E-Fests to Feature Engineering and Entrepreneurial Innovators as Speakers
E-Fests to Feature Engineering and Entrepreneurial Innovators as Speakers
Feb. 24, 2017
ASME’s three Engineering Festivals (E-Fests), to be held during the next two months at locations in India and the United States, will feature a roster of prominent engineers and entrepreneurs who will share their experiences, expertise and advice with the engineering students attending the events. Registration for the first festival, E-Fest Asia Pacific from March 3 to 5 in Jaipur, India, is still open, and students can still take advantage of early registration for the E-Fests in the United States and receive up to a $50 discount on each of the two events. The new E-Fests will combine learning opportunities revolving around design, advanced manufacturing and robotics with social activities and entertainment, such as networking sessions and concerts.
The first of the two U.S. events, E-Fest West, will take place from March 17 to 19 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. E-Fest West will feature three exciting innovators from the maker and 3D printing fields — Dale Dougherty, Eva Hakansson and John B. Rogers, Jr. — as keynote presenters. Students who sign up for E-Fest West by March 16 can register for the discounted price of $125 — a savings of $25 on the regular price.
One of the E-Fest West keynote speakers, Dale Dougherty, was instrumental in launching the Maker Movement, having founded MAKE: Magazine in 2005 and organizing the first Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area a year later. The founder and CEO of Maker Media Inc. in San Francisco, Dougherty was heralded by President Barack Obama at the 2014 White House Maker Faire as an American innovator who had made significant contributions to the fields of education and business. Dougherty also co-authored the book Free to Make: How the Maker Movement Is Changing our Jobs, Schools and Minds with Adriane Conrad.
The second E-Fest West keynoter, John B. Rogers, Jr., is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Local Motors, a Phoenix-based motor vehicle company involved in low-volume manufacturing of open-source motor vehicle designs using microfactories. Founded 10 years ago, the company creates vehicles using 3D printing and blueprints supplied by the online vehicle design community. Having previously introduced the group-sourced Rally Fighter automobile and the 3D printed Strati and Swim vehicles, Local Motors launched Olli, an autonomous electric-powered bus, last year.
Eva Hakansson, Ph.D., the designer and builder of the world's fastest electric motorcycle, is also scheduled as a keynote presenter at E-Fest West. Originally hailing from Sweden and currently living in Colorado, Dr. Hakansson employed her engineering and 3D printing skills in building KillaJoule — an electric motorcycle capable of racing at 270 miles per hour — in the two-car garage in her back yard. Hakansson earned both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado in Boulder, as well as bachelor’s degrees in business administration and environmental sciences from Mälardalen University in Sweden.
Other speakers slated to appear at the three-day event include Noël Bakhtian, Ph.D., the 2016 ASME Foundation Swanson Fellow; Jennifer Jewers-Bowlin, associate, Henderson Engineers Inc. and former vice president of the ASME Centers Sector; Paul Stevenson of McCormick Stevenson Engineering and Design; Justin Young, of Denmar Technical Services and former chair of the ASME VOLT Academy; Colin Rawson from 3D Systems Quickparts; and Noel Wilson of Catapult Design.
One of the keynote presenters at E-Fest West, Eva Hakansson, has also been confirmed as a keynote speaker at E-Fest East, which will be held from April 21 to 23, 2017 at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tenn. Students can register for the festival through Feb. 28 for the $100 early bird price, or from March 1 to April 20 for $125 and still save $25 off the regular price.
Joining Hakansson as a keynote presenter at the event will be Amy Elliott, Ph.D., staff researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the project lead for the world’s first 3D printing vending machine, the DreamVendor, which was introduced in the spring of 2012. As a staff researcher at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) since 2013, Elliott works with members of U.S. industry on the strategic application of 3D printing technology, conducting research in conjunction with industry efforts in the area of binder jetting, through which she investigates new materials systems in ceramics and metals. She received a Ph.D. from the Virginia Tech DREAMS (Design, Research, and Education for Additive Manufacturing) Lab in 2014, where she studied inkjet-based 3D printing.
A number of other speakers have also been confirmed to speak at E-Fest East, including Greg Haye from at Local Motors’ facility in Knoxville, Tenn., Adam Kimberlin from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Amip Shah of Hewlett Packard Labs, Rob Gorham of America Makes, Thomas K. Kirkpatrick from McHale and Associates, Kevin Christopher of Christopher Intellectual Property Law LLC, Lonnie Love of ORNL’s Manufacturing Systems Research Group, Kirk Sorensen of Flibe Energy, Navya Rahhoji of Nissan North America, and Steve Wilson from Southern Company.
For more information on the ASME E-Fest program, to register for either E-Fest West or E-Fest East, or to see the complete list of E-Fest speakers, visit http://efests.asme.org.
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