FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
DESIGN SQUAD TAKES TO THE ROAD IN 10 ALL-NEW EPISODES PREMIERING WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2009 ON PBS (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS)
From designing aquatic rescue vehicles in New Orleans to conceiving dry-land dog sleds in Jamaica, the Season 3 Design Squad teams have their work cut out! Watch six college kids from Houston, Massachusetts, Miami, and West Chester, PA compete for a $10K college scholarship provided by the Intel Foundation.
BOSTON, MA, August 5, 2009 – This fall, PBS’s Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series Design Squad returns for its third season with a fresh cast of contestants eager to take on design challenges that task their creative reserves! Design Squad is high- energy, high-drama reality TV that lets kids show off their smarts as they design and build working solutions for real-world clients—people who are hungry for clever ideas from a whole new generation of innovators.
It’s kick-off time—literally! Season 3 premieres on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 (check local listings) with “Moving Target,” a design challenge from Hasbro (the toy company famous for its NERF product line). The teams are tasked by Hasbro’s Senior Brand Manager Ben Montano to create flying remote-controlled football targets that will be put to the test by a cadre of future football stars. Tune in to see which design scores the winning points with testers and client alike.
“We wanted to up the ante for Season 3, so we chose contestants who are entrenched in some of the county’s best college engineering programs,” says Design Squad’s Executive Producer, Marisa Wolsky. “Their added know-how and hands-on experience means bigger clients, wilder challenges, and plenty of fun and excitement for viewers!”
“Intel’s ongoing commitment to inspiring young innovators and Design Squad’s ability to bring innovation to life make our partnership a natural match,” says Shelly Esque, Vice President, Corporate Affairs and President, Intel Foundation. “Intel is pleased to be a major sponsor of Design Squad, and we look forward to an exciting third season.”
Says Hasbro’s Montano, “When people think about toys, they don’t often think about engineering. But the design and engineering process is an essential part of developing a great new product. With this episode of Design Squad, Hasbro hopes to inspire young viewers to think creatively and motivate them to design their own toys!”
Exploring the Possibilities: One Engineering Challenge at a Time Season 3 of Design Squad requires its cast to think big and design smart while contending with a wild array of engineering and design challenges set forth by real- world clients. Keeping their eyes on the grand prize—a $10,000 college scholarship provided by the Intel Foundation—and keeping their cool when things get hot, the Design Squad teams soon discover that good design, a little humor, and of course engineering can make anything possible.
“Design Squad aims to show what it’s really like to be an engineer,” says series host Nate Ball. “Through this season’s sports, food, and toy design challenges, our goal is to shake up people’s ideas of who and what engineering is.”
In 10 half-hour episodes (including three two-parters), Nate guides the teams when they are commissioned by firefighter Ryan Mast to create remote-controlled aquatic pet rescue vehicles for the New Orleans Fire Department in “Water Rescue.” In “Tour de BBQ” the teams are challenged to build bicycle-powered rotisseries for Redbones BBQ restaurant in Somerville, MA. Other challenges include inventing t-shirt shooters for WNBA Connecticut Sun players Tamika Raymond and Lindsay Whalen, building dry- land dog sleds for the Jamaica Dog Sled Team, and engineering an automated wheelchair for US Paralympian (and St. Louis, MO native) Kerri Morgan. Season 3 culminates in the two-part finale “Escape from Misery Island,” which tests the teams’ sea legs in a sailboat race across the open ocean. The captain of the winning team takes home the $10K scholarship from Intel!
About the Design Squad cast and host Nate Ball This season, Design Squad boasts a cast enrolled in some of the country’s top engineering programs. From Miami, FL, Ana is studying Manufacturing Engineering at Boston University. Juan is attending MIT, from Houston, to study Electrical Engineering. Lindsey (Brockton, MA) is a student at Smith College, where she studies Mechanical and Material Engineering. Annelise (Andover, MA) studies Engineering at Duke University. Zach (hailing from West Chester, PA) attends MIT, where he studies Materials Science Engineering. And Wes (from Needham, MA) studies Electrical Engineering at Boston University.
Host Nate Ball, 26 and originally from Newport, OR, brings a multitude of talents to Design Squad. He’s a mechanical engineer, an entrepreneur, a pole vaulter, a jazz pianist, and (get this!) a grandmaster beatboxer. Nate got his BS in mechanical engineering and master’s degree from MIT. In addition to his role as host of Design Squad, Nate is the chief technical officer and co-founder of Atlas Devices. He has designed some cool new tools for Atlas, including the Atlas Powered Rope Ascender, which enables military personnel and rescue workers to reverse-rappel up buildings at high speeds. (It can lift a 250-pound load more than 600 feet into the air at nearly 10 feet per second, all on a single battery charge.) This life-saving invention helped Nate earn the prestigious 2007 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize.
Design Squad Online – pbskidsgo.org/designsquad The Design Squad website takes kids behind the scenes with cast interviews, photos, outtakes, and the inside scoop on each Design Squad challenge. Visitors to the site can watch full-length streams of Design Squad episodes, share their thoughts, and learn more about the role of engineers in society. New for Season 3, the site features an online gallery space that allows visitors to brainstorm and sketch their own design ideas, share their designs, and see what others are up to. The site’s popular “DESIGNit, BUILDit, FIDGit” game will showcase new challenges and features, and a brand new full-screen video player will allow visitors to watch all of Season 3 online and on demand.
About Design Squad Design Squad is a reality competition show aimed at kids and people of all ages who like reality or how-to television. The program was launched in 2007 by the producers behind ZOOM and FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, with the goal of getting viewers excited about engineering and the design process. And it worked. After researching the impact of the TV series, website, and educator’s guide, an independent evaluator found a significant jump in young people’s learning and a uniformly positive, enthusiastic response from viewers, educators, and kids.
Major funding for Design Squad is provided by the National Science Foundation, the Intel Foundation, and the Lemelson Foundation. Additional funding is provided by Noyce Foundation, United Engineering Foundation (ASCE, ASME, AIChE, IEEE, AIME), National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, ASME, the IEEE, Northrop Grumman, and the Intel Corporation.
About WGBH Boston WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcasting producer—the single largest source of prime-time and children’s programming for PBS and pbs.org, one of the most trafficked dot-org websites in the world. WGBH produces some of public television’s best-known lifestyle shows, many public radio favorites, and award-winning children’s programs and websites that empower kids with innovative, entertaining, curriculum-based content. Among the WGBH-produced children’s titles: Arthur, Curious George, Postcards from Buster, Between the Lions, Design Squad, Martha Speaks, FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, and Peep and the Big Wide World. WGBH also is a pioneer in educational multimedia, and in technologies and services that make media accessible to the 36 million Americans who rely on captioning or video descriptions. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont- Columbia Awards . . . even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH received a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For more information, go to www.wgbh.org.
About PBS PBS, with its 357 member stations, offers all Americans—from every walk of life—the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content. Each month, PBS reaches more than 115 million people on-air and online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; hear diverse viewpoints; and take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. PBS’ premier children’s TV programming and website, pbskids.org, are parents’ and teachers’ most trusted partners in inspiring and nurturing curiosity and love of learning in children. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org sites on the Internet.
About Intel Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.
Press Contacts Kathryn Hathaway Nicole Siswick WGBH Boston WGBH Boston 617.300.5305 617.300.5334 [email protected] [email protected]
http://pbs.org/pressroom | http://pressroom.wgbh.org pbskigsgo.org/designsquad