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| 1-20-00 Contacts: Larry Genalo, Materials Science and Engineering, (515) 294-4722 Laura Boskelly, News Service, (515) 294-6881 ARE WE LIVING A JETSON’S FUTURE? AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State students can feel like kids again when the Maintenance Shop features the "Jetson’s Film Festival: A Technological Saturday Morning" 8 p.m., Thursday Jan. 27. The event is free and open to the public. Episodes of the Jetson’s, which featured a skypad apartment, flying cars and Rosie the robot, will be the main part of the festival. But there is a serious side as well. ISU Materials Science and Engineering Professor Larry Genalo, whose research area is the use of mobile robotics as an educational tool, will provide opening comments on how accurately the show’s creators predicted technological advances. Genalo said he will talk about "three particular advances predicted in the Jetson’s: Rosie the robot, the visaphone used for video-conferencing, and the sky car," all of which are products of today’s technology. There are robots that are programmed to vacuum, and phones that allow video-conferencing. But the most recent technological advance is a sky car that has been built in California, "that looks an awful lot like the sky car from the Jetson’s," Genalo said. The festival is sponsored by Iowa State’s Institute for National Affairs and the Student Union Board, and is part of the year-long university wide celebration of technology called Advancing technology to become the best. - 30 - |
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