobody. Do. We yes, we are. Pretty cool experiment, this one's on buoyance, that we used to do in our in the lab and if you don't know what I'm talking about it's like why things float or sink this, by the way is a Cartesian diver I don't know if you've ever seen one of these before, you. Just put an eyedropper in, there fill the eyedropper. Half-full. Well. Really, Paul 1 this is actually the tallest one in the world. You. Might wonder why well, because. The. Exact same reason, that you've flown or seeing. Away its weight not in water, review. This I drop it right there it's got an the, eyedropper weighs four grams how much okay. This bag weighs six of, air okay. It's. Something very counterintuitive, here, it. With. More and more air eyelets. I'm here to tell you the best. Unless air in this bag by the second, because it pushes. More air out the bottom so, on the, bag if you're pushing more air out of the bag there's less and. It's all oh that feels so weird. When. You look at this oh there it goes that's pushing away. The reason you don't throw trash bags in the water they end up good. Thanks anyway you guys I think I'll be, out on the floor somewhere in the museum do it. Okay, two, minutes. I'm. Gathering, them now. I have. Everyone. Jessica. What. I. Can't. Hear ya. Gettin´, I'm. Not sure. You. Guys ready to get started. Okay.

Let's, Get started. I'm. Not sure it's very hot. Okay. Let's get started, alright. Thank. You for coming back together, wonderful. It's it's a unique event there's, really nothing else like it in the world and we, get amazing. People to participate on, the stage and. By the way all of us everybody you'll see on this stage except. For album Braswell. Has. A disability and that's the point. And. Over. Those seven years dozens, of people some. People really stand out because they, have just such unique gifts one. Of those people is. Katherine, hunt. Katherine, was a plus, here, on the showcase last year it's recorded, and it's on the web if you want to go watch the entire showcase all of them are oh by the way but. Katherine stood out as somebody with a passion, for science and, knowledge of, science, and, most. Importantly, and most uniquely, the. Ability to share, that, passion other people, so. We invited Katherine, back to, moderate. Our panel this, year and she's. Sitting on the far end of the panel down there to my left. Katherine. Is manager. Of the Ingram, planetarium, and Sunset, Beach North Carolina. She's. Also a researcher, in cognitive and educational. Psychology where, she focuses, on science. Literacy. Please, welcome Katherine, hunt and her panel. Everyone. Hear me okay, perfect. Now. I am it, has. Offered me so much but I am in the presence of some amazing. Stem, professionals, today. It's. My hope as we get started with this panel that I see, some, of you up here in. The coming years now with that are you ready to meet your 2019. Panel. Now. As, we talk with them we. Are gonna open the floor for questions at the very start thinking about some of the things that you would like to. Learn about them they're very eager to hear your motivations. And your questions. First. Panelist, she is a marine, biologist, and award-winning, naturalist. Certified. Interpretive, guide who, recently joined the North Carolina Museum, of Natural Sciences, as, their head of volunteer. Sakuma, cons and rules. Please welcome, Jessica, indrasen. Now. Jessica. About. Brings, you to the sim for your showcase today, so. First. And foremost I, am. Functionally. Deaf and, I have grown up my whole life with hearing impairment, which was discovered, when I was about three years old it was progressive, throughout, my life but, I was raised. In, the hearing world with. The perspective. Of me going deaf someday so it was kind of a challenge, for me growing. Up trying, to figure out that, line and where, I fit, in in the world am. I going to fit in the deaf community am, I going to fit in in the hearing community, but. Ultimately, as, my, hearing, impairment, continued, to get worse and. My absolute love. For my job I'm an. Environmental. Educator, is my background I love. Teaching, people about this incredible. Planet, that we live on and it just got to the point where I could no longer understand. The questions, from the kids and ask the most amazing. Questions, so, I just kind of decided to take a leap of faith. Which, I had done in May of 2016. So it's, been quite a journey, learning. To hear the world around, me. And. It's been a really really amazing, journey, and so I'm hoping, today to be, here to talk to some of you and. Hear about your journeys, as you go along this path, Thank. You Jessica our, next, panelist, he blends stem, with, business, utilizing. Many different, types of coding, languages, to advise and, visualize, large sets of data and, optimize, business. Practices, here. At NC, State specializing. In finance, and is in the process of, completing, in CSU's. Business, analytics, program he's. Also a big believer in putting, your best foot, forward with fashion, please, give a hand for Derek, Dreyer. Now. Terry tell us a bit about what, brought your. High. Ever portent so I'm Derrick I have. Lived with narcolepsy my whole life which. Means. I suffer from random sleep attacks and honestly. Recently. It was, something, that I would hide, just. Because I understand, that there is a wide, array of disabilities. Out there and for the longest time I felt like, my, disability, wasn't, worth recognition. But. As I've kind of gotten older I've come to realize that it's. More. So part of what makes me unique and, what, makes me who I am and I've, been able to use that as a, motivating, factor from work ethic really because a lot. Of people would, consider most. Of us here to be at a disadvantage, to most, of our peers, but.

Really Our disadvantage, is our. Special. Advantage and it gives us the. Motivation. The drive to, work that much harder and, cared that much more about what we're doing and really, believe in ourselves so, that we, can, not only be. At the same level as our peers but surpassed them and I. Mean, as I've gotten exposure, to, data. Analytics, and Technology, through my time at NC State I've, just grown to absolutely. Love it there's just so, much that can be done and be learned within it and. It's really applicable to any industry. Out. In the the real world so that's, probably why I'm here today I want to share that with you guys. Thank. You Derrick. What. Do you do. What. Do you do related to clothing. Designer. What do you do. I. Make. Costumes yes she makes cosplay, costumes, for coming. All. Right our. Next and final panelist. A civil, engineer, he's currently exploring the, way supercomputers, can, quickly test many different types of building designs and, narrow down the best one. Effectively. Additionally, he does quite a bit of work with 3d, printing, he, also enjoys. Cycling. On a bike it travels quite a distance, on a regular, basis. Please, welcome Louis, Volant. Tell us a little bit about yourself, good. So. My. Background is growing. Up I'd. Say I never, really thought of myself as, disabled. Or really. Recognized, my, disabilities. And. Then as I started to challenge myself more, in in. Middle, school and high school call. It in especially. Graduate, school I. Came. To realize first, that, I had a, neuromuscular. Disability. That makes me write. Very, very. Slowly and. That. One's being a big, problem when you start to take tests, and there are a lot of, tests, to take out there. The second issue that I have is I have a. Fairly, severe attention, deficit disorder and, again. That winds up being a problem the, more and more you try to apply yourself so. Over, time I, realized. That. I needed. To advocate. For myself as disabled. And, to. Understand. The. Limits. That my disability put, on what I could do and the. Best ways to work around them, and so. I got my, disability, formalized, and started working around that and that's, definitely, been an experience to. Go from this, sort of. Mental. Picture of myself as oh I'm just another person - oh no all of these things that I thought other, people chant other people struggled with no those are those, a disability. Not. Everyone deals. With these, exact same things and trying to find the. Difference is there and where. I needed to let people know that maybe. I I didn't, respond, exactly the same way everyone else did so. I, guess. I'm, here to let everybody know that it's very important. To advocate. For, yourself as disabled, and. Not. Only to let people know how. Your, disability makes. You different from other people but to try and figure that out yourself, because. If you just go. Through a life assuming, that everybody, interacts. With the world the exact same way you do sometimes things will fly under the radar that, you don't necessarily expect and you're making your life a lot harder than it needs to be. Thank. You Derrick. What. Far, this distance. The. Farthest distance I've cycled was, from. Here to my grandmother's, house in Washington, DC Wow. Now. You're not the only very. Interesting, at the table what do you do, um. So. In, high school I played, football and I wrestled but, one thing I. Really. Enjoyed doing my free time with my friends playing disco. So. Not the best at regular golf. Balls. A frisbee I'm pretty decent, it's, so cool. Start. With just some fun questions, just to get to know our panelists, a little bit better and then we'll delve, into some deeper. Mix, of things. We. All are geeks here at the table so I got asked Star, Trek or Star Wars.

As, I sorry go. Down the line let's go with there or Star Trek or Star Wars there I'm. Definitely gonna have to Star Wars on this one that's a, baka, today, how. About you Lewis Star Trek or Star Wars yes sorry. How. About you. But. The new Star Wars comes, out on my exact, birthday so I'm pretty this, year. How, about Xbox, or Playstation Oh. Without. A, question Xbox. Or Playstation. This. Time Xbox, or Playstation. Well. I, have, an Xbox 360 but, a PC, gaming master race. How. About you Derek I'm. Not quite advanced enough to be on the PC but big. Avid, Xbox one supporter right. Now. I. Think. You're on social media in some form, or fashion what is your guilty social, media pleasure what do you like post about all the time, we'll. Start with Derek. Hmm. I. Uh. I, really, really. Like, fashion so, I have a tendency to post my outfits on my snapchat stories, which. Gets. Taken in different ways but yeah. How. About you lewis. I. Post. An embarrassing, number of pictures of my cats. I am. A fan already what about you. All. Right let's get some interesting. Questions. From. This as stem professionals, in one way or another when. You think about a more. Memorable. Scuse me memorable, experience. With stem could be as, child or, in your career what comes. To my heart with you Lewis. Hmm. Perseverance. Perseverance. Trying. To get my PhD I ran into an exam that I couldn't, do, I, just. I did, not have the attention span to, complete the exam and. It's. Really, hard exam so, I had, to spend a lot of time. Advocating. For myself and talking, to administrators and. People. In the department, and say yes, I do have this disability here's a lot of documentation, on it I. Need. Some help here and. Getting. Through that it wasn't people. Weren't hostile. But. You. Definitely had to repeat yourself a lot. Great. And now how about you Derek what's one word that you think of with your memories. Um. I. Would probably have to relate one word be. Satisfaction. Um when. I, built. Out my first predictive, model and. One, of my advanced, analytics, classes, it, took about. 20. Plus hours to finish, but. When I was able to use, that model to be able to assign. A score, of likelihood, to. Determine. If, a patient was, at high risk of being readmitted to a hospital, after their first day which, I know sounds kind of kooky, at like a high level it was. Super. Super. Satisfactory. It just felt amazing that all of those hours of hardware, was, able to turn. Into this amazing, product that a human, wouldn't, necessarily be able to do at, all so. That's. Awesome what about you Jessica when you think of stem what stands out. At. You, Ted. So. Why. What you're teaching if you don't do it in a really fun, and engaging and. Hands-on and, interactive manner. If it, doesn't look like you're enjoying I. Was. A kid have been very entertaining. And in turn I use that very much. I'm. Gonna kind of bounce off our keynote, speaker, a little bit and ask what, is your favorite. Piece of technology. And how do you use it in your daily life we'll start with Luis oh this. Is a cheat my favorite piece of technology, is the supercomputer, that I run jobs on. It's. Gigantic. Costs a lot of money it's really cool. How. About you Derek, um. I'm. Probably gonna simplify. That down a little bit, just. My my, laptop. Being. Able to go from a personal device that, can still have the like, computing power to, do these, predictive. Programs, and look at massive data sets and be, able to switch from that to, watching, Netflix. Big. Fan big fan, how. About you Jessica if you've. Been. Closed. Captions, on DVDs, that. Was called. A, covered. That but. Currently. My favorite technology. That I'm using is one that I'm wearing right now but. My. Well, these are the processors. I call them my ears so if you hold. On my ears are dying I'm trying to take my ears off it's, not physical. This. Is the, outer piece, two. Different pieces that, allows me to hear the processor.

Cable. To this piece this, piece, I, met, another, man it, and punch it into my head a little. Computer, chips implanted into, my head as well. But. Into, my head and, it goes down a little wire which goes through my school to, my cochlea, and, that sound wire, into, my. Piece. Of technology, that is. So, cool, let's. Say the geek and me. Alright. Next. Question, we'll. Talk a little bit about day. To day what. Handle. It when people make, incorrect. Incorrect, assumptions. About your abilities, and sometimes it's they don't even do it on purpose I've, run into that but how do you handle that we'll start with Jessica. There's. Been an ongoing throughout. My life. They. Will ask me something along the lines of oh action. While. The answers, over the years man and I've gotten, inked and I gotcha Africa, like okay great no I haven't hit a pair of it but usually I'm. Going to come out and say that it makes some. Um. The kids will just straight-up, ask me why do you. Get. I've been asked that they're alive, and I know that they don't mean anything. It's. A lot of kids I've come across sort of asked me why. Do you talk funny why didn't speak funny and I explained, I can't, keep. Actually. Exposed. To. A really wonderful educational. Wonderful. And how about you Lewis. Hmm. I'd, say. Oftentimes. It. Winds. Up with me starting by apologizing. And then, explaining. The nature of my disability, usually. Because when, when people make. Incorrect assumptions, it has to do with, me. Not being able to focus on them and a. Lot, of people take that as an insult, so, even, though I'm apologizing, for something that I have no control over I. Mean it it. Generally tends to help because. That's the expectation that people have. So. For me since. I don't have a, physical disability or necessarily. A learning. Disability mine. Usually comes up when I actually have a sleep attack and. I. Can be mid conversation and fall, asleep or I could, be sitting, in class and fall asleep just, from. The lack of stimulation and. Usually. People. Just think that I went to bed late the night before or, didn't. Get enough sleep so. I have to explain to them what, narcolepsy, is so going back to using as a teaching experience. But. Then to, take a step further people are usually like wow that must be nice and go to sleep whenever you want um, so.

I Have to in take a step further and explain to them that I don't really pick and choose when, I fall asleep it just kind of happens. And I can it coming or not but. To. Just kind of bear with me and if I fall asleep during anything important, or something that need to be like, awake and paying, attention for I usually, just have a buddy next to me give me a little nudge or I'll, bring some coffee with me or something along those lines. Well. You. Have. Chemistry. Isn't people in lab coats mixing, a bunch of beakers together you're not actually gonna like it. Yes. Science is a. Wide, variety, of presentations. That is true how about you Derek um, I. Would, say it. Find. A champion find. Someone, who believes, in you and what, you're capable of, and. Use. Them as a support, system for, when you're not necessarily the most confident, in your own abilities. Having. That person that can reassure you that you're, capable of getting through whatever you're going through. No. Matter if you've gotten a hundred rejections, from jobs or colleges, that, if you just keep submitting applications. You keep working out it'll work out yeah. That. Kind of makes me think of our our wonderful keynote speaker, he. Said science is basically a team sport and sometimes, it has nothing to do with a lab but those that support you I think that is a really. Important message how about you Jessica. Dear. 15 year old Jessica. When. Inevitably. Multiple. People tell you you're not going to be able to do something that you're really passionate about, some day I want, you to turn around and say watch. Me. Big. Repertoire, for that oh, right. Our. Audience. Questions, I believe there are probably a couple of, microphones. We. Have three microphone. Runners, so, we'll start I'm going to start on this side and kind of work my way down do. I have any questions from this side of the audience there's a lovely.

Person, In pink here in the front we've got a microphone coming right front row. What. Would happen if you. Mix lava. And, liquid, nitrogen. What. Would happen, if you mix lava and liquid nitrogen I'm, not sure that we're chemistry, background. You. Might oh he, knows Lois. You're thinking. He's thinking. Depends. On how hot the lava is it, can be really hot and also, fairly cool. You'd, probably wind, up with, a. Lot. Of steam, and obsidian. Amazing. Question all. Right we've got a question here in the middle gentlemen I read oh just got one in the back okay we'll start with that. This. Is a question, for Jessica. Jessica. Whoever. Read the book by Cece, Bell called, help death Oh about, the cochlear. Implants. She got. Can. You repeat the name of the author and, the name of the book, Cece. Bells l depo. I. I'm. Still learning so, much about this technology and there's actually three different companies, that make cochlear, implants, minor, from metal, but. There's two other companies as well and they're incredibly, complex. Pieces, of equipment I am by no means an, engineer, at all, but. Kudos, to you if you run that behind there that's really amazing maybe you can tell me more about my tech later. All. Right we've got a question over on, the left. Right. Potassium. Explode. Whatever. Why. Does, overripe. Bananas, make you ill because. Of the potassium, I said, why does sprite and bananas, go sprite. And bananas. Why does sprite Anthony, has make you it'll throw, up, throwing, sugar, maybe in the potassium oh butter, Tim. Water explodes. Probably. The sugar now. This. This side over here has, some questions I don't want us to forget our right right, audience, folks I, can't. See very well because I'm also very, very short. That's. Anybody's. Paint, wait. How. Does a leap I'm a fan of your disabilities. In any, way to make has. Anyone, made, you feel better has anyone, made fun of you about your disabilities. To make you feel bad we'll. Start with, Jessica.

Absolutely. I. Grew, up at, the. Tiny little town in, rural Kansas, my. Elementary, and middle school was one building and there was absolutely zero diversity. Whatsoever, so anybody, even remotely, different, in that, school and got, teased including, me I had. Several people that was getting up on me to make fun of my hearing impairment, back in late, elementary, school, I even. Had a teacher, join. In on that sure. I got bullied by my fifth grade sixth, grade teacher which. Was, terrible so. Much. People when your parents, say I'm going to move you halfway across the country they get upset I could not get out of that school faster, so. We moved from Kansas to Washington, State where I also went to high school and a teeny tiny little itty, bitty town but. The diversity was just a little bit more than that and I had a much better experience and. Actually really enjoyed high school but, elementary. And middle school were not fun for me. How. About you Lewis. My. Neuromuscular. Disability, makes it almost, impossible to play frisbee and. You'd. Be surprised to how much people make fun of you for being so. Terrible, at frisbee I. Like. I can't, I I. Will throw a frisbee and it'll go anywhere, in this angle I have zero control over how my hand releases that thing, and. I. Will. Say that as you. Get older people get a lot more patient, about it. And. How about you Derek yeah. Definitely, so I would. Find myself like falling, asleep in really, inappropriate, situations. And either. The, people I'm with maybe. Made me feel bad about it or even some of my close friends would like make fun of me for it but, the, way that I kind of learned to cope with it is to. Just kind of join in on the joke honestly, that, way I wasn't, the target of it I was more so the, punchline at the same time I was laughing with them and over. Time like those are some of my best friends, and that's. Just kind of how we communicate with one another but. Definitely. If. You don't feel, like the target and you make yourself be a part of the joke rather than the punchline then. It. Definitely helps a lot. Excellent. We are unfortunately just. About out of time but there will be opportunities. For you to meet with us individually. So I'm going to pass, things along to, Edie and we will close up for today thank you all so much and, thank you panelist let's. Give them all a round of applause. Thank. You panelists. You know guys it takes a lot of courage to come up here and share like, that so thank. You so much for. Taking the time to do it and it's time with us and having the courage. We're. Starting a new thing this year which. We're calling student, mentors I, picked. This up. And, our student, mentors, are from. Local universities and. They. Uselessly wanted to come here and speak, with you today. And, we have two student, men your mentors, up here on the front row and I'd like a runner if we can to come down and provide. A mic so that our student.

Mentors Can introduce themselves. Thank. You. Can. You hear me now. Okay. So. For. Those of you that didn't hear me on the other side of the room my name is Jennifer Hodgins I am, student. At NC, State University in. The College of Education. My, background, is mathematics, and I'm currently studying how to help others. Enjoy, mathematics. And science using, what. I call computational. Science, so during. A lot of that block-based programming, that our keynote, speaker mentioned earlier. Hello. I'm Sean, Mullan I'm a, PhD student at, NC, State University in, the department of computer science and. My. PhD, work focuses, on dogs. For. How come, talk to me after. Great. Thank you both very much for being here this. Wraps, up our stem. Career showcase at, least the formal part of the program, but. There's more here, today so, as. We dismiss here in the main auditorium. Sean. Jennifer, all the panelists, and Sean. King and I, will be here, and we'd love to talk to you about your. Plans your hopes your dreams and, your. Future, career in stem, there. Are also representatives. From about, 18 organizations. Waiting for you outside on, the first and second floor of this building that, have. Opportunities. To share we call it the opportunity fair I'll, hope you'll go talk to each one of them finally. Don't forget about that post survey and, the reason that survey is important it helps us do, a better job next. Year for, the students that attend, that. Concludes the stem career showcase I hope, you'll join us next year thank you so much for being here.

2019-10-19 08:55

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