A splendid event with an extremely high attendance, the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington DC was an unforgettable experience. Ages young and old had smiles glued to their faces as they strolled around to different lectures, booths, and of course the gift shops! This festival highlighted on nearly every aspect of the scientific world, including engineering, robotics, aeronautics, software design, astronomy, chemistry, and even biophysics!
Alexa Halford, a space physicist of Dartmouth College, was lovely to talk with about her research and involvement on the BARREL mission. It is best summarized through a quote from her blog, www.AlexaHalford.weebly.com :
“Barrel is a mission of opportunity under NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission. There are two scheduled campaigns where 20 payloads will be launched from Antarctica setting up a slowly moving array able to study the spatial and temporal variations of electron precipitation from the radiation belts.” – Alexa Halford
Furthermore, it was also a pleasure talking with Laura Burns from the James Webb Space Telescope. To read more about her work, check out her twitter, @moonrangerlaura.
For the first time, I had the opportunity to interview some of the engineers who assist in the construction of the NASA Space Launch System. One of the many engineers who is involved with the system gave some valuable advise to anyone who is struggling with attaining their dreams. He said:
“You will get discouraged (when faced with difficulties), but in the end, if you don’t focus on your end goal, you’ll never achieve it… If there are setbacks, plow through!”
These are the words from a very successful man. Don’t lose hope even when the road may seem grim. With hard work and passion, anything is possible.
Additionally, I had a fantastic conversation with Stefanie Payne, a freelance writer, blogger, and photographer. Please check out her brilliant blog, worldonafork.com to read some of her work.
Lastly, it was a dream come true to meet Dr. Michio Kaku, New York Times bestselling author of “Future of the Mind”, “Physics of the Future”, and many more books!
(That’s me on the left;)
Overall, the USA Science and Engineering Festival was a wonderful experience that I personally recommend to all.
– Julia
