27th National Space Symposium Will Feature NASA Optimus Prime Contest Winners

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Jan. 19, 2011) — NASA has opened online voting for its Optimus Prime Spinoff Award student video contest. The public is invited to vote for its favorite videos, made by students in grades three through eight, developed to help educate America’s youth about the benefits of NASA’s technologies.

A panel of NASA judges will select the winners in each of the two grade categories. The winning students, associated spinoff companies and NASA innovators will be announced in February.

In addition to the trophy, the winners will travel to Colorado Springs, Colo., for an award ceremony during the 27th National Space Symposium on April 12. Recognized as the premier gathering of the global space industry, the 27th National Space Symposium is held at The Broadmoor Hotel, April 11-14, and features high-level speakers, three halls of exhibits and programs for teachers and students. See more about the 27th National Space Symposium, at www.nationalspacesymposium.org/

Voting is open until Feb. 6. and the public can choose its favorite Optimus Prime Spinoff Award.

More than 190 children from 31 states have submitted creative videos describing their favorite agency technology from NASA’s 2009 Spinoff publication. The students also documented why their video should be selected to win the NASA Optimus Prime trophy.

NASA is using the correlation between Hasbro’s TRANSFORMERS property and commercialized agency “spinoffs” to help students understand how technology developed for space and aeronautics “transforms” into what is used on Earth.

The top five submissions from each of two groups (third through fifth and sixth through eighth grades) will advance for final judging. NASA intends to make this an annual competition. Students can begin thinking about next year’s competition by deciding which spinoffs they like best from NASA’s recently-published Spinoff 2010.

For more information about NASA spinoffs and technology transfer, visit: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/