By Bill Nye | Published: October 20, 2010 – 1:46 am

The President of the United States invited winners of several different science, engineering, and math competitions– and Me(!?)…

These young people have done amazing work. The worldwide winners in rocketry, Jordan Franssen and Nathan Bernhardt, just kept winning and winning with their outstanding attention to detail and cool use of materials. Speaking of our Planetary Mission– Erika DeBenedictishails has a new navigation system for interplanetary flight.

We saw a proposed cure for cancer, a system to discourage driving and texting at the same time, a beautifully planned efficient city, and a prosthetic chair to help a partially disabled classmate.

Amy Chyao’s cancer cure was so well presented that as I sat with Steven Chu for a half hour talking about energy policy, I could tell that he was turning the band-gap conduction diagram over in his mind. Steven Chu is the Secretary of Energy– and he has a Nobel Prize. This is but one example…

I was seated next to Adam & Jamie of the Myth Busters. We all had a great time and were amazed at the quality of the work and the enthusiasm of the young people and our hope for the future. The President really believes in our science business. He pointed out that most of the top corporations are run by engineers rather than financiers or economists.

I am proud of course. I am an engineer; we use science, and especially math, to solve problems and make things. Right now in the world, there are plenty of problems to solve, and plenty of things that need to be made and made well.

Let’s change the world.

Comments are closed.