Events

Washington DC was flooded this past weekend with science enthusiasts from near and far, and the oneTesla team is very happy to have been part of the fun. The US Science and Engineering Festival attracted 180,000 students from the DC area as well as 325,000 visitors for a two-day exhibition that showcased everything wonderful about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

We were amazed at just how large this festival was. The photo above shows a small portion of Hall A, where oneTesla's booth resided, and there were FIVE entire halls of this size! It was crazy! There were also three stages where a variety of speakers gave different presentations about the importance of STEM in the modern world. Some highlights include Danica McKellar's presentation on encouraging girls to pursue mathematics and Mike Rowe's presentation on the necessary collaboration between skilled trades and engineering. No matter what your particular interest, there was truly something for everyone at the STEM Festival.

oneTesla was situated in the Engineering section of the festival (right next to the oobleck pool). Our booth drew in some pretty large crowds, but that's not surprising when you're showcasing a singing Tesla coil! People came from all over Hall A to figure out what that noise was, and many stayed to chat (or take videos of the coil) once they saw it.

Over the course of the event, we talked to thousands of people. Some of the people who stopped by the booth had never heard of a Tesla coil before, so we got to experience the joys of teaching as we demonstrated the coil's abilities and discussed basic theory. We also had the pleasure of meeting lots of fellow coilers and bonding over our shared love of lightning and coiling experiences.

We were actually pleased to discover that some of our customers were at the event! One gentleman was exhibiting the awesome projects that his university students got to build, including our coil.

While a lot of business got conducted during our time at the festival, there was also time for fun.

We got to see some pretty cool robots at the exhibition, including the Dow bot. He even stopped by for a photo with the coil.

We talked to some of the other exhibitors in the Engineering section who were selling similar DIY kits. One of these exhibitors, MaKey MaKey, loaned us their kit so that we could control our coil with a banana.

We also shared some candy with our fellow science enthusiasts...

...we taunted our intern a little bit (that's what interns are for, right?)...

...and, best of all, WE MET BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY!!!

All in all, this weekend was long and hectic but we enjoyed spending time with 325,000 awesome lovers of science. We're now back to our regularly scheduled programming of monitoring supplier shipments, responding to inquires, and packing kits. While this can sometimes seem tedious, it's totally worth seeing the look on peoples' faces when we first turn on our coil.

It's hard to believe that the event at the Museum of Science was already a week ago! We had the best time demoing our coil in the Theater of Electricity. Our coil may be a little smaller than the museum's Van de Graaff generator, but we think it fit right in!

We met a lot of wonderful teachers that night, who we'd like to take a second to applaud for helping inspire their students and foster an interest in science. It was nice to speak to fellow coilers and science enthusiasts first-hand. The nature of our work doesn't allow for much one-on-one interaction with other coilers and we really enjoyed an evening of talking Tesla with everyone who stopped by our booth. Thanks again to everyone who joined us!

And yes, that is candy in the primary. We love our snacks just as much as our science.

Now we're getting geared up for the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington D.C. We're only two short weeks away from what's bound to be a great expo. We would love to meet our coilers, so come see us on Saturday, April 26th and Sunday, April 27th at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. We would also love to meet Bill Nye the Science Guy, so hopefully he'll stop by the booth as well!

As the snow begins to melt and the first signs of spring appear, the oneTesla team is coming out to meet with other science enthusiasts. This year you can catch us at the Music Tech Fest in Cambridge on March 22nd, the National Science Teachers Association National Conference in Boston on April 4th, and at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC on April 26th and 27th.

Music Tech Fest: The Music Tech Fest is a meeting of music creators from Berklee, MIT, and Harvard who are coming together for a weekend of showcasing the newest developments in music technology. oneTesla has been invited to join the festival to showcase how our Tesla coil can be used to play music.

You can find the team giving a presentation and demonstration of our coil’s musical abilities at the Microsoft Research NERD labs on Saturday, March 22nd at 3:20 pm. We would love to meet our supporters and fans, so if you’re in Cambridge this weekend, come on down for a visit!

National Science Teachers Association National Conference: This conference brings together science educators from around the country to discuss ways to improve science education and how to get students more involved. One way to engage students in science education is through hands-on learning, which oneTesla supports and hopes to promote with our kits.

You can catch the team demoing and selling kits at the Theater of Electricity at the Museum of Science on Friday, April 4th from 6 pm to 9 pm. Stop by to meet the team, learn more about our kits, and see how our completed Tesla coils work. We hope to see you there!

USA Science and Engineering Festival: We’re very excited to be a part of the largest science festival in the US this year! This fantastic festival brings the STEM community together to show how science can be equally as exciting and entertaining as it is educational. There will be over 3,000 interactive activities for people of all ages, and oneTesla is looking forward to being part of the fun.

The festival is located at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and takes place Saturday, April 26th and Sunday, April 27th. oneTesla will be there both days from 9 am to 6 pm. Come see us for a demo of our Tesla coil and to chat with the company’s founders.

Also, you can now follow us on Twitter and Instagram! Follow us @onetesla1 and send us pictures and videos of your progress and completed coils. We love seeing what our fellow coilers are up to!

Last weekend we were at the World Maker Faire in New York, and we had a splendid few days of demos and fun. We had a booth in the Maker tent, and the music from our coil attracted crowds from the whole event. We distributed nearly 1000 stickers and business cards (who knew they'd go so fast?!) and during the cumulative 17 hours of our demo coil performing beautifully we had cameras pointed at us nearly the whole time! Furthermore, we are honored to have been awarded two ribbons from Make: Editor's Choice and Educator's choice.

The event was also great publicity! Popular Mechanics, Hackaday, EETimes, and Tested have featured us. Here's the video from Tested:

As part of the Year of The Arts initiative at Dartmouth College, The Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth recently co-commissioned the new opera "Tesla in New York." This weekend was the first time music from the opera-in-progress was performed. To inaugurate the performance, the Hopkins Center and Dartmouth's school of engineering organized a panel discussion involving Dartmouth Associate Professor of Engineering Charles Sullivan; David Perreault, MIT Department of Electrical Engineering; and Bernard Carlson, UVA Department of History, author of Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age. The discussion was followed by a tech fair with demonstrations showcasing Nikola Tesla's inventions and legacy.

oneTesla was invited to the tech fair at Thayer School of Engineering, and our demo was a smashing success. (See an article about the tech fair in The Dartmouth.) There were several other Tesla coils on display, as well as some demonstrations explaining AC vs. DC and the concept of wireless power transfer. Since we brought a keyboard and our setup was interactive, we attracted quite a significant crowd around our table!

Dartmouth

Dartmouth's Hopkins Center

The oneTesla setup at the Tesla Tech Fair

The setup was loved by kids of all ages!

 

 

Bayley posing with our oneTesla demo unit in its case

 

The oneTesla demo unit in its carrying case