PR News

NEW YORK - April 19, 2017 - PRLog -- The Official 2017 Call For Entries has been confirmed for all Spark Award design categories and Spark is currently accepting entries. According to Spark Awards Founder, Peter Kuchnicki, "Now in their 11th year, the Spark Awards are an exciting competition created to promote great design and talented designers. These events are focused tightly on 12 design categories and disciplines. Spark welcomes all designers, design firms and companies who invest in design. So come on in—join the Community and enter your best designs. The world's greatest designs have a home at Spark."

2017 participants to date include: Whipsaw Design; LUNAR-McKinsey; Piaggio Fast Forward; ADX Architects; Ergo Impact & Product Council; Rockwell Collins and the Sahar Madanat Design Studio. Universities represented include: Academy of Art University; Arizona State University; Art Center College of Design; Chonbuk University; Daegu University; Guangdong Polytechnic University; Hannam University; Hanseo University; Hong Kong Design Institute; Hongik University College of Design & Arts; Hoseo University; Kookmin University; KOREATECH University; Jeonju University; Middle East Technical University; Rhode Island School of Design; Samsung Art & Design Institute; University of Oregon; Warsaw University of Technology.

2017 Spring Deadlines
Product Design and the Spring Concept Design (Pro & Student)
Standard Registration: March 15–May 31
Late Registration:  June 1–June 25 (Final Deadline)

Please note that Spark Product Design is now ONLY taking place in the Spring. Spark has merged the Product Design competition Spring and Fall events and is holding only one consolidated event in 2017. There is no longer a November Product Design Award or deadline.

2017 Autumn Deadlines
Communication Design; Experience & Service Design; Health & Medical Design; Social Cause Design; Spaces Design (Architecture, Interiors & Urban); Transport Design and WEAR Design.

Early Registration: January 20–June 1
Standard Registration:  June 2–October 14
Late Registration:  October 15–November 14 (Final Deadline)

2017 Winter Deadlines
Dreamer Design Categories—Fall Concept Design (Pro & Student); MAKR Design & PROTO Design.

Early Registration: August 1–August 31
Standard Registration: September 1–October 31
Late Registration: November 1–November 28 (Final Deadline)

All Deadlines end at Midnight, California-time

Bonus Information
Spark is proudly supported by Autodesk, ArchNewsNow, Pluo Web Consulting and RIOT Creative Imaging.

The Spark Design Awards' core mission is to help create a better world through design excellence. Learn about this organization and see more great design at the Spark website landing page at http://www.sparkawards.com.

WASHINGTON - April 14, 2017 - PRLog -- Over the past several weeks, commercial or 'new' space, NASA, and space travel, have made more frequent headlines. The wave of stories included the much anticipated release of "Hidden Figures," a film celebrating female contributions to the American space industry at NASA, President Trump's signing of the $19.5 billion NASA funding bill, and most noteworthy and a looming "game changer" Elon Musk's Space X launch and landing of the Falcon 9 rocket, with implications that rocket reusability will dramatically reduce the costs associated with space transport.

Building on the space theme, last week's 33^rd Space Symposium held in Colorado Springs, showcased forward movement of commercial space flight. Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin and Musk's Space X have reinvigorated the discussion of private sector space and their respective ambitions for space travel (both suborbital and Mars bound) and transport and both men are engrossed in what seems their own "Private Space Race." Bezos appeared in Colorado alongside his Blue Origin rocket which made its stunning debut during a spectacularly picturesque snow storm on the Space Symposium's opening night. In addition to Bezos at the Blue Origin capsule and rocket display press conference was one of Blue Origin's top female executives, one of the slowly growing number of women in the male dominated space industry.

Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX graced the Symposium stage and shared her hopes of a future where more women are engaged in the space industry. Shotwell shared a quote from former U.S. Rep. Bella Abzug, who said "Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get appointed as an assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get as quickly promoted as a male schlemiel." Shotwell's words hold weight as a space super star and female role model for young professionals and aspiring girls in fields of engineering and space. When asked what needs to change for women to have a greater presence in the industry, Shotwell stated, "I think it's really important to be inclusive and to go beyond what your normal scope is."

For delegate Lisa La Bonté, a pioneering female entrepreneur and CEO of UAE's Arab Venture Foundation (AYVF    http://www.ayvf.org/) who began her career in Silicon Valley with aerospace defense contractor McDonnell Douglas, leaving her comfort zone of the business world to launch a groundbreaking NGO and forging an innovative partnership with NASA in the Middle East region, securing an historic International Space Act Agreement in 2009, Shotwell's sentiment hit the bullseye.

"There is much work to be done to promote and deliver space education that is hands-on and conducted in real world settings along with access that affords professional opportunities in the space sector for women around the world." said La Bonte. "The unique AYVF, UAE, NASA Research Fellows program consisted of 40% female engineering students and enabled cross-cultural student exchange teaming students from the Middle East and USA who were mentored by NASA scientists, researchers, and engineers within actual NASA mission teams." Most noteworthy however may be that AYVF's programs served US foreign policy goals and were created by a private sector, American female owned foreign NGO without one dollar of US taxpayer funding." Across the board whether in operations, strategy, or human capital development, women are making stellar strides and creating meaningful impact in the space industry.

LINCOLN, Neb. - April 5, 2017 - PRLog -- Nebraska's wide open spaces and acknowledgments by experts to be one of the best locations in America to view this summer's total solar eclipse, has caught the attention of scientists working with NASA.

According to Lora Young, representing the Nebraska Eclipse Coalition, an organization formed to promote Nebraska as a top travel destination for the August 21 solar eclipse, NASA scientists have targeted two Nebraska locations, Grand Island and Alliance, for their High Altitude Ballooning Program.

"The Nebraska High Altitude Ballooning Program is one of over 50 teams participating in a nationwide project to launch weather balloons with scientific payloads during the total solar eclipse on August 21," Young said.

In what could be the space agency's most-watched livestream on record, more than 50 high altitude balloons with video equipment attached to them will beam back live images of the eclipse from an altitude as high as 100,000 feet.

Dr. Peggy Norris, PhD, a physicist and science educator at Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, is leading a South Dakota team of undergraduates and high school students and teachers to conduct high altitude balloon flights in Western Nebraska.

"The Eclipse Ballooning Project will launch a high altitude balloon system from the Scottsbluff area to intercept the eclipse on August 21 as it passes through western Nebraska, including tracking and cutdown systems, a video imaging payload with live streaming to a NASA website, and detectors to measure cosmic rays and look for changes due to changing atmospheric conditions during the eclipse," said Dr. Norris.

"The balloons, which reach heights of up to 100,000 feet, will be broadcasting live from 20 sites along the eclipse path including Alliance. The broadcast will be seen on NASA TV and NASA.gov with real time footage of the moon's shadow on Earth and the darkened sun," Dr. Norris said.

The public is invited to attend a viewing event in Alliance on Eclipse Day that includes telescopes, pictures from the balloon and other eclipse related activities in Alliance. The group will be set up at Alliance High School, one of the public viewing sites along the eclipse centerline.

According to Michael Sibbernsen, a Special Projects Facilitator for the NASA Nebraska Space Grant, and Lecturer of Astronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, it's been 63 years since Nebraska has experienced a total solar eclipse.

"Although solar eclipses of some type happen on an average of about 2.5 times per year, and total solar eclipses around every 18 months, what is rare is having the chance to experience one in your part of the world. The last total solar eclipse in the contiguous United States was 38 years ago, and 63 years for the state of Nebraska," Sibbernsen said.

"On August 21st, the 'path of totality' where we find the deepest part of the Moon's dark shadow, will forge a trail through the United States, and diagonally through Nebraska from Scottsbluff to Falls City.

"Nebraska is an ideal location for eclipse hunters because over 250 miles of Interstate 80 lies within the path of totality, allowing observers an easy route to travel to their home-base of choice or to stay mobile should the weather turn overcast," Sibbernsen said.

Another balloon launch will take place at the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island. That team is supported by NASA Nebraska Space Grant based at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and led by Dr. Kendra Sibbernsen, PhD from Metropolitan Community College. Dr. Sibbernsen's student teams from Omaha is designing experimental payloads to take data during the balloon flight from Stuhr Museum.

"Grand Island was selected as a base of operations because it is easy to travel to on I-80, is near the centerline of the path of totality and will provide us with over 2 1/2 minutes of darkness," Dr. Sibbernsen said.

"Historical meteorological data suggests that we will have a 70-75 percent chance of having favorable weather to see the eclipse and the Stuhr Museum has a large flat open observing field giving us nice views of the sky. Even if it is cloudy, we should get good images of the shadow of the eclipse once the balloon ascends above the clouds," Dr. Sibbernsen said.

"In addition to the large public event planned at the Stuhr Museum, a research team plans to set up a tower and take meteorological data before, during, and after the eclipse. Therefore, a lot of science will be taking place amidst the fun and excitement of viewing the total solar eclipse."

The Nebraska Eclipse Coalition is comprised of 10 Nebraska communities that will have some of the longest views of the total solar eclipse. They are Scottsbluff, Gering, Alliance, North Platte, Kearney, Hastings, Grand Island, Lincoln, and Beatrice. Although Omaha is not in the direct path, it is also a Coalition member due to the expected large demand on air travel and hotel rooms.

"More than 200 Nebraska communities and nearly 30,000 square miles, or nearly 40 percent of Nebraska lie within the path of totality of the 2017 total solar eclipse. Many of these communities are in the process of planning major hosting events," Young said.

Nebraskans are urged to learn more, including lodging, special viewing events, best viewing areas, and a countdown clock by visiting neclipse17.com.