Oak Ridge Today

Secret City Wildbots have ‘Tech or Treat’ on Friday

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Spook-Tech-Ular!

The Secret City Wildbots are hosting the first annual Tech or Treat at Oak Ridge High School on Friday evening. (Submitted image)

The Secret City Wildbots are hosting the first annual Tech or Treat at Oak Ridge High School on Friday evening.

Tech or Treat will support STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in Oak Ridge Schools and the surrounding areas.

Tech or Treat is similar to trunk or treat. STEM-related clubs and teams from around the area will set up booths in the Oak Ridge High School Cafeteria and hand out candy to community trick-or-treaters. There will even be special guests from technology research companies in the area, a press release said. [Read more…]

Roane State’s Gatton eager to show new side of manufacturing

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Bob Gatton of Roane State's National STEM Consortium

Roane State’s Bob Gatton explains a composite materials demonstration during an open house showcasing the college’s advanced manufacturing programs. (Submitted photo)

Bob Gatton wants to spread a simple but powerful message.

Manufacturing is not what it used to be.

“When you start talking about factories, people have this mental picture of being covered in soot,” Gatton said. “That’s just not true anymore. Most factories are clean and automated.”

As director of Roane State Community College’s National STEM Consortium Program, Gatton is in a position to train people for today’s high-tech manufacturing jobs. The college has developed two one-year certificate programs—mechatronics and composite materials—with funding from a $19.7 million grant awarded to the National STEM Consortium. [Read more…]

Former astronaut on mission to promote math and science

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Astronaut Bernard Harris at ORNL

Astronaut Bernard A. Harris Jr., right, talks to Scott Wood, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory computer analyst and Roane State Community College observatory volunteer, after a Friday morning talk at ORNL.

He had prepared for this space mission for years, starting as a boy fascinated by the Apollo program and continuing through rigorous astronaut training.

Still, as Bernard A. Harris Jr. stepped out of the space shuttle Discovery in 1995—the first African-American to walk in space—he hesitated, afraid he might get sucked out of the craft’s air lock and fall 250 miles to Earth.

Holy cow, Harris thought as the Earth flew by far below at 17,500 miles per hour.

“I am really doing this,” Harris recalled thinking. “It was just incredible.”

[Read more…]