Science Fair at IOI'95

[ IOI Home page ] The Science Fair

This page is also available in Dutch although the contents is a little different.
The IOI is an international event where young people from all over the world meet in a technological environment. The IOI provides a challenge to gifted young people, stimulates an interest in information technology, and promotes international understanding. These goals will get an extra impulse during the last two days of the IOI'95. On Saturday July 1st and Sunday July 2nd a visit to the Science Fair on the campus of Eindhoven University of Technology will offer the general public the opportunity to participate in this event. All Dutch high-school students will be invited.

The Science Fair: a global village where for two days young people, computers, and technology meet. Keywords: science and fair / playful and serious / man and computer / futuristic / intriguing / interactive.

During the Science Fair there will be two attempts to gain an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. If we succeed, the largest computergame in the world will be played in Eindhoven and the largest and only human parallel computer will function here.

The Records

The computer game

256 computers in a vertical 16X16 stand, connected by a network, controlled by 256 joysticks. With the aid of those joysticks 256 participants of the IOI'95 play a giant "Nintendo"-game: exciting, spectacular, and unique. We are working hard at the realization of the necessary software and technological support. The choice between individual or team competitions is still open.
[ Hotballs Logo ]

The parallel computer

In the PSV-soccerstadium 10,000 children are arranged in a 100X100 square. Each child acts as a processor and executes a set of simple instructions dependent on the behavior of its 4 neighbors. Each child has a blue umbrella which it opens or closes in accordance with the computations. In this manner moving patterns are created in the square. We are designing a simple, but fault-tolerant, protocol for the communications, which will be tested through extensive computer simulation. Some teaching materials for the schools will introduce the children to parallel computing. The event itself will be fairly frivolous: a show with brass bands and suspense.

The Tents

The Science Fair will take place on two locations (three if we count the PSV-stadium): some six tents on the university grounds and the Evoluon. The Evoluon is a Philips-building which houses a very interesting exhibition of Philips-products presented as in a science museum. It will be open to the general public during the Science Fair. The six tents will be:

The Soft Ware Café

You've been to the Hard Rock Café in New York or Stockholm? In Eindhoven you can visit the Soft Ware Café. The meeting place for the young international computer expert. Here you can meet with colleagues from all over the world. There are computers to show off your newest programs (or games) and copy them if you wish and there is some entertainment in the form of demonstrations, computer music, etc.

The sciences

In this tent the universities and technical colleges exhibit their vision on informatics with the aid of demonstrations and projects.

The future is now

In this tent the emphasis is on the applications of the computer in technology. Industrial firms are invited to show their prize projects here. Keywords: hi-tech and interactive.

The computer at play

In this tent we find sidetrips to the fields of music, the visual arts, games, and play. An example is the digital caricaturist. The computergraphics group of our university has designed software with which one can deform video-images in an arbitrary way: visitors can take their portrait home.

The shop

This is the commercial tent. We are thinking of computer firms, computer games, popular-science journals, etc., possibly IOI-souvenirs for sale.

The IOI-rendez-vous

Here visitors can take a break from the digital violence and have a snack or a drink. Naturally the computer has penetrated here: monitors show computer-graphics films for example. And there is an Internet connection. We cannot afford to lose contact with the electronic highway!
Created by Tom Verhoeff, NL.
Updated by Richard Verhoeven.
IOI 95