WHAT
For the fourth year in a row, WPI will host TouchTomorrow, a free, hands-on, family-friendly festival of science, technology and robots featuring interactive activities that are focused on our scientific and technological future. Exhibits are presented by WPI, NASA, WGBH, and a variety of fun and engaging partners.
For the second year in a row, WGBH will serve as the official media partner for the festival. WGBH is a national leader in the effort to expand science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the classroom and at home.
This year, WGBH will debut its WGBH@TouchTomorrow exhibit, which will feature multimedia activities for students and STEM enthusiasts of all ages, as well as personal appearances by popular WGBH characters.
Among other activities, attendees at TouchTomorrow may
- help operate a rover at the Be-A-Bot 2.0 exhibit.
- take a photo in a NASA spacesuit.
- take a turn with the extravehicular activity (EVA) glove box used by astronauts.
- get “rolled over” by the Roll-Over-Rover.
- learn about spacesuit design through vacuum chamber experiments.
- learn about WPI research on human-robot interaction, spacecraft propulsion, biomechanics, wireless communication, intelligent tutors, and other cutting-edge fields.
- see WPI student project work in robotics, game design, architectural engineering, and other areas.
- “Kinect” with a NASA virtual robot.
- command the NASA MARCbot.
- see a model of the Mars rover Curiosity.
The TouchTomorrow festival follows the NASA-WPI Sample Return Robot (SRR) Challenge, a Centennial Challenge competition. The competition is also in its fourth year, and it calls for teams of roboticists to build, program, and demonstrate robots that can locate and retrieve geologic samples from a wide and varied terrain—without human control. Twenty teams from across the United States and abroad are coming to WPI in hopes that their robots will maneuver a difficult course and obtain the cached samples successfully.
WHEN
Saturday, June 13, 2015, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
WHERE
WPI Campus, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, Mass.
COST AND PARKING
TouchTomorrow is free to attend. Food and beverages will be available for purchase at various locations across campus.
TouchTomorrow visitors are welcome to park in any of the WPI parking lots or parking garages on the day of the festival. Motorists must obey traffic laws for parking on side streets.
For more information on TouchTomorrow events and activities, including schedules and maps and the Sample Return Robot Challenge, visit touchtomorrow.wpi.edu.
Journalists and media representatives seeking additional information should contact Kelly Bishop at 508-831-6721, kabishop@wpi.edu, or Eileen Brangan Mell, 508-831-6785, ebmell@wpi.edu.
