2018 Issue

34 2017 Salt Lake City Comic Con STEM Booth By Charlie Vono, past Chair of the Utah Engineers Council and past Chair of the Local Utah AIAA Section W hile at an AIAA SciTech Conference in January 2016, I noticed a curious paper being presented. Amongst all the highly technical presentations on subjects like laminar air flow and digital twins, there was a talk from the Phoenix AIAA Section about running a STEM booth at the Phoenix Comicon (phoenixcomicon.com ). Curious, I went to listen and learned that these fan conven- tions were the perfect place to meet young folks who may aspire to be scientists and engineers someday. “Well!” I thought to myself, “We have a Comicon right here in Utah every September. We could do that!” Chatting after the talk, I found several AIAA members happy to give me advice on how. At this point, you may be like a friend of mine, a volunteer at our booth, looking out on the pandemonium of costumed fans, colorful booths, and spontaneous play-acting that is part of the ambiance at any Comicon. He leaned over to me and said, “What’s going on here? I don’t get it!”