It’s been all too common these days to open the paper and read about education and the lack there of for today’s students. They’re cutting music programming, kids are performing average or below average in science and math and we’re (the U.S.) not doing anything to encourage our youth past turning on the most recent reality TV shows or playing their PS2 (that’s PlayStation 2 – if there isn’t something new by now). But let me tell you … my faith has been restored at NextFest!

As I’ve worked the Energy booths and observed patrons over the past three days it’s been so refreshing to see the interest in science and technology. Sure, it’s cool to look at a flying car or a robot that is, quite frankly, all too human, but it really went beyond that with the children. Throughout the education day I watched students from fourth graders to sophomores in high school ask thought-provoking and insightful questions about renewable energy. The detail of their questions and the knowledge they brought to the exhibits was impressive – they were truly educated consumers in training. They knew what a megawatt was – something that I would have to admit I don’t think I knew until physics class in junior year of high school – they were able to guess within 20 feet the height of a wind turbine and they knew how solar panels worked and why wind turbines couldn’t be residential.

One student informed me, “The wind turbines can’t be residential because it’s too much money to connect them to the electric wires, but my Dad says there’s a Wal-Mart that has wind turbines powering it and that’s cool. I bet you I could figure out a way to make some wind turbines for my house.� And, he’s actually fairly accurate. There is difficulty and expense around residential wind (something GE doesn’t dabble in to my knowledge) with grid connectivity and power distribution and there is an Environmental Wal-Mart Supercenter in McKinney, Texas, that has a 50 kW wind turbine powering it on site.

The teachers deserve credit too, as many of them would explain each exhibit and even told their students there would be a quiz the next day on what they had learned (we found this out by watching a studious young boy scribble notes feverishly on his NextFest program) as he really “wanted the ‘A’.� Some of the teachers that came through discussed with me that they went on the NextFest website in advance and learned about the exhibits and taught their students about specific ones so they could get them excited and them have them see the real thing the following week.

Overall, this technology exhibition is an impressive forum for innovation – tomorrow’s ideas and today’s technology. It’s a great venue for educating and inspiring young and mature minds. So far, it’s certainly been an encouraging weekend. I look forward to seeing what develops from the scientists in training I’ve met. Hopefully they’ll keep their innovative and educated spirit.

There’s lots going on at NEXTFEST Saturday. It’s the second day that the exhibit is open to the public and the crowds are huge!! Some of my earlier day 2 highlights are women’s high heel shoe with a GPS locator and a video screen on the bottom that projects video! The next generation soldiers gear has technology that can tell where a soldier has been shot; and infrared video technology built into the helmet.

A shameless plug; the GE “Edison’s Desk” is running a video feed for GE on Demand, a podcast series of GE scientists providing glimpses into their labs. Like the whole scientist exhibit, its drawing great crowds. Yeah scientists!

So, here I am at WIRED NextFest in NYC… and it confirms what I already know — I’ve got one of the best communications gigs in the world. I work at GE Global Research with 2,000+ awesome technologists from around the world. These folks are changing the world through their technology and are also about the coolest people you’ll ever meet. So, we’ve brought down a crew of them for this event.

We have “Edison’s Desk” where five of our folks are demonstrating cool technologies they are developing, ranging from nanotechnology to surgical fluorescents. I don’t know who is more excited — the guests who are enjoying the demonstrations or our scientists who are playing around with each other’s demos.

It’s a great time — and I encourage people in the NYC area to come out for the event this Friday and Saturday to catch some of the action. Whether you are a scientist or a gal with a degree in journalism (go Ohio U!), you’ll be amazed! To get a sneak peek, visit www.grcblog.com.

Last night there was a VIP reception to officially kick off NEXTFEST. Mark Little who runs our Research Labs gave a great talk about innovation—and developing technology to create a better tomorrow. He was standing at “Edison’s Desk,” where a bunch of scientists from our labs are manning some exhibits. They are also writing posts for GE’s technology blog, “From Edison’s Desk.”.

There is lots going on here outside the GE space. Looking forward to taking a long walk across the whole show. More reports to come!