Photo gallery: Wonder House showcases UArizona at SXSW
March 16, 2022
Final setup of a display in the Wonder House's Digital Oasis, an area of displays and interactive exhibits. (Photo: Chris Richards/University of Arizona)
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From March 11-13, the University of Arizona Wonder House took over the restaurant Fogo de Chão, located right across the street from the Austin Convention Center, the home of South by Southwest. (Photo: Chris Richards/University of Arizona)
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Dani DellaGiustina, an assistant professor of planetary sciences and deputy principal investigator of the UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission, delivers a talk explaining the engineering design principles that enabled the mission to overcome many unexpected challenges. (Photo: Kyle Mittan/University Communications)
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A scene from the premiere of "StellarScape," an immersive multimedia piece synthesizing music, dance, science, visual art and technology that tells the life cycle of a star. (Photo: Chris Richards/University of Arizona)
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Jessica Tierney, associate professor of geosciences, delivers a talk titled "Days of Drought and Flood," analyzing how past climates on Earth can tell us what the future holds. (Photo: Chris Richards/University of Arizona)
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A Wonder House guest holds up a taco filled with crickets, which were handed out at the end of Davidowitz's talk. The talk also featured Janos Wilder, the James Beard Award-winning Tucson chef who crafted the dish. (Photo: Chris Richards/University of Arizona)
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Goggy Davidowitz, a University Distinguished Scholar of Entomology, explains how humans will experience a giant food gap by 2050 – and how insects could be the solution. (Photo: Chris Richards/University of Arizona)
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Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy (right), helps a Wonder House guest with a VR headset that takes users to the largest telescopes on Earth. (Photo: Chris Richards/University of Arizona)
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The University of Arizona debuted its Wonder House at South by Southwest, giving attendees of one of the country's largest festivals a first-hand look at UArizona research and innovation.
The Wonder House, which took over a restaurant just across the street from SXSW's home in the Austin Convention Center, welcomed more than 9,000 people between March 11 and 13, according to early attendance estimates.
Attendees heard from some of UArizona's leading experts, including Dani DellaGiustina, an assistant professor of planetary sciences and deputy principal investigator of the UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, who explained the engineering principles that made the NASA mission possible.
Goggy Davidowitz, a University Distinguished Scholar of Entomology, explained how insects could be the answer to a looming worldwide food shortage. Attendees then got to try gourmet tacos filled with crickets, made by Janos Wilder, a James Beard Award-winning Tucson chef.
Other presentations included the premiere of "StellarScape," a film directed by assistant professor of music Kay He and made in collaboration with Chris Impey, a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, and Win Burleson, a professor in the School of Information. The film brings music, dance, science, visual art and technology together to tell the story of a massive star's life cycle.
See scenes from the Wonder House in the gallery above, featuring photos by University of Arizona photographers Chris Richards and Kyle Mittan.