It’s no urban legend — the Student Association (SA) will be bringing Grant Imahara of “MythBusters” to campus later this month.
Imahara will be speaking on March 24 in Lecture Hall 1 at 6 p.m. and the event will be free for everyone. Amanda Faux, the chair of the SA Insights Committee and a senior majoring in history, said that Imahara — who is also an esteemed engineer — was a popular choice for speakers on the survey sent out earlier this year by the SA.
“We’re getting a pretty good response,” Faux said. “He was on our survey and he was pretty well-received.”
Imahara will be talking about his career experiences and will be showing a slideshow during his talk. Faux said she anticipates that the event will be popular among engineering students.
“It should be very cool,” she said. “We have an engineering school at Binghamton [University], so I foresee a good amount of engineering students as well as anyone who’s seen him from television to be pretty excited.”
Faux said recognizability was key in her choice to pursue Imahara, and Kiran Goveas, an undeclared sophomore, said that he knew Imahara from his role on “MythBusters.”
“I know who he is, it’s a very interesting show,” he said. “I love watching it and I’m excited to hear him speak.”
Imahara is known for his role on the build team of “MythBusters,” but his science background goes beyond the TV show. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California and then worked for George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic studio as an animatronics engineer and model maker. Imahara worked on R2-D2 for the “Star Wars” prequels and also worked on “AI: Artificial Intelligence,” “Galaxy Quest” and the sequels to “The Matrix.”
He was one of the hosts of the “White Rabbit Project” on Netflix, which was similar in premise to “MythBusters,” and played Lieutenant Sulu on the web series, “Star Trek Continues.” Imahara is currently a consultant for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Thomas Horowitz, a freshman majoring in computer science, said he is looking forward to the talk.
”I’ve watched the ‘MythBusters,’ like almost all of the episodes, and it’s an awesome show,” he said. “[Imahara] is a really smart guy and a big part of the team, so I think it’s pretty cool he’s coming.”
Faux said there will be a meet and greet after Imahara’s talk, which will be limited to 30 people. Tickets for the meet and greet will be sold on bingtickets.com, with details to be released in the coming days.