Karen A. Frenkel

Science and Technology Writer

Filmmaker

Documentary Director/​Producer
In the late 1980s through my reporting on the computer industry, I saw that we would be communicating more and more through multimedia (as we called it back then), so I decided to move into video production.

Minerva's Machine: Women in Computing
My first documentary is the award-winning Minerva’s Machine: Women and Computing. I created, wrote, and executive produced it for the one-hour film, which aired on Public Television during the 1995 - 1996 and fall 1998 seasons. Minerva’s Machine received the 1997 Exceptional Media Merit Award (EMMA) for Best Television Documentary (Small Market), which is co-sponsored by the National Women’s Political Caucus and Radcliffe College. Minerva’s Machine also was awarded First Place, Documentary by BACA, the Brooklyn Arts Council, for its 30th Annual Film and Video Festival. It was also Runner Up, Best Television Series for 1995 by The Computer Press Association. Minerva’s Machine premiered in fall 1995 on San Jose’s PBS station, KTEH - Channel 54 and on over 60 other local PBS stations nationwide. It was rebroadcast in fall 1998.

Awards
• Best Documentary in a Small Market, 1997 EMMA (Exceptional Merit Media Award), given by National Women’s Political Caucus and Radcliffe College
• Best Documentary, Brooklyn Arts Council’s 30th Annual International Film and Video Festival
• Best Television Series, Runner Up, Eleventh Annual Computer Press Award

Net.LEARNING
I directed, co-wrote, and co-produced net.LEARNING, winner of the 1998 National Education Reporting Award, Best Television Documentary and Feature. This two-hour documentary explores the trade-offs students and faculty are willing to make in online classrooms. It profiles a student of library science in Alaska, for example, who collaborates in cyberspace with cohorts in Chicago and Urbana-Champaign. Also portrays is a professor of literature in San Luis Obisbo and many others pioneering this medium. I was also co-executive producer and originated the project with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Net.LEARNING aired on Public Television stations nationwide during the 1998 - 1999 season. It was rebroadcast during the 1999-2000 season.

Award
• 1998 National Education Reporting First Prize, Television Documentary and Feature

Selected Works

FastCompany.com
At-risk students thrive with a new style of learning.
An Interview with Encyclopaedia Britannica President Jorge Cauz.
The Murray/Jackson trial showcases iPhone forensics, experts comment on the state of the art.
Researchers find privacy breeches possible.
Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg Businessweek, Businessweek.com
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Automating recruiting with anonymous job references
A flexible optical fiber laser enables doctors to perform delicate surgeries more accurately.
A textile company aims for sustainability.
Saving power for supercomputers, laptops, and now data centers.
A new smartphone app that suggests routes to drivers, saving them time and fuel.
Two entrepreneurs buy a bankrupt company that sells a female sexual arousal oil. Then they can't get the networks to put their ads on the air. Why?
"Our fundamental advance allows us to deliver devices that can provide cooling for refrigeration or waste heat recovery and efficiently convert it into power," says Phononic Devices Chief Executive Officer Anthony Atti.
Pressed for time, doctors are less and less amenable to face-to-face meetings with pharma reps. Viscira's biomedical computer animation reach tech-savvy MDs.
Rags to riches profile of chemist Rick McCullough, whose ink could make possible foldable, printable electronics
Tech from Plextronics Could Replace Lightbulbs, ’Do Away With iPads’
A profile of the maritime robot innovator
Interview
A 1989 interview with the late, titanic visionary while he was CEO of NeXT,Inc., in which he discusses the Mach OS, robotic manufacturing, mentoring employees, digital Shakespeare and Webster's...
Science Magazine and Science NOW
Steven Weinberg, who won the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics, called on Americans to support research and big science instead of consumer electronics and gadgets with higher taxes.
Prominent women scientists took to the stage at the World Science Festival to chat about their career paths.
Scientists shoot gigapixel panoramas to make discoveries
Narrative Non-Fiction: MrBellersNeighborhood.com
A true short story from and to Manhattan's Upper West Side.
U. S. News and World Report and InsideScience.org
Robotic camera technology inspires virtual exploration by students around the world.
Blogs
The First Conference on Computational Sustainability
ScientificAmerican.com
Is the Web a Threat to Creativity and Cultural values? One Cyber Pioneer Thinks So.
Troubled teens benefit from role-play in virtual worlds with their therapists.
Scientific American MIND
A look at gloating and envy
Scientists debate how synapses work
Scientific American
A New Algorithim Could Soon Vanquish Go Pros
The Village Voice
Three neurological studies reveal that traumatic memories of those near the site and bereaved children affect functioning of parts of their brains.
New York's Newest Science Magnet School and its Pioneering Principal, Jose Maldonado-Rivera
The New York Times
The making of the first fully computer-generated cartoon feature film.
Why online shoppers abandon their shopping carts.
Book Reviews
Two books look for answers in the lives of a few who succeeded.
Books - Children's
Fourth graders explore what makes rainbows, why there are colors, why lights add up to white and paints add up to black.
Fourth graders learn about sound waves, echoes, and music.
How we capture light and sound so that we can see and hear them any time we want.
Other Magazines
How online merchants gain buyers' trust
Jewerly Etailers and Customer Trust
Technology Review
Book
Communications of the ACM