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This coming weekend Kitchener-Waterloo will host the Southern Ontario Science and Space Research and Technology Festival at the Kitchener City Hall and other local venues. The three day festival starting this Friday includes public screenings of popular science fiction movies, a full afternoon of talks from researcher and engineers on Sunday and a live interactive webcast with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hanson.
The non-profit festival was created to celebrate the unique and interesting space research and technology happening in Southern Ontario.
There are activities for families, children, and those wanting to learn more from leading educational institutions and industry. A host of free events include a Starlab display hosted by The Museum, astronomy activities hosted by the Laurier Centre for Women in Science, NASA produced video games and many other displays and information booths.
The festival gets underway on Friday with the screenings of the movies Contact at 6:45 p.m. and Serenity at 9:30 p.m. at the Original Princess. Each movie will be introduced by a member of the Southern Ontario Space team discussing the science behind the movie.
On Saturday the Scifi festivities and vendors will be at the Waterloo public square between 12-5 p.m. and the Star Trek Day will he held at the Original Princess cinema with trivia, costume contests, games from 7:00 – 9:30 p.m. followed by the movie the Wrath of Khan.
On Sunday starting at 12:00 is a full afternoon of speakers at the Kitchener City Hall. This event costs $5 and tickets are available on Eventbrite. Guest speakers include:
– 12:15 p.m. Dr. Danya Hudson from COM DEV
– 1:00 p.m. Dr. Michael Balogh from the University of Waterloo
– 1:45 p.m. Leif Bloomquist P. Eng from MDA
– 2:30 p.m. Special guest speaker Major Jeremy Hansen courtesy of the Canadian Space Agency
– 3:30 p.m. Melissa Battler from the Centre for Planetary Studies and Exploration at the University of Western Ontario
The day concludes with a “meet the scientist” in the evening social event starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Rum Runner pub in Kitchener where the public can interact with members of the science community in an informal setting.
