Six years ago, President Obama kicked off the first ever White House Science Fair, making an unequivocal statement about the importance of science, STEM education, and empowering kids to become the innovators of the future.
Yesterday, Obama hosted his sixth and final (but hopefully not the last) Science Fair, featuring 100 top science, technology, engineering, and math students from across the country, who showed off the various ways they’re going to change the future.
These young makers included 17-year old Olivia Hallisey, who created the Ebola Assay card — a temperature-independent, rapid, portable, and inexpensive diagnostic test for the detection of the Ebola virus.
Then there was Hari Bhimaraju, a 12-year old Kennedy Middle School student from Cupertino, California, who used a Raspberry Pi and Arduino to design the hardware and software for “The Elementor”, a portable, low-cost teaching tool to help visually impaired students learn the periodic table of elements.
Gabriel Mesa, 16, of Canton, Connecticut combined piezoelectric materials with graphene to create a new battery technology an environmentally safe and compostable battery that generates electrical energy through mechanical instead of chemical means. The patent-pending Carbon Battery seeks to replace conventional batteries that are typically created using toxic materials.
Shemar Coombs, 19, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania designed and 3D printed a cellphone case with a channel along its edge that allows headphones to be easily wrapped and secured, while remaining tangle-free.
That’s just a small sampling… check out the full list here. We salute you, young makers! And one thing’s for sure, when things go down, we want these kids on our team.
Thanks Obama!
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