nerd nite nyc

Welcome to Nerd Nite NYC, hosted by Matt Wasowski (matt @ nerdnite.com)

Speed dating is back!  Come by on Friday February 3rd as 25 smart and fun single lasses get another chance to meet 25 smart and fun single fellas.  After the dating, the presentations will discuss small wind energy, how fictitious cities (think, Gotham and Metropolis) can influence real cities, and a heavy metal primer (the music, not the molecules)!  Oh, and we might mention the magazine one or two more times too.

Nerd Nite Speed Dating – $25 – sign-in at 6:30pm and begins at 7pm sharp. (Speed dating is sold out!)
Nerd Nite Presentations-Only – $10 – doors at 8:45pm, begins at 9pm.  Buy tickets now!

Friday February 3, 2012
Galapagos Art Space
16 Main Street, DUMBO Brooklyn
A/C train to High Street or F train to York Street

Back to the Lectures At-Hand:
*Presentation #1
Why “Small” Wind will be the next Big Thing
by Scott Van Pelt

Description:  Most people now are pretty familiar with utility scale wind farms; several dozen to over a hundred 7 plus story tall megawatt wind turbines that we see from highways in the midwest and on billboards for companies who want to make people think they’re ecofriendly.  However, there are a growing number of companies world wide who make small wind turbines that can be installed on or next to a home or business to convert the power of the wind into electricity to be used immediately.  In addition to removing the need for inefficient and costly long distance transmission wires, recently published test data suggests that small wind turbines are more efficient than large megawatt turbines.  When you add it all up, the small wind industry is poised to make a big impact on how we think about and generate renewable energy.

Bio:  Scott Van Pelt, not to be mistaken with the ESPN guy, is a huge advocate of small wind and sees it becoming a more prevalent energy resource for us in the future. Scott is the Vice President of Engineering for the NYC-headquartered vertical axis wind turbine manufacturing company Urban Green Energy.  Scott has degrees from Lehigh University in both Business and Engineering and spent several years designing high rise buildings here in NYC before making the jump to work in renewable energy.

*Presentation #2
Dystopias in [un]Built Form: Society’s Fears Visually Expressed in Fiction
by Andrew Haner

Description: What is a dystopia? What about today’s society makes them increasingly relevant? What do they say about our collective fears about the futures? By discussing dystopian expressions in fiction, especially in cinema, we hope to become more aware of how this imagery reflects the current public feelings on current social issues.

Bio: Andrew Haner is the founding principal of sun|tect: architecture and a registered architect in New York State. He is near-sighted, rhythmless, and has two cats.

*Presentation #3
The Metal Primer
by Erinmichelle

Description: Prepare yourself for a brutal, metal lobotomy. This talk will cover metal culture, key metal genres/bands and tons of metal references.  Focus will be on first-wave, old-school metal with a pre-internet spin. In Metal We Trust!

Bio: Erinmichelle has been a  metalhead for over 20 years, attended 1500+ live shows and somehow her head’s still attached (although her hearing is a bit worse for the wear).  When she’s not busy head banging, she works in IT defending innocents (and the not so innocent) from cybercrime.