Day 2

A late dinner gave our appetites the flexibility to have a later breakfast at "the pantry cafe", a 24 coffee cup type of establishment that has been open 24 hours a day since 1924. A simple protein and potatoes type place with the menu on the wall. Quick and comforting breakfast before our walk to the fashion district for a little window shopping and people watching.

Several blocks from the main street we had been traversing to the convention center is a place called 'Santee Alley" where various shops line a bazaar type alleyway, hawking an assortment of wares, ranging from straw hats to socks. While the local culture was interesting, nothing called out to us to purchase.

Back to ISEF to check out the available merchandise and visit the e-lounge, where Dylan met the NAO robot developed by Intel. This is not your average robot as it speaks 25 languages, can recognize faces, and seems to have emotion. The mobility of the NAO was amazing as it stood up from a resting position. It's hand had two fingers and a thumb, allowing it to grasp items and gesture. We'll try to post a youtube video that can better explain the NAO.

Dylan and I also attempted to go through a laser maze with limited success, definitely a situation where age is not an advantage. A photo of our attempts was then posted by Intel on facebook for viewing on the web.

We then headed to the expo portion of  the center where the sponsoring companies and several universities had booths to display the newest gadgets or solicit attendance. The Navy also had a display to fly a fa-18 via simulator, which Dylan proved to be much better at than laser maze.

We also cruised back through the project area and again were amazed by the scope  of the projects. Tami and I spoke with one young man from Taiwan whose project was on the use of computer aligned origami patterns. Dylan visited a discussion with the only finalist from Romania who explained his project on  facial recognition. (I hope he spoke in Romanian so I would have an excuse why I did not understand)

I kinda understand.



Huh?





Another aspect of ISEF is the symposia lectures by many scientists and engineers. We attended one by Dr. Hsu of Symaptics on a concept phone called the Fuse which had a back touch panel, side scroll bars, and 3d display. It also had a tilt sensitivity and was setup to be used by one hand.

The Opening Ceremony was proceeded by a buffet for about 3000 finalists, teachers, student observers, and parents. It was quite a well orchestrated meal by the convention center caterers with a healthy selection of chicken, halibut, and vegetables.  Dylan ate with his friend from last years ISEF, Gavin who has been selected as a Google Science Fair semi-finalist. (one of sixty selected out of over 10,000 on-line entries!!)

The Opening Ceremony was a posted with a sign explaining loud noise and flashing lights would be involved. Awesome! The kids were ready, thumping bass and disco beats made you want to "throw your hair back" and a bunch did. We could tweet shout outs to be selected to be shown on the jumbo screens and my "go Florida!" was posted. The pounding of drumsticks on a trash can started the ceremony in high gear as a drummer came through the crowd and up to the stage where he met up with the rest of the gang on stage. That was followed by a rousing and pounding demonstration of thrash can groove.

Chad Zdenek of G4 networks "effin science" was the emcee and Jeffrey Katzenberg,CEO of Dreamworks was the keynote speaker. He talked about the technologists with his company and showed several clips of the various animated movies he produced. Even a premiere of "Kung Fu Panda 2" that has yet to be released. He answered several questions selected from the tweets sent to Intel and Priya's question was selected as the first one. Did I tell you she is headed to MIT?

The night ended with all the countries selected representatives joining on stage for a global shout out. Lots of cheering and dancing by all to celebrate all that is ISEF.