DMACC signs astronauts, beatboxer for ciWeek ’17

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Des Moines Area Community College held its first ciWeek VIP launch party Wednesday to unveil the speaker lineup, teaser video and website for the 2017 edition of the annual innovation fest.


Speakers will include two Apollo astronauts: Al Worden, the first man to walk in deep space and holder of the record for isolation, and Ken Mattingly, who stayed home on the disastrous Apollo 13 mission because NASA thought he was sick, then piloted the command module for Apollo 16’s lunar mission. (Gary Sinise played him in “Apollo 13.”). Also appearing will be rock climber Kevin Jorgeson, legendary wrestler Dan Gable, beatbox champion Kaila Mullady, sound engineer Greg Russell and authors Max Brooks and Joy Hakim.


Officially called Celebrate! Innovation Week, the program, designed to inspire students to innovate, will run Feb. 27 to March 3, 2017. A couple of new wrinkles include a performance arts contest at Jordan Creek Town Center involving Mullady, and AARP’s community engagement contest seeking ways to improve liveability and to “decrease barriers to generational integration.”