Innoskate 2016
The Smithsonian’s Innoskate program travels the country celebrating inventive creativity in skate culture. Innoskate 2016 features a new collaboration with the Lemelson-MIT program to create a festival at the Lynch Family Skatepark in Cambridge. This event will draw upon the collective energy and expertise of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, the Lemelson-MIT program, MIT faculty and staff, and other community partners to create an entertaining and educational program for the public.
The event will kick-off Friday, October 28 at MIT Stata Center with a special evening event. The festival continues on Saturday, October 29 at the Lynch Family Skatepark with discussions and hands-on invention educational activities to spark the imagination of skaters and non-skaters of all ages.
Learn about invention and creativity in skateboarding with skaters, historians, inventors and scientists from the Smithsonian and MIT. Meet legendary skateboarders Rodney Mullen, Christian Hosoi and other pioneers of skateboarding history.
Images by: Steven Sebring and DSR S100
Open Skating / Skate Clinic, 11:00 a.m.
Welcome Remarks, 12 noon
Panel 1 – 50 Years of Skateboard Innovation and Invention, 12:30 p.m.
Skateboard innovator and manufacturer “Professor” Paul Schmitt will perform his popular panel that explores how skaters spark innovations in skateboard design though their drive and determination to invent new tricks, navigate a variety of terrain and environments, and to continually push the boundaries of skateboarding. This panel highlights the critical role of the skater as the primary innovator responsible for instigating advances in deck design and the use of new materials in the skateboard, wheels, and trucks in order to realize a creative vision. He will be joined by Christina Chase, lecturer at MIT and co-director of STE@M (Sports Technology Education @MIT), as well as professional skateboarders and 3D printing experts from Formlabs.
Open Skate hosted by The Boardr, 1:15 p.m.
Panel 2 – Innovation, Collaboration and Community – The creation of the Lynch Family Skatepark, 1:45 p.m.
This panel, featuring Renata Von Tscharner from the Charles River Conservancy and Steve Van Doren of Vans, will explore the creation of the Lynch Family Skatepark and how collaborative problem solving can be a success through shared vision.
Open Skate hosted by The Boardr, 2:15 p.m.
Panel 3 – The Skateboarder’s Brain – Creativity and Learning in Skateboarding, 2:45 p.m.
This final panel discussion will explore the physiological and external associative processes of invention—what happens in our brains when creativity and invention are taking place? How does the brain learn, remember, replicate, and recombine movements in skateboarding? Speakers include Rodney Mullen, skateboard legend; and Chris Leppla, doctoral candidate in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT.
Best Trick Contest hosted by The Boardr (open to skaters with a signed waiver), 3:30 p.m.
Closing Remarks, 4:00 p.m.
Educational Activities, All Day
• Spark!Lab hands-on activities - Invent Your Own Skate Park, Invent Your Own Skate Wheel
• Formlabs 3D printing demonstrations
• Edgerton Center and Tech Imaging for their high speed image capture of skateboarders
• Lemelson-MIT Program’s hands-on activity on the physics of optics
Innoskate 2016 has been made possible through the generous support of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the participation of Vans.
