TIFF: Trek Talks: Bridging Science and the Arts
Since its debut in 1966, Star Trek has inspired people to pursue their passions and dreams in a variety of fields, from science and engineering to technology and the arts. From Martin Cooper, who invented the portable cellular phone in 1973 inspired by Captain Kirk's communicator, to Dr. Mae Jemison, whose admiration of Nichelle Nichols' Lt. Uhura led her to realize her dream to become the first African American woman in space, Star Trek has motivated fans to realize its ideals in their own lives.
Beyond inspiring individuals, Trek is used as a teaching tool by educators in courses on law and diplomacy, physics, information studies, and even philosophy and sociology. Its representation of real-world issues through metaphor and analogy engages with complex scientific and philosophical concepts for a mass audience, making the series itself a form of educational inquiry.
This roundtable discussion on Star Trek and science education brings together Sonny Kohli, physician and co-founder of Cloud DX, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and STEAMLabs co-founder and Managing Director at the Royal Ontario Museum Marianne Mader, to consider how science can inspire art and art can inspire science, and how film and television projects like Star Trek can inspire careers in space, technology, math, arts, and engineering fields.
Marianne Mader is Managing Director at the Royal Ontario Museum, and co-founder of STEAMLabs community makerspace. She has studied some of the oldest rocks on earth in Greenland, explored impact craters across the globe, and collected meteorites in Antarctica. Mader has collaborated with the Canadian Space Agency, NASA, and Canadian space companies to plan and execute simulated planetary missions.
Jeremy Hansen is a modern-day explorer. He began flying at the age of 17, eventually becoming a CF-18 fighter pilot. In 2009, Jeremy was selected from a pool of over 5,300 candidates to become one of two Canadian astronauts. Since then, his intensive astronaut training has included geological expeditions to the High Arctic, exploring alien caves, and conducting scientific experiments in weightlessness.
Sandeep (Sonny) Singh Kohli is a physician and adjunct faculty member at McMaster University. As an alumnus of the International Space University and former CSA astronaut candidate, he became intrigued by space-age solutions to the world's health problems. He co-founded Cloud Dx to create a fully autonomous "digital doctor" called Vitaliti, which is currently a finalist in the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition.
Who can attend: Everyone
Fee: $23.75 (Adult), $19.25 (Senior/Student), $17.00 (Child/Youth)
Tickets: https://oss.ticketmaster.com/aps/tiff/EN/buy/details/6O13L0T2
Organized by: Toronto International Film Festival
Location: TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 3C6
http://www.tiff.net/events/trek-talks-bridging-science-and-the-arts/