Scott Turner and Rachel French
In Motion Staff Writers
STEM, an acronym standing for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, is a program that raises awareness about the importance of the fields in the world today. Daytona State is continuing a series of STEM seminars which share the same goal.
“Come one, come all,” said Joseph Mercier, with a laugh and a grin spread across his face.
What may sound like an advertisement for the local circus, he is actually discussing the second annual expo funded by Daytona State’s STEM Community Scholars Program, of which Mercier is one of the head coordinators, along with Dr. Christian Rivera.
On Feb. 7, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., the second annual STEM Expo will be held in the News-Journal Center, 221 N. Beach St. Featured speakers will include Shayla Rivera, a rocket scientist and comedian who has a one-woman-show titled “Rocket Science and Salsa.” Other presenters will be Ron Hickland, a professional bowler and bowling product design engineer and George Hart, a research professor who utilizes technology and 3D printing to produce sculptures.
While none of these three cutting edge STEM researchers are garden variety, the most popular speaker, according to Mercier, may end up being Brianna Kurtz, a math teacher at Daytona State,who is going to explain how it’s possible to use math to determine the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. Additionally, there will be demonstrations and speakers from universities and other institutions and businesses. Schools represented include Daytona State, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Stetson University, the University of Central Florida and the Florida Institute of Technology. Also on hand, will be representatives of NASA, AO Precision Manufacturing, Energizer Holdings, and Hawaiian Tropic.
Mercier, Daytona State’s STEM coordinator, said the intent of the Expo is that, “We hope to convey to students that the STEM disciplines are in play everywhere, even in careers that one normally wouldn’t associate with STEM. There is science and technology behind everything.”
Five hundred students from Volusia and Flagler County schools are expected to attend the event.
Daytona State’s School of Physical and Biological Sciences is the driving force behind the Expo and a series of monthly seminars, which will be presented by professionals from all over Florida throughout the semester. STEM seminars are an offshoot of a former science series, but have taken off in popularity the past few semesters.
“The lectures, which ought to be interesting, are accessible to the average man on the street. In fact, the speakers are specifically told to keep material easy to understand,” said Dr. Gajendrea Tulsian, or GT to his colleagues and students, a physics and math professor at Daytona State.
“It’s a unique opportunity,” he added, “to help inspire students to hopefully go into a STEM field and to provide an enriching college experience for students.”
The first speaker at the end of January, Dmitry Kolpashchikov, spoke on DNA Technology and Nucleic Acid Analysis. Over the course of the year, seminars will cover topics from a multitude of fields, including, but not limited to, light polarization and how to teach it, recent advances in gene therapy, problems and benefits of thin solar cells and the effects of sea level change on coastlines.
Seminars are presented every Wednesday through April 30, from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Mori Hosseini Center, Building 1200, in the Madorsky Theater, at Daytona State College. They are free and open to the public. For information call 386- 506-3779, or visit http://www.drtulsian.com/seminars_2013-14.php.
For more information about the expo, or to RSVP, contact Joe Mercier at 386- 506-3520, MercieJo@DaytonaState.edu or Christian Rivera at 386- 506-3711, RiveraCh@DaytonaState.edu.
This month, four STEM seminars are on tap, including: Feb. 5, “Fire and Water, Confessions of a Hedonistic Ecologist,” with John Fauth, Professor, Department of Biology, University of Central Florida; Feb. 12, “The Effects of Light Polarization and How to Teach it to an Audience aged 4-75,” with Boris Y. Zeldovich, Professor, College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida; Feb. 19, “The World Before Higg,” presented by Pierre Ramond, Professor/Director, Institute of Fundamental Theory, University of Florida; and Feb. 26, “Recent Advances in Gene Therapy,” with Yoon-Seong Kim, Professor, UCF Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Florida.