Category: Node Leaders

Deren Guler is a researcher and educator who specializes in designing accessible technology solutions and tools. She holds a BS in Physics and a Master of Tangible Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a part-time Lecturer in the Design and Technology department at Parsons the New School for design and leads workshops in designing for the future around the world. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, CNN, and Wired among others. She is the founder of Teknikio, a series of electronic components and kits designed to foster technological literacy and creative confidence especially in girls, through physical experimentation.

I am interested in creating a series of natural and artificial smart environments that interact with each other to explore the perception of “high tech” systems. This will build off of the project I started at Dinacon last year and have been researching through speculative design tools.

Joel is the engineer behind the Pulse Sensor www.pulsesensor.com and OpenBCI www.openbci.com. Joel designs and hacks electronics and specialize in biosensing. Other exploits include www.tympan.org, www.openhak.com. he is co-designing this year’s badge for the Biohacking Village at DEFCON.

I plan to be humbled by the difficulties of working with tech in the jungle.

I am a physicists specialising in instrumentation. I have worked on experiments ranging from blue skies measurements of the Universal Constant of Gravitation, to practical mass metrology at the milligram level. At the University of Bath I work on open source hardware, including the OpenFlexure microscope.

I will bring openflexure microscopes, and spare parts into the field. Over the week others will be able to use them for their own projects providing feedback on how they perform in the field, and try to fix any issues on the fly. From this experience we will document the field performance, and plan a ruggedised field version of the microscope.

Coming from nearby Panama City, Mar is a musician, writer, sound artist, speaker, educator and cultural manager. An advocate of experimental and new music and sound studies. Co-founder and bassist of the Paisaxe Ensemble since 2008. Her poetry and short films have won multiple local and international awards. Her literary work has been translated into English, Arabic and French. She holds a Bachelor of Arts, Music (Arizona State University) and a master’s degree in Sociocultural Animation and Community Development. Certified instructor of Deep Listening and Nāda Yoga.

Her current research is based in the relationship between sound, the urban environment, bodies of water, memory and experimental art. For more info: www.maralzamora.net Instagram: @maralzamorarivera

During the Dinacon, I will be working on a series of soundwalks around Gamboa to meditate about the sound diversity that will surround us. Everyone is welcome to join! I will be writing sonic meditations, poems and create visual poems about the walks. Since Gamboa is located by the Panama Canal, it will be a biopoetic experience colored by history and life.

Margaret Minsky creates multimedia artifacts exploring learning, improvisation and thought. Her core research has been in the field of haptic interfaces (computational interfaces that simulate objects that you can touch and feel), as well as educational technology. Recently she has been investigating “Do We Think Differently Upside Down?”, substituting circus trapeze for furniture in the workplace and investigating whether that’s good for our cognitive, social, and physical wellbeing. 
Oliver Steele is a software engineer, technology advisor, and open source contributor. Previously he has been an engineering manager, product manager, and educator at Olin College of Engineering, Apple, Aol, and Nest. 

The Dinacon 1 projects pages show our on-location projects as a team, and as individuals, last year.  Amazing dinasaurs from dinacon 1 returning as node leaders for dinacon 2

Daniëlle is an international field researcher, environmental educator, paraveterinarian, and soon-to-be tropical forester from the chilly Netherlands. Dani not only documents projects, but uses her skills as an adventurous polymath to help practioners solve problems and fully realize their goals in wilderness contexts.

In dinacon 1, she served as the excellent documentarian capturing everyone’s amazing projects and experiences!

(Monitor dissection photo by Killdall)

Valerie is the Director of the Wildlife Cancer Observation Network and a PhD student at Arizona State University. She studies all things animal, evolution and cancer related. Her particular interest lies in how cancer affects non-human animals, and how the different evolutionary paths each species has taken might affect how susceptible each one is to cancer. Additionally, she wants to understand how anthropogenic influences might affect cancer in animals and use this as a tool to explore our changing world. In her free time she plays cello, climb rocks, and occasionally trains computers to write poetry. 

[May 20-July 15]

Yannick is the captain of the gorgeous Diva Marine. This is a vessel he and Tasneem have been working to develop into a marine makerspace on top of its normal duties as a commercial sailing and dive ship: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/vessel-for-inquiry-a-marine-learning-lab-pilot#/

Lucky for us, we got Yannick to join our conference with his amazing ship. He will be docked off our island and generously providing

• Additional makerspace areas
• Kayaks
• Dingy
• Waterfilter
• Solar Panels
• and his amazing experience and knowledge!

Dates: 25/5-2/6

Project: Pom will be working on eco art, a combination of art and environment as concept

Bio: Pom is an eco artist from Thailand who make various kind of works such as sculptures, painting and product design focus mainly in environmental friendly

Here is the Link website to some of her past works
http://remains-of-the-day.com/