Queen City science festival Sciencinnati is upon us. Conceived of by Craig Ihlendorf — a bright, engaging young man with a passion for video games, computers, technology and science in general — the one-day symposium is designed to illuminate the science and technology found in our daily lives. It will unfold Saturday, June 8 at the Starfire Council building.
Ihlendorf’s collaborator in this endeavor is Richard James, an icon of local music who’s now relishing in his role as a Community Builder for Starfire, a regional organization that strives to build better lives for people with disabilities by connecting them with those who share similar interests. Ihlendorf’s Starfire affiliation dates back to its incarnation as Starfire U, a program that sought to provide educational opportunities for young adults with disabilities.
“I bowl for Special Olympics and a couple people on my team were in Starfire U,” Ihlendorf says. “That’s how my mom and dad heard about it. I was in the evening program.”
Sciencinnati was envisioned during James and Ihlendorf’s weekly one-on-one outings, a consistent feature of Starfire’s new transitional model. James and Ihlendorf typically get coffee and volunteer at local businesses to help hone social interactions and discuss Ihlendorf’s passions and goals. A conversation last year on the pervasive nature of science led to an epiphany and, subsequently, the idea for the event.
“I’ve always been interested in science, since I was young,” Ihlendorf says. “I really enjoyed going to COSI (in Columbus) and I watched a lot of weird shows on TV — Bill Nye The Science Guy and The Magic School Bus.”
Of their meetings, James says that the pair started joking about the science that exists all around us.
“The reflective surface of street signs, the air we breathe, birds flying by, the road we’re driving on,” James says. “After a couple of weeks, our running joke turned into, ‘What if we put on a science festival?’ ”
The slate of presenters at the first annual Sciencinnati festival includes Bryan Dilsizian, a Queen City Album electroplating engineer and renowned local DJ; Lisa C. Andrews, owner of Sound Bites Nutrition and a registered dietician; Aaron Eiben, a University of Cincinnati physics instructor; and John Bender, the godfather of lo-fi synthesizer music and a therapist. Andrews’ presentation, which will also include a fact-filled cooking demo, seems to particularly pique Ihlendorf’s interest.
“I coined the phrase ‘edible chemistry,’ ” he says. “When a bartender is doing mixed drinks or a chef is cooking, that’s chemistry, but you can taste it.”
Other participants include GE Aviation engineer (and Roundhead/Black Owls bassist) Kip Roe, who will document the event via drone technology; Citizen Scientists of Cincinnati’s Jenny Doe; and Chelsea Nuss from The STEM Lab, a Sharonville-based company that offers after-school enrichment programs, summer camps and more.
There will also be tech presentations from the Microsoft Store, a virtual reality tour of Union Terminal from Kinetic Vision, an exhibit from the South Western Ohio Beekeepers Association and a 3-D printing demonstration via Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.
Sciencinnati is one example of the kind of events Starfire Council — which launched in 1993 — helps facilitate, in line with its stated mission to “create a more inclusive Cincinnati.” The original program, and later the Starfire U subset, dismantled in 2016 because they were segregated models that grouped individuals with disabilities together.
“What happens when we group them with other people who don’t have connections is more isolation,” says Starfire publicity coordinator Katie Bachmeyer. “What we’re doing now is completely one-on-one. Nothing is done in our building, and people with disabilities are never grouped together. You’re supported based on where you live, what your interests are and you have one Community Builder who pairs up with you to do cool projects, like Richard and Craig.”
When it comes to the ultimate purpose of Sciencinnati, Ihlendorf’s response also speaks to the aims of the Starfire Council itself. “I just want people to learn something,” he says.
Sciencinnati will be held June 8 at the Starfire Council building (5030 Oaklawn Drive, Madisonville). More information is available on the event’s Facebook page by searching “Sciencinnati: The Queen City Science Festival.” Details about the Starfire Council can be found at starfirecincy.org.
This article appears in May 22-29, 2019.