Tesla Science Foundation president Nikola Lonchar addresses students in Professor Zeljko Mirkovic's digital media class. Mirkovik's documentary, "Tesla Nation," won an award from the Philadelphia-based nonprofit, which promotes the work and philosophy of inventor Nikola Tesla. (Photos by Joaquin Sosa)

Future connections plotted for interdisciplinary curriculum ties to visionary scientist Nikola Tesla

Filmmaker and new visual and communication arts faculty member Zeljko Mirkovic brings myriad connections and a growing body of acclaimed work to Eastern Mennonite University (EMU). In 2015, Mirkovic won an award from the Tesla Science Foundation for two documentaries: Tesla Nation, reviewing the cultural contributions of Serbian-Americans over the past 200 years, and The Second Meeting, about the reunion of a United States Air Force pilot with the Serbian rocket colonel who shot him down in 1999.

Last month, foundation president Nikola Lonchar visited EMU to talk to digital media students and meet with faculty and administrators about potential collaborations. Lonchar explained that Tesla’s green, affordable energy work at the intersection of science, sustainability, and peacebuilding fits well with EMU’s values.

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The Tesla coil, shown here by Tesla Science Foundation president Nikola Lonchar, is one of Nikola Tesla’s most famous inventions. In 1926, the Serbian-American inventor predicted the invention of the cell phone.

Tesla “was not only a scientist,” says Mirkovic. “He was a thinker who was trying to build a better world for all of us.” He shared the following quote from Tesla: “Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.”

Foundation celebrates Tesla’s legacy

The Tesla Science Foundation is a Philadelphia-based organization devoted to promoting the legacy, accomplishments and innovative spirit of Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla. The foundation promotes Tesla through curricula, educational installations, webinars, workshops, awards and inventor resources.

Tesla (1856-1943) invented the alternating current system, as well as radio, fluorescent light, x-rays, remote controls and a multitude of other technologies. Mirkovic theorizes that application of Tesla’s energy work was limited not by a lack of funding, but by Tesla’s insistence that his technologies be used peaceably.

One potential collaboration between the foundation and EMU is an exhibit in the Suter Science Center, with operational models such as a Tesla coil – an innovative form of high-voltage power supply – that would be accessible to STEM students and the community.

Engineering major takes off at EMU

Lonchar and Mirkovic also met with engineering professor Esther Tian to discuss collaborative opportunities. Tian is founder and adviser to the EMU chapter of the Engineers for a Sustainable World club. This group of innovative students has built a greenhouse and installed solar panels on the campus chicken coop. They are currently working on a stationary bike for the fitness center that doubles as a power generator hooked up to EMU’s main grid. The bike project is sponsored by an Earthkeepers grant and the Student Government Association.

Tian hopes to get her club involved with the proposed exhibit, and include a unit on Tesla in future engineering courses. Mirkovic also intends to include the media aspect of the exhibit in his digital media classes.

“These young minds have to know how important they are” to solving sustainability challenges and promoting green energy, said Lonchar.