Make exhibits accessible to all

If you have ever participated in a poster exhibition, you probably know how much torture it is to stand in front of your exhibit for five hours, hands clasped in front, a forced smile on the face, eyes constantly following passers-by in the hope that someone would show even a modicum of interest in your display.

Last Saturday morning, I was at the Graduate Research Exhibition (held in the HUB Ballroom) as an exhibitor. And, as you can guess, I was not having the most enjoyable of times.

Even then, I had some good moments at the exhibition, including the time when a school girl and her father stopped at my poster and I explained to them, in as uncomplicated language as I could, how I was studying the growth of bacteria in milk during refrigeration.

The father asked me several questions, and then finally asked the young girl to tell me about the experiments they did in her school. I could see that he was doing it all -- just for the sake of his daughter.

I listened to her with intent as she explained how they had grown bacteria in petri plates.

When they moved on to another exhibit, I couldn't help but feel elated that a school-age child could identify with the kind of research I was involved in. Of course, it was all because of the efforts of her father.

I only wish there were more parents with their children at the exhibition. Mostly it was other graduate students or professors that one could see moving around in the exhibit hall.

But frankly, I don't blame people if they preferred to spend their weekend in a better way.

Titles like "An Experimental and Numerical Study of the Viscous Stability of a Round Laminar Vertical Jet with and without Thermal Buoyance for Symmetric and Asymmetric Disturbances" (this is just an example and not an actual title in the exhibition) don't contribute a lot towards popularizing research with the general public.

One of the benefits which can be derived from having such an exhibition in the campus is to expose the public in general to the kind of useful research done at Penn State and to generate interest in high school kids toward college.

Sadly, the orientation of the exhibition was not toward doing this, and most of the exhibits (including mine, I must admit) involved scientific jargon (there were Arts and Humanities exhibits, too, which I will refrain from commenting upon for lack of perspective) obscure to the uninitiated mind.

I hope next year the organizers will take care to make this event more oriented toward lay people.

This would make the exhibition different from the various technical conferences graduate students attend each year, and at the same time provide an opportunity for families with young kids to have a great Saturday.