Otronicon promotes science, technology

Orlando went digital over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend when the Orlando Science Center was taken over by the city's largest technology showcase: Otronicon.

This four day event, attended by over 10,000 people, was meant to be a family-friendly way to highlight video games and technology's different uses in people's lives. Now, in its seventh year, Otronicon brought together a variety of sponsors such as Lockheed Martin, Disney World Resorts, Florida Hospital, EA Games as well as projects from UCF.

"The idea behind Otronicon is to get kids excited about science, technology, engineering and math through really exciting displays featuring video game simulation and virtual reality," Jeff Stanford, vice president of communications, said. "To show the impact that interactive technology makes on how we live, learn, work and play."

Lockheed Martin made an appearance at the convention presenting their flight and medical simulations to the crowd.

"This is one of the only opportunities where the public can actually come and interact with the Lockheed Martin simulators," systems engineer Joseph Freeman,said. "We want the public to know that we do the traditional weapons platforms and flight simulators, but we also are looking into trying to solve some of the country's problems dealing with the three different areas: education, medical and energy."

In conjunction with Lockheed Martin, FIRST Robotics Team 1902: Exploding Bacon presented two robots that they had built for previous competitions at the UCF Arena. This robotics team has members ranging from six to 18 years old. Andrew Parker, a junior Trinity Preparatory School student, participated in building both robots, specializing in mechanical and electrical work.

"Everything they [kids] hear about robotics and technology is closer than they think," Parker said. "It's possible to join a FIRST Robotics team and get hands-on experience with technology, programming or whatever they need."

On the other end of the room, Florida Hospital highlighted two robots that transform the ER room for the better. One of the robots is called the Da Vinci robot, which allows a surgical procedure to use three small incisions, instead of one large gash, to perform surgeries in different areas such as the kidney and the throat. Using two robotic clamps and a camera, the doctor can see a close up view of the affected area and perform the surgery with less blood loss and a short recovery time. Urologist Dr. Jeff Thill demonstrated how doctors would use this robot to perform complicated tasks.

"For the younger people, they learn that there is a medical use for technology," Dr. Thill said. "For the parents, it's a learning opportunity to talk to people about it and ask their doctors if their surgery can be done robotically."

Two UCF sponsored projects were showcased during Otronicon: a 3D simulation of Lake Eola with E2i Creative Studios and the first look at Minds of Chimera by the Interactive Systems and User Experience Lab, a modified version of the popular video game Minecraft with an educational element. The purpose of creating this game was to promote creativity in education.

"The idea behind the Virtual Lake Eola project is to create a program for autistic students to interact with each other, learn how to cooperate and socialize in a virtual setting," senior digital media major Jennifer Rice said.

The public was allowed to go in and test Minds of Chimera and write in suggestions on how to make it a better game.

"The hope is that people are becoming more creative while playing Minds of Chimera," third year undergraduate researcher Christopher Ross said. The purpose of creating this game was to promote creativity in education.

"There are educational quests, some are based on physics, and some are in computer architecture and beginning programming," UCF doctoral student Miko Charbonneau said. "We want to see how people foster their creativity more by using these educational quests."

A new participant to Otronicon this year was Walt Disney World Resorts. On display was the Midway Mania video game, simulations of roller coasters, and some of the animatronics that are used inside the It's a Small World ride's dolls. Staff animation specialist Steven "Mouse" Silverstein gave presentations each day on how the audio animatronics system and figures at Disney function. He also shared with the public how this system has changed over the years and what they use today.

"All this magic that they see around them, the simulation for the rides and animatronics, requires a really strong background in math and science. I'm really behind this kind of thing [display] for promoting those ideas," Silverstein said.