Posters submitted by
Valerie Juarez and
Crystal Wettingfeld

Valerie Juarez
On Thursday October 2nd, I went with Crystal to the Association for Computer Educators in Texas (ACET) Conference in Austin, TX. We got to the hotel later than we expected, so we were not able to go to any panels the day before the poster session. Next time I go to a conference, I hope to be able to see some panels and other sessions.

On the day of the poster session, I was very nervous. Because of hurricane Ike, there were 5 posters out of the total 10 that were scheduled to be there. We set up in a conference room and waited for people to look at our posters and ask us questions. It was very nerve-wracking, but throughout the day, I got more confident, and it became fun. It really helped that Crystal and Zack, a former Lamar student, was there. There was a speaker at lunch, Ken Sears, who spoke about ‘Web 3.0.’ It was really interesting, and I would have liked to hear more. There was a big lunch rush of people so we were busy after lunch. The conference attendees were really nice and encouraging, and I would like to attend more conferences and poster sessions.

ACET Abstract
ACET Presentation

Crystal Wettingfeld
The ACET conference was my first conference to attend. Unfortunately, Valerie and I got in late Thursday evening, so we couldn’t attend any of the presentations that day. Friday we spent the day attending our posters. While I spoke to numerous people, several were really interested in my poster, and even gave some ideas about how to make the academy better or more functional.

Unfortunately, we didn’t part from our posters long enough to attend any of the presentations on Friday. However, we were lucky enough to have a presentation during lunch over “Web 3.0” by Ken Sears. His presentation was very interesting, especially since I knew about some of the “Web 3.0” concepts, and our progress towards it.

Valerie and I planned to attend a post-conference session over robotics, but sadly it was cancelled. Since the other sessions were not to our interest, we did not attend a post-session.

The conference was much smaller than I expected, but that also made it much more personal. Even if I didn’t remember names, I recognized many faces of the conference attendees. There were a total of 5 student poster submissions, and a total of 9 or 10 students attending. Since we were such a small group, it was easy to be social with each other during down times.

Since there were 5 posters, the conference gave out 5 awards. Valerie Juarez received first place for her poster on computer processing. Zachary Henkel received second place for his post on materials for high school robotics that were used in the high school academy with Inspired. I received third place.

Overall, the conference was extremely interesting and fun. If I could change anything, I wish I could have attending some of the presentations, and maybe a pre-conference workshop.

WettingfeldACETAbstract.doc
WettingfeldACETPresentation.ppt