Francesca Civano

NASA Goddard

Chief Scientist in the Physics of the Cosmos Program Office

Date: Saturday, November 9th 

Time: 4:30PM ET/1:30PM PT

Meet Francesca Civano, Chief Scientist in the Physics of the Cosmos Program Office, NASA. Ms. Civano researches how black holes and galaxies have evolved together and has discovered a supermassive black hole named CID-42. Ms. Civano uses high-tech satellites such as Chandra, NuSTAR, and XMM-Newton to provide data that she and scientists around the world can use to help further our understanding of the universe.

Ms. Civano will share the exciting work she does at NASA and then let children ask her any questions they might have about how scientists here on Earth can get a glimpse of distant galaxies. At 5PM we will take a brief break and then reconvene for a hands-on coding project based on Ms. Civano’s work led by a Boolean Girl instructor.

Siân Gordon

lululemon

Director of Product Innovation

Siân started her career in research at Loughborough University, completing a PhD and subsequent Post Doc in Sports Technology. During this time, she developed performance monitoring technologies for the British Swim team and supported them in a data driven approach to refining technique, predominantly in starts and turns – up to and a little beyond the London 2012 Olympic Games.

In 2013, she swapped out swimmers for yoga pants, committing to trying industry for a year. 10 years later, and she is still at lululemon. The scrappy 7-person innovation team she joined now has a depth, breadth, and professionalism reflective of its’ and the industry’s maturity. During these years, she has worked on everything from sports bras and compression through to mindfulness-based technology and virtual reality. Currently, she leads the lululemon labs team as part of Product Innovation. A team that supports in the testing and validation of product performance in support of the mainline and Advanced Concepts teams.

Dr. Veronica Pinnick

NASA Goddard

Acting Staff Engineer for the Integration & Test Branch at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center

Dr. Veronica Pinnick, the acting Staff Engineer for the Integration & Test Branch at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Pinnick has worked at NASA for over 12 years and has been part of numerous exciting space exploration missions, from developing mass spectrometers that are used to analyze rock samples on Mars to taking part in NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission.

The PACE satellite was launched into Earth’s orbit on February 8th aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. PACE was designed to advance the assessment of ocean health by measuring the distribution of phytoplankton, tiny plants, and algae that sustain the marine food web. It will also provide scientists with key atmospheric variables associated with air quality and Earth’s climate.

Build Day DC

• Date: May 4, 2024
• Time: 10am-1pm
• Location: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden - Independence Ave SW & 7th St SW, Washington, DC 20560

Join Boolean Girl and fellow engineering and architecture fans of all ages for Build Day 2024! We're partnering once again with DCPS Arts and the Hirshhorn Museum to explore design and building and to celebrate student artists from across the city. Come for art and design activities including a DCPS Student Exhibition of the Enchanted City, Sticker Zone, Boolean Girl's Circuit Art Station, the Corcoran Fab Lab (3-D printing), Lego Zone, and the Toddler Building Zone.