Full STEAM Ahead

First off, let’s all take a moment to celebrate the 10th episode and one-year (kinda of) anniversary of Full STEAM Ahead! And there’s no better person to spend it with than Dr. Aidyl Gonzalez-Serrichio, who happens to be the first ever guest we had on our podcast. We all know Dr. G as the astronautical Multitasker of a lifetime that founded and co-directs the GOld initiative, is a member of the Possum 13 group, received her PhD in molecular genetics at CalTech and her BS in molecular biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She taught at Cosmo, our guest Nathan, and I at our own school.

And if you thought our list of guests was over, you’re sorely mistaken. We’re also joined with student Nathan Park, who founded the STEAM based journal called MIND Magazine that consists of 12 artists and writers alike. They create quarterly magazines and distribute them to schools in the LA Region.  They’re currently aiming to hit 50 schools in Los angeles. Nathan is currently a rising junior at our own school, and we’re honored to have him on with us.

In today’s episode we’re joined with AVIS LANG , writer and editor at the American Museum of Natural History. She earned both her Masters in History of Art and Bachelor’s in English, at University of Michigan. Avis is also an associate at the Hayden Planetarium which holds space exhibits and other astronomy related shows. Additionally Avis taught fine arts and women’s studies at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the Banff Centre, and the University of Lethbridge.

In today’s episode we’re joined with Robert Yowell, aerospace engineer and technical consultant for space-centric moviemaking. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Aerospace and Electrical engineering from the University of Southern California and the US Air Force Institute of Technology, and began his career in 1989 as an engineer with NASA in Houston where he participated in the space shuttle program as a flight controller in Mission Control. Since 2011, he has managed spaceflight projects for the US Air Force in Los Angeles. 

Robert also works with space-related movie productions as a consultant. From pre-production all the way to on-set supervision, Robert is there to ensure a level of authenticity and accuracy. He works in tandem with the director, props department, post-production and more. You might know Robert for his work on "Ad Astra" directed by James Gray and "Lucy In the Sky" directed by Noah Hawley. And most recently the Warner-Horizon / Appian Way TV series "The Right Stuff". Recorded by Cosmo Callaway and Eliana Stanford, with guest Robert J. Yowell.

Dr. Jan Conn is a Canadian poet, artist, and mosquito geneticist with a PhD in genetics. She has had training in systematics, entomology and population genetics, and she’s undoubtedly advanced efforts towards malaria eradication. She has done fieldwork in Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Panama, and Columbia in order to study the factors that influence malaria transmission. 

With her studies,  she has over 100 publications that outline the importance of understanding these factors in order to help end the malaria epidemic. In addition to her academic career, Dr. Conn is an avid poet, with 9 books of poetry published. Now if Dr. Conn isn’t one of the most steam-oriented people we’ve hosted on this podcast, then I don’t know what we’re doing. She’s also spoken at 9 poetry festivals, one of which I was able to attend online with wordVancouver. Recorded by Cosmo Callaway and Eliana Stanford, with guest Jan Conn.

In today’s episode we have the absolute privilege to sit down with Tyler Bates. He is a musician, producer, and composer for film, television, and video games and you might have heard his work in the 300, John Wickmovies, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Deadpool 2, just to name a few. In addition, he is the former lead guitarist for Marilyn Mansen and produced a number of his albums as well. You might have even heard him play the Star Spangled banner on the guitar at a Tennessee Titans Football game.

Tyler’s seemingly endless list of credits typically revolve around horror and action, and have made their ways into a plethora of media, including a Disneyland attraction which we'll touch on a bit later! He’s a perfect guest for today because he brings the best of the steam worlds together, engineering and art. Recorded by Cosmo Callaway and Eliana Stanford, with guest Tyler Bates.

In today’s episode, we’re sitting down with aerospace engineer extraordinaire Harshini Sivakumar. Outside of Georgia Tech where she’s currently working on her Bachelor’s, Harshini is the 2020 Expansion subcommittee chair of the WOAA group, or Women of Aeronautics and Astronautics. 

When she’s not working at the Aero Maker Space, you can find Harshini public speaking surrounding topics of empowerment and advocating for gender equality and equity in STEAM fields. We are very lucky to have Harshini here with us today, to discuss her journey to becoming an inspirational woman in STEAM. Recorded by Cosmo Callaway and Eliana Stanford, with guest Harshini Sivakumar

Today we are joined by not one guest, but two. Cheryl Eskin who is a teen mental health specialist and program director at Teenline and Tye Shabani who is a teen mental health volunteer at Teenline. Just for those of you who aren’t aware of what Teenline is a confidential hotline for teenagers. Specially trained, Southern California teen volunteer answer calls, emails and texts from fellow teens. They listen and provide advice in regards to anything from abuse, depression, divorce, bullying, anxiety, gangs, gender identity, homelessness, pregnancy, relationships, sexuality, violence, substance abuse, self harm, and suicide. 

Our other guest Tye is heavily involved in our school’s student government, he’s been a teenline volunteer for a little over two years, and leads the suicide awareness club at Buckley. But Eliana and I both know Tye as a close friend and hardworking student. Recorded by Cosmo Callaway and Eliana Stanford, with guests Cheryl Eskin and Tye Shabani.

In today’s episode, we’re sitting down with Chamal Samaranayake. Chamal 

Has a bachelor’s degree from Stanford where he majored in computer science, with a focus on human-computer interaction. After that he went to work at Microsoft in 2013, helping develop Xbox Live TV. Upon his departure, he became the product hire at Snapchat, when it was only composed of a mere 20 people. Chamal worked on the original version of Snapchat’s chat function, bitmoji integration, geofilters, and countless other fundamental features of the app. Chances are, if you’ve ever so much as opened Snapchat, you’ve utilized one of the many developments Chamal has directly worked on.

That being said, he has filed for many patents to secure all the creative initiatives. He has helped integrate the friend-level emojis, especially for streaks, helped incorporate the big caption style and filters. Not only that, but he has helped implement in-app voter registration, which resulted in over 400,000 people registering to vote in the United States. And we are so excited to hear about it from the product designer himself. Recorded by Cosmo Callaway and Eliana Stanford, with guest Chamal Samaranayake.

In today’s episode, we’re sitting down with Dr. Kenneth G Carpenter. Dr. Carpenter is currently a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Operations Project Scientist and the Ground System Scientist for WFIRST. On top of that, he leads the Stellar Imager Vision Mission concept development, which captures images of stars similar to our sun with impeccable precision, at over 200x the resolution of the Hubble Space telescope. From chromospheres and ultraviolet spectroscopy, to winds and circumstellar shells of cool stars, he’s done it all.  And if you don’t know what any of those words mean there's no better person to explain it than Dr.Carpenter himself.

In short, Dr. Carpenter is an incredibly accomplished astrophysicist to say the least. He has a Bachleors, a Masters and a PhD in Astronomy. Not to mention that he has received thirty awards at NASA ALONE. His W-First project is on track to be out of this world, as it is a telescope that has a imaging capabilities 100x larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope in order to solve questions pertaining to dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics phenomena.

 In today’s episode, we’re sitting down with NASA Solar System ambassador herself, Dr. Aidyl Gonzalez-Serricchio. Multitasker is an understatement when it comes to Doctor G. And I mean it when I say that her list of accomplishments could not fit on an entire page. But I’ll try to name a few regardless. She is the co-director and founder of the GoLD initiative which strives to provide an engaging, holistic, education style to young STEAM students with learning differences. She received her PhD in molecular genetics at CalTech and her BS in molecular biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

She taught for 7 years at our own Buckley School, 3 years at Bridges Academy, and is now beginning a new chapter teaching at the Brentwood School. Dr.G felt fitting for the first episode as she was our science teacher and mentor at The Buckley School and helped facilitate our love and passion for the Steam field, which inspired us to pass it on to and motivate other “Future World Changers”.

Recorded by Cosmo Callaway and Eliana Stanford, with guest Dr. Aidyl Gonzalez-Serricchio.