For More Information:
Dawn Marie Yankeelov
President, ASPectx and VP of Programs, Louisville Women in Technology
(502) 292-2351
dawny@aspectx.com

Louisville Women In Technology Presents the First ideaFestival Event in Louisville
Three of the World’s Top Female Scientists Will Speak on Sept. 22nd at the Kentucky Center—Ayanna
Howard, Helene Andersson, and Erin Lavik

June 30, 2004–(Louisville, KY)—Louisville Women in Technology presents the first ideaFestival
event in our market on Sept. 22, 2004, with short lectures and a panel discussion by three of the
world’s top female scientists from 7 PM to 10 PM in Clark Todd Hall at the Kentucky Center. The
general public is invited. The event is entitled, “Innovation and Transformation: Big New Ideas.”
Tickets went on sale today from Ticketmaster, The Kentucky Center, and The ideaFestival
(www.ideafestival.com). College students can receive discounted tickets direct at the Kentucky
Center for $18. Online purchases can be made via www.ticketmaster.com or www.ideafestival.com. Or,
purchase your tickets direct at the Kentucky Center for $25. There will be a free reception
preceding the event at beginning at 5:30 PM in Barnes Hall at the Kentucky Center. The three
women, Ayanna Howard, Helene Andersson, and Erin Lavik, were named to MIT’s TR 100 list (the top
100 scientists in the world) for 2003/2004 as acknowledged recently in MIT’s Technology Review
Magazine. They will discuss their cutting-edge work as well as other important advances they “see”
emerging on the horizon. The noted scientists will bring their diverse backgrounds to the panel
discussion on trends and technology issues facing today’s lifestyles.

Dr. Ayanna Howard of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, has
led research efforts on various projects utilizing robotics, and artificial intelligence. Last
year she released to the public her Artificial Intelligence Toolkit, which has more than 80 users.
In 2001, Dr. Howard received the Lew Allen Award for Excellence in Research—the highest honor
possible at NASA JPL. Currently, she is a senior member of technical staff with the mobility
systems concepts development section. She also holds the title of Deputy Manager for the Strategic
University Partnership Office under the Office of the Chief Scientist.

Dr. Helene Andersson, Business Manager for Life Science at Silex Microsystems AB in Stockholm,
Sweden, focuses her research on micro and nano-fluidic devices for biotech applications. She is
also currently a research associate at the Royal Institute of Technology in the Microsystem
Technology Group and at MESA + Research Institute in the Lab-on-a-chip group. She holds several
related patents and is a member of the editorial board of Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.

Dr. Erin Lavik, an assistant professor in biomedical engineering at Yale, currently works on
applying principles of tissue engineering and drug delivery to the development of new environments
which are capable of promoting repair in the central nervous system. She is also a playwright.

This ideaFestival event, sponsored by Inter-tel, is only one of more than 40 events during the
week of Sept. 21-25, 2004 as part of The ideaFestival. Events will be held this year in Lexington,
Northern Kentucky, and Louisville. This is the third annual event which reached more than 7,500
people, students, and professionals in 2002 in the Lexington, Ky. region.

For more information on the ideaFestival, go to www.ideafestival.com. A full pass to all
ideaFestival events, including Sir George Martin, Twyla Tharp, and Oliver Sacks is $220.

Dr. Howard
Dr. Andersson
Dr. Lavik

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