By Carol Clark
Atlanta Science Festival returns March 8-22, with more than 100 events throughout the metro area, inviting the public to join fun, interactive and educational experiences. The acclaimed city-wide celebration, one of the largest of its kind in the country, showcases the myriad science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM) innovations happening in Atlanta, including at Emory.“Not only does the Atlanta Science Festival spotlight the wonder of science in its various forms, we strive to do so by curating a two-week experience that’s as exciting and intriguing as possible,” says Meisa Salaita, executive co-director of Science ATL, the non-profit organization that engineers the festival. “We want to open minds, educate, inspire, entertain, and spark the interest of the scientists of tomorrow.”
Now in its 12th year, the Atlanta Science Festival was co-founded by Emory, Georgia Tech and the Metro Atlanta Chamber.
Members of the Emory community will help participants experience the wonders of science through spectacles like the chemistry of fireballs, a musical entertainment combined with a biology talk on the surprising abilities of animals to use medicine, a walking tour of campus science landmarks, a behind-the-scenes look at the latest advances in healthcare technology and much more.
Creative events to engage participants with technology include “Data Poetics,” which will combine slam poetry and computer science on Thursday, March 13 at 7 p.m. at the Supermarket event space in Atlanta.
The introductory workshop in how to use software to visualize data and add power to poetic expression will be co-hosted by Emily Wall, Emory assistant professor of computer science, Keke Wu, Emory postdoctoral researcher, and W. J. Lofton, an Atlanta poet.
The idea for the event grew out of an Emory class that Wall and Lofton co-taught as part of the Emory Arts and Social Justice Fellows program, which pairs faculty with local artists to explore how creative thinking and artistic expression can inspire change. Their class was so successful that the duo wanted to introduce the concept to the wider public.
Participants will write a data-driven poem about a social issue affecting Atlanta and then amplify their message through information visualizations. “Many people think of computer science as intimidating and too ‘mathy’ to be interesting,” Wall says.
That attitude often changes when people learn simple ways to directly apply computer science to better communicate a human problem, she adds. “We want to give artists another tool, a way to make their art even more compelling.”
