Comic-Con@Home features UC San Diego scientists

Saura Naderi, outreach director at the Halıcıoğlu Data
Science Institute

Comic-Con 2020 may look a little different this year, coming to you from the comfort of your own home. The annual San Diego comic and pop culture convention is going virtual due to COVID-19, but the good news is more than 350 panels will be available for free online, no waiting overnight in line required.

Comic-Con@Home will feature seven UC San Diego speakers during the five-day virtual event running from July 22 to July 26.

Tune in on Thursday, July 23 from 3-4pm for The Science of Back to the Future, where the creative teams from "Back to the Future" and "Transformers" talk to local scientists about how they came up with their vision for each storyline and how science would play a part in these movies. UC San Diego panelists include engineer and roboticist Saura Naderi, the outreach director at the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute and an alumna of the Jacobs School of Engineering.

Marine biologist Ben Frable will speak on
the More Science in Your Fiction panel.

Up next is The League of Extraordinary Scientists and Engineers: More Science in Your Fiction on Thursday, July 23 from 6-7pm. Scientists and engineers will discuss how both comic books and science fiction push them to dive deeper into the unknown. UC San Diego panelists include Ben Frable, a marine biologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Angela Zoumplis, an extremophile explorer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

You can catch Sinless, Fearless, Ruthless - A look at science and social science in a YA sci-fi book Friday, July 25 at 4pm. Learn about the social sciences and the idea of morality behind Eye of the Beholder by author Sarah Tarkoff. UC San Diego panelists include Samantha Russman, a PhD student at the Jacobs School of Engineering.

Cognitive Science Professor Virgina De Sa

The Fleet Science Center Celebrates: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Stories and Science of Androids, Space Travel and Aliens will air on Saturday, July 25 from 3-4pm. Celebrate the seven seasons of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and hear executive producers, actors, and writers discuss how accurate the science in the series was with local scientists. UC San Diego panelists include Virginia De Sa, a professor in the Cognitive Science Department and associate director of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute ; Troy Sandberg, a bioengineering PhD alumnus; and Melissa Miller, a scientist and science writer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 

To learn more about Comic-Con 2020 events, visit their website.