“Fun with Technology” is the theme for the annual Trenton Computer Festival, taking place Saturday, March 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The College of New Jersey in Ewing. Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance by visiting https://tcf-nj.org.
This year’s festival is the first that will be held without the leadership of Al Katz, the TCNJ professor of computer and electrical engineering who founded the festival in 1976. Katz, who died in June, 2024, was the longest-tenured TCNJ faculty member at the time of his death, having worked there since 1971. He was also the founder of Linearizer Communications Group, a Hamilton-based communications technology manufacturing company he established in 1996. The festival he created is the longest running technology festival in the world.
The all-day event will follow a familiar format, with lectures and hands-on workshops on various technology-related topics taking place in four 55-minute sessions from 10:15 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. followed by a plenary session and keynote talk.
There is also a “Ham Cram” session and licensing exam for those interested in becoming amateur radio operators. The course, led by the David Sarnoff Radio Club, runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a lunch break. There is an additional $15 fee for the licensing exam. More information is available at tcf-nj.org/hamcram.
The keynote speaker is Dale Dougherty, one of the originators of the “maker” movement celebrating the enjoyment of hands-on work and play. In 2005, he founded Make: magazine and in 2006 he organized the first ever Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area. The event now has more than 1.5 million participants annually across 200 events in 40 countries. He is the co-author of “Free to Make: How the Maker Movement Is Changing our Jobs, Schools and Minds” and “Maker City: A Practical Guide for Reinventing American Cities.” His talk at TCF is titled “After Twenty Years, the Maker Movement Is Still Fun.”
The plenary session speakers are Matt Schenck and David Skovron, the technical director and technical supervisor, respectively, of Otherworld Philadelphia, a large-scale interactive art experience. Their talk is “A Glimpse Into the World of Immersive Technology.”
The lecture sessions earlier in the day fall into five general categories: Fun with Technology; AI & How To; Electronic Design for Fun & Profit; All About Tech; and How to… Additionally, there are eight presentations occurring as part of an information technology professionals conference and four presentations of projects undertaken by TCNJ seniors.
Among the specific lectures are “The State of Self-Hosted Entertainment,” “Fun with Pixicade,” The History of Artificial Intelligence in Society,” “Designing T-Shirts with AI Images,” “Home-Built Aircraft,” “Smart Devices and the Internet of Things,” and “Logic for Computer Enthusiasts.” There is also a presentation dedicated to TCF founder Katz, titled “Al Katz’s Professional Life Story: How Fun Every Day with Your Hobby While Building a Thriving Company.” A full schedule of talks is available on the TCF website.
Throughout the lecture portion of the agenda, attendees can also visit Aram Friedman’s microdome. The West Windsor resident, who led the design and construction of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, is the creator of a portable planetarium and an avid astro-photographer. His interactive microdome allows visitors to visit all corners of the known universe from a TCNJ classroom.
