Hipsters often boast about being on Instagram before it was cool, but the tech-savvy presenters of the biannual Gadget Day at Weigle Information Commons are actually ahead of the zeitgeist.
The event, to be held today at the WIC Seminar Room, has a history of premiering the latest technology before it really takes off. Presenters are mostly members of the faculty, but students with knowledge and interest are also eligible to present.
In the past, Gadget Day presenters have demoed Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest before their respective booms.
The event, taking place today between 9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., is structured in 30-minute presentations of each gadget and is open to anyone in the Penn community.
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“It tends to draw people from all parts of campus,” Anu Vedantham, director of WIC, said. “The common theme seems to be people who want to learn about the newest trends.”
The main goal of Gadget Day — to educate the Penn community on the latest technology — focuses on both efficiency and advancement. “If you are not aware that something can do [a task] much faster and easier, you might end up wasting your time,” Vedantham said.
Participants at the event can also interact with the technology to further their understanding of the devices. Ted Moskalenko, the lead for Mobile Technologies of the Information Systems & Computing Division of the Client Services Group at Information Systems and Computing and presenter of the mobile devices session, believes that having experts test the market’s new products and share their knowledge is the most efficient way to spread information.
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“Gadget Day features an hour long ‘Play and Share’ session, where participants get the chance to ask questions about the technology while exploring the capabilities of the devices,” Moskalenko said.
This year’s presentations will include Google Glass, which will be presented by College sophomore Evan Bayless. This head-mounted camera and communication device hooks up to your phone and works on Wi-Fi.
“I thought it would [feel] weird, but after two to three days, I didn’t notice it,” Bayless said. Although he believes that the device is currently too expensive and aesthetically displeasing in its beta model to be widely used, he foresees that “as we go forward, wearable technology will be a huge trend.”
“With the profusion of devices constantly being released, it can be difficult to discern the good from the bad for anyone unfamiliar with mobile jargon,” Moskalenko added.
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When the program first started in June 2010, the creators “thought it would be fun to have a quick show and tell” of the newest technological trends, said John MacDermott, director for Instructional Technology at SAS Computing. He believes that these quick presentations complement the longer workshops held at WIC throughout the year.
“We define gadgets very broadly,” Vedantham said. Although it used to be the convention to associate hardware and technological knick-knacks with the word “gadget,” the prevalence of apps and other software has made it necessary to expand this limited concept .
“There is always some neat thing you’ve never heard of before that will help you do your work better,” MacDermott said. “There is always a new trick out there that can help you be more creative, productive and a better-informed consumer.”
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Pulak Mittal, an Engineering and Wharton senior and co-founder of Emerald Exam, a program that allows students to take exams on laptops and guards against cheating, believes that “we are moving toward a more connected world … and people are coming up with new ways to leverage technology in the classroom.”
“[Tablets and apps] are a great resource that people aren’t really utilizing yet,” Engineering and Wharton sophomore Oliver Jenkins said. Jenkins presented the apps Notability and CamScanner — which have features like audio recording that can be used as an aid to note-taking — at Gadget Day last year.
Gadget Day organizers are also taking advantage of the latest advancements in technology: If students cannot make it to the event, they can still tune in to the Google Hangouts live stream.
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