Obama: Techies Also Deserve the Spotlight

The White House State Dining Room, normally reserved for receptions, luncheons and formal dinners with visiting heads of state, was transformed into a science fair. Traditional table settings made way for displays including a mind-controlled robotic arm, solar panels modeled after tree limbs to more efficiently collect energy, a helmet designed to protect soldiers from traumatic brain injuries and model rockets — all from student winners of science competitions across the country.

During an East Room ceremony after he’d perused the work of 100 elementary and high school students, President Obama said that the nation’s scientists, engineers and inventors deserve the same attention as professional athletes. “If we invite the team that wins the Super Bowl to the White House, we need to invite some science-fair winners to the White House as well,” he said before an audience of students, teachers and prominent science professionals including NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Bill Nye the Science Guy.

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