News

Avetec and the Heritage Center Host Technology Day

11/13/07

On Tuesday, November 13th, Avetec along with the Heritage Center of Springfield hosted Technology Day for the “Gifted and Talented” students from the Springfield City School District. 

The event showcased Clark County’s technological advances and sought to inspire student innovation and encourage students to consider the technology of the future.

The day began with special guest Gizmo, a 5-foot talking robot from the Greentree Group, and was accompanied by his robotic dog, Rover. 

Gizmo’s surprise appearance was followed by breakout sessions, which included a segment about pollution and climate change as well as a hands-on computer session where Jeff Arrington, Avetec’s Visualization Design Researcher, illustrated to the students how closely knit imagination is to invention.

“A lot of the technology in the movie ‘Blade Runner’ actually ended up becoming real inventions,” said Arrington.  “Imagination is the beginning of invention.”

The breakout sessions were followed by a presentation of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s performance of “American Made: The Art of Manufacturing” which is a multi-media program that tells the story of American manufacturing.

The event concluded with a presentation by celebrated aviation photographer Dan Patterson.  In his presentation, Dan shared many of his published photographs and advised the students to keep persevering until they succeed.

Avetec is a not-for-profit public benefit research organization that aims to facilitate a dramatic reduction in the cost and time it takes to design, develop and test new turbine engines for commercial and military applications.

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