A few showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%..
A few showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.
Updated: September 20, 2026 @ 10:16 pm

Logan Goulet, left, is amazed as he sees a ball float in the air as professor Sarah McGregor from Keene State College reacts to the display on Saturday morning at the Wicked STEM Expo held at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester.
A large crowd was on hand to attend the Wicked STEM Expo at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester on Saturday. The annual event was sponsored by the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Levi DeKoning, right, plays checkers with a Universal Robot as his father, Paul, looks on at the Wicked STEM Expo on Saturday at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester.

Logan Goulet, left, is amazed as he sees a ball float in the air as professor Sarah McGregor from Keene State College reacts to the display on Saturday morning at the Wicked STEM Expo held at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester.
Logan Goulet, left, is amazed as he sees a ball float in the air as professor Sarah McGregor from Keene State College reacts to the display on Saturday morning at the Wicked STEM Expo held at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester.
Logan Goulet, left, is amazed as he sees a ball float in the air as professor Sarah McGregor from Keene State College reacts to the display on Saturday morning at the Wicked STEM Expo held at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester.
A large crowd was on hand to attend the Wicked STEM Expo at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester on Saturday. The annual event was sponsored by the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Levi DeKoning, right, plays checkers with a Universal Robot as his father, Paul, looks on at the Wicked STEM Expo on Saturday at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester.
Visitors of all ages had the chance to see science in action at the fifth annual Wicked STEM technology Expo in Manchester on Saturday.
Some favorite interactive areas from prior years were back on the campus of Southern New Hampshire University and guest speakers hosted presentations about how technology will continue shaping the future.
Returning attractions included Sparky, the four-legged yellow robot mascot of Spark Academy of Advanced Technologies, a charter school in Manchester. Sparky immediately attracted a crowd as the robot started pacing around the university’s athletic complex.
John Tuttle, director of Spark Academy, said getting visitors’ attention was part of the point, but Sparky also has the practical function of performing inventory control at warehouses. Tuttle said students can program Sparky to fill other roles as well.
“The goal is getting the younger kids here and giving them an opportunity to drive a robot and play with it,” Tuttle said. “Kids are playing with tablets from a young age. So, they can learn it way faster than the older generations. They just have to take that leap.”
A number of other organizations had booths with their own interactive displays at the expo, including the Community College System of New Hampshire and FIRST Robotics.
For David Larocque, a 14-year-old from Rochester, the standout display was hosted by Keene State College staff, which demonstrated the breadth of options available in STEM through more hands-on activities.
“I liked the laser maze because you had to direct a laser beam through a maze of cardboard walls by using mirrors,” Larocque said.
Wicked STEM promotes careers in science and technology, including uniquely local opportunities in New Hampshire’s biotech industry.
One of the participating groups was Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute’s BioFabUSA program. BioFabUSA is a member-based nonprofit organization in Manchester focusing on manufacturing cells, tissues and organs.
The technology has many possible applications, including robotically “recellularizing” animal bones as human bones for grafts or transplants, said Ali Vicente of BioFabUSA.
“Here we have a piece of jawbone that came from a cow. We can wash away all the cow cells, so we have this nice clean scaffold that we can put human cells back onto,” Vicente said. “We’re taking something that was an animal and turning it into human, so that the body is more likely not going to reject it.”
Vicente said procedures like this are still in clinical testing. If the treatment proves effective in trials, however, recellularization could change how doctors perform hip and knee replacements and other orthopedic surgeries.
The modern biotech industry is still young, and Vicente said events such as Wicked STEM serve as opportunities to educate the public about the field and attract a new generation of researchers to the trade.
“If we have little kids coming around, we’re exposing them to this technology and trying to show them a whole new industry that they may not be aware of,” Vicente said. “At the college level and beyond, we’re talking about careers and different ways that they can actually get into the industry.”
Another attendee was Jay Hoying, chief scientist at Advanced Solutions Life Sciences. Hoying said they’re a subsidiary of Advanced Solutions dedicated to regenerative medicine, which involves using technology to build tissues.
Advanced Solutions was founded and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. But when the parent company established Life Sciences in 2018, Manchester’s Millyard was chosen as the home for their new research lab.
“The reason we picked Manchester, New Hampshire, is we were following the opportunity,” Hoying said. “DEKA and Dean Kamen won an $80 million award from (the U.S. Department of Defense) to establish an institute to help launch an industry around regenerative medicine.”
Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), which was founded by Kamen, was later designated lead agency for one of the country’s 31 tech hubs by the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
The tech hub received $44 million in federal funds in 2023 to promote New Hampshire as a global leader in bio-fabrication and regenerative therapies.
Hoying hosted a talk discussing recent advances in the industry. He said biotech and regenerative medicine may regularly be used to replace diseased tissues and organ systems in the human body by 2040, which would have major implications on health care delivery.
This year’s event was run by the New Hampshire Union Leader and presented by Southern New Hampshire University. Wicked STEM was sponsored by BioFabUSA, the Community College System, the New Hampshire Army National Guard, the Society of American Military Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Northern New England Section, HiArc, NHSaves, Education & Workforce Development and Elliot Health System.
zmarano@unionleader.com
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