NASA ARC: “Spreading the Word” – Experience the Dark Side of the Jam.

Subject: Spreading the Word – Experience the Dark Side of the Jam.
From: Centerwide Announcement
Date: February 25, 2013

TO: Resident Staff

FROM: Harry Partridge, Center Chief Technologist and Donald James, Acting Director, New Ventures and Communications

SUBJECT: “Spreading the Word” – Experience the Dark Side of the Jam.

I am pleased to invite Ames resident staff to drop in on the “Dark Side of the Jam” gathering in Building 3 on March 8-10, 2013. The Dark Side of the Jam is bringing together top game designers for a “satellite game jam” with the goal of developing space and science games. Dark Side of the Jam challenges gamers to not only to demonstrate their coding prowess, but help capture the public’s interest in the science and technology advancements being made in aerospace exploration.

Dark Side of the Jam opens with registration at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 8, and runs until 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, in the Building 3 Ballroom. The center director will welcome the participants, and then NASA speakers will share knowledge about NASA aeronautics, small spacecraft, robotics, and planetary exploration to ignite ideas. NASA also will provide feedback on Saturday to the game developers. The event kicks off on Friday evening at about 7:30 p.m. NASA also will provide displays and models for inspiration.

The event is an educational project of the Night Rover Challenge, http://www.nightrover.org/ , conducted under the auspices of NASA Centennial Challenge (Office of the Chief Technologist), who will use the products of the session to improve and expand NASA outreach.

Up to 25 members of the Ames staff can drop in on Dark Side of the Jam. Please contact either Ingrid Desilvestre, mailto:ingrid.desilvestre@nasa.gov , or Dionna Marshall, mailto:dionna.marshall@nasa.gov , to sign up on a first-come, first-served basis and we’ll send you a detailed schedule.

It should be an interesting and hopefully fun event for all involved.