Day 2 of NETC started with an interesting topic: Extraterrestrial Agriculture. Robert Ferl from UF discussed work that faculty and staff in Ag Engineering and Horticulture have been conducting about growing plants in space. The idea is that for any long term space activity (Mars missions, for example) humans will need to produce their own food. Later in the day I toured some of the research facilities at UF that are devoted to this line of research. One key concern is the two focus areas of NASA: the space station and a moon visit. Funding for this type of research seems to be drying up. For a quick read on the space program, see the chapter about space in Glenn Reynolds’ book An Army of Davids.
There were only two concurrent sessions, but I picked up a lot of information on web design and content capture methods. After two days, it seems clear to me that Iowa State and Texas A&M have a lot going on related to technology.
The highlight of the day was the 404 awards. These are a parody of a formal awards program filled with numerous examples of techie humor. I even got most of it. The key point was that it promoted a sense of team versus recognizing individual accomplishments. This led to more team building at the hotel bar which in turn led to my delay in getting this posted. One and half days of NETC left, and I’m still excited by the program content.