I agree with you in spirit but not in structure. On some level Burning man has always been about learning and innovating. Behind every great project is one serious learning curve. You can research how to make something work, then you can research how to make it work on the moon…then you can start to figure out how to make it work on the playa. At that point if you can design it in such a way as to work on zero budget, built exclusively out of stuff that you can get out of a neiborhood dumpster at 2:30 in the morning and assembled by a half drunk, sleep deprived, heat exhausted monkey (untrained monkey) and have it still work. That is INGENIOUS engineering! That’s the kind of sexy-assed problem solving that could save the world. The elegant solutions to problems you see at burning man will far exceed any collage solar racecar team. I don’t think you necessarily need to turn Burning Man (or anything like it for that matter) into a science fair to learn from it. Just walk around until you see a great solution to a problem and pester the person who did it until they clue you in or threaten bodily harm. Show me an engine that runs on Canola and I will always be impressed, but if you can show me that same engine powering a Cessna 172 dropping giant flaming lawn darts on over-inflated, hydrogen filled truck tubes…Now I’m host to a serious woody. But then, I always did have a hell of a lot of trouble sitting still in class.