UACTE 2018

Nate Ball is an Emmy-winning TV host, author, and mechanical engineer who became insatiably hooked on science and engineering at an early age. His childhood projects, which included a 1,000,000 volt Tesla coil and a kitchen-engulfing rocket fuel experiment gone awry, paved his way to MIT where he earned two degrees in mechanical engineering and two All-American honors in the pole vault. While in graduate school Nate became the youngest winner of the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for his inventive work.
Nate is passionate about outreach to kids, as his own childhood enthusiasm for hands-on learning led him to an exciting and multifaceted engineering career. He has hosted the three-time Emmy and Peabody award winning PBS Kids TV series Design Squad and Design Squad Global since 2007, and has made appearances on the History Channel, MythBusters, various news networks and across the TED sphere. Nate’s latest endeavor is his newly launched illustrated science series for 1st through 3rd graders called Let’s Investigate with Nate, published by HarperCollins Children’s.
Nate is also the co-founder and CEO of Atlas Devices, a company that develops advanced access and rescue equipment for the military and first responders worldwide, including the Atlas Powered Ascender: a real-life version of Batman’s grappling hook setup. He is based near Boston where he lives with his amazing wife Cat and their two young sons, whose love of discovery is a constant inspiration.