Last weekend, HacDC hosted a booth in the USA Science and Engineering Festival at the DC Convention Center. HacDC members who volunteered at the booth report that festival participants kept them plenty busy throughout the duration of the festival. Thank you to everyone who stopped by!
The HacDC booth demonstrated a variety of gadgets including a 3D Printer, the chassis of Spaceblimp 5 (or, “This lunchbox has been to space!”), a montage of beautiful Spaceblimp photos, a pen plotter writing portraits of people, various LED hacks, and a tank of water with a bubble ring generator.
I asked the volunteers and festival attendees to tell me about things they saw that they found particularly interesting:
- Baby hacking, or in other words, how babies learn to distinguish speech sounds that are present within the language of their environment.
- Ever want your own personal submarine? (Only if it comes with a periscope, right? Same here.) The Personal Submersibles Organization has one that is light enough that it can be carried on a trailer and lowered into the water on a ramp.
- Extracting Banana DNA and wearing it on a necklace was a highlight.
- As one member said, “There was probably something for every kind of geek.”
It sounds like everyone had a great time and we’re looking forward to attending more festivals in the future!