Monday October 31, 2005

I spent a chunk of last week on one of the Prepa Tech campuses in Monterrey, Mexico at Mexico's national high school Science Fair. It was really cool to see what these students had put together, especially since their culture and economics are so different from Canada and the US. For example, there was a group of girls who had invented a clever device to clean the spines off of cactus, which is commonly used as a vegetable in Mexico. Another cool one was a robotic manipulator whose actuators were all hydraulic, made from hypodermic syringes. It was a great group of kids who had poured their hearts into these projects. Young geeks having way to much fun.

One of the uniquely wonderful bits of Mexican culture is their celebration of the Day of the Dead, where they celebrate their deceased ancestors. They build altars dedicated to them. At Prepa Tech I came across this wonderful altar dedicated to a collection of scientists including Marie Curie, Neils Bohr, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.