Famelab Beckons. Or not.

A not so secret weapon

Today was the day that I made my Three Minute Pitch for fame at FameLab. The idea is that you speak about something scientific for three minutes. No more. No less. No computers, no script. Just you and 180 seconds. 

Of course I cheated.

Turns out that you are allowed props. The night before the talk I put together the little device you can see above. It uses LittleBits devices to create a timer. It uses two rows of lights that increase as the time goes by.The bottom row fills up over the three minute and the top row fills over the last thirty seconds. It was actually quite fun to make. I used the Arduino LittleBit to make it work. I'll post the program later. 

The timer worked out fine, but I don't think I've made it to the final. Everyone else was doing hard core science stuff, you know, origins of the universe and serious stuff like that where I just did my piece about how Computer Science is the bestest ever subject.  I think if I want to make it in this field I need to come up with some slightly more focussed content. 

Anyhoo, the great thing for me was to see lots of enthusiastic people talking science in front of an appreciative audience. Great stuff.