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The President: Well, hello, everybody.
Welcome to the White House.
There are a lot of good things about being President.
I get a chance to travel all across the country and meet
people and see all the amazing things that are
being done; being Commander-in-Chief of the
greatest military the world has ever known and seeing
the incredible service of our men and women in uniform
-- Air Force One is very cool.
(laughter)
I don't have to take off my shoes
before I get on an airplane.
(laughter)
But some of the best moments that I've had as President
have involved science and our annual Science Fair.
I mean, I have shot a marshmallow out of a cannon
directly under Lincoln's portrait.
I've learned about prototypes from six-year-old
Girl Scouts who built a page-turning machine out of
Legos for people who might be disabled -- there they are.
(laughter)
Good to see you guys.
I should add, by the way, that I took a picture with
them with one of their tiaras on,
which I think is still floating around the Internet.
(laughter)
Most importantly, I've just been able to see the
unbelievable ingenuity and passion and curiosity and
brain power of America's next generation,
and all the cool things that they do.
I've also, by the way, had a chance to see an alarming
number of robots.
(laughter)
None have caused me any harm up until now.
They've startled me a little bit.
I understand today that we have a live chicken here,
which I'm sure the White House staff is thrilled about.
(laughter)
But this is fun.
More importantly, it speaks to what makes America the
greatest country on Earth.
I want to publicly thank some of the people who
helped make today possible -- also because I want you
to know who to blame if something explodes.
(laughter)
We've got some members of Congress in the house who
have been highly supportive of all our science and basic
research efforts.
We've got my science advisor, John Holdren,
who is here.
Give John a big round of applause.
(applause)
We have my Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith
in the house.
(applause)
We have some guests who are really helping to lift up
the importance of science, like -- this is not a
typical combination -- supermodel and super coder
Karlie Kloss is here.
(applause)
We've got actress and science enthusiast Yara Shahidi.
There she is.
Good to see you.
(applause)
We've got XKCD comic creator Randall Munroe is here.
Give him a big round of applause.
(applause)
We're joined by some of the past participants of our
Science Fairs, including Elana Simon,
who studied her own cancer and started coming up with
some cures.
I remember meeting you last year.
How is Harvard going?
Ms. Simon: Good.
The President: So far, so good?
She was a senior last year, just started.
(applause)
So this is an eclectic and diverse bunch.
But what they all share is this love of science and
love of technology, and a belief that our youngest
innovators can change the world.
And there's nothing that makes me more hopeful about
the future than seeing young people like the ones who are
here -- and they come from all over the country,
they come in all shapes and sizes.
All of you are showing the rest of us that it's never
too early in life to make a difference.
You teach us about the power of reason and logic,
and trying things and figuring out whether they
work, and if they don't, learning from that and
trying something new.
And you remind us that, together, through science,
we can tackle some of the biggest challenges that we face.
Whether you're fighting cancer or combatting climate
change, feeding the world, writing code that leads to
social change, you are sharing in this essential
spirit of discovery that America is built on.
John Holdren helpfully reminded me that today
happens to be the 273rd birthday of Thomas Jefferson.
And Thomas Jefferson was obviously a pretty good
writer; the Declaration of Independence turned out
pretty well.
(laughter)
He was a great political thinker and a great President.
But he was also a scientist.
And that was true of most of our Founders -- they were
children of the enlightenment.
They had come of age when all the old dogmas were
being challenged.
And they had this incredible faith,
this belief in the human mind,
and our ability to figure stuff out.
And whether it was Benjamin Franklin or Thomas
Jefferson, or all the others who were involved in the
founding of our country, one of the essential elements
that is embedded in our Constitution and the design
of this democracy is this belief that the power of the
human brain when applied to the world around us can do
amazing, remarkable things.
And it also requires, as we're seeing from these
outstanding teams, not just constant inquiry,
but also strong teamwork and dogged perseverance.
And by following the trail of your curiosity wherever
it takes you, you are continually adding to this
body of knowledge that helps make us a more secure,
more prosperous, and more hopeful society.
Science has always been the hallmark
of American progress.
It's the key to our economic success.
I can't think of a more exciting time for American
science than right now, because we are busy
reigniting that spirit of innovation to meet
so many challenges.
Just give you a couple examples.
We're on the cusp of a new era of medicine that
accounts for people's individual genes.
And I've been doing a lot of work with Francis Collins,
the head of NIH, around how we take the human genome
that we've mapped, in part thanks to the good work of
Francis and others, so that we are able to not just cure
diseases generally, but figure out what exactly do
you in your particular body need in order to keep it
running well.
We're harnessing technology to develop cleaner sources
of energy, and save our planet in the process.
We're unraveling the mysteries of the human
brain, unlocking secrets of the universe.
In fact, just last month, Commander Scott Kelly
returned from an almost a year-long stay on the
International Space Station.
Some of you may have read about that.
He conducted countless experiments,
and he also served as an experiment himself.
His identical twin brother, Mark, who is an astronaut,
as well -- Mark stayed home during this entire time that
Scott was up in the air, and that meant that NASA could
study the two of them side by side to gain insights
into how a long-term occupation in space changes
your body and your operating systems.
It turned out, initially, it makes you two inches taller.
(laughter)
But I saw Mark just two weekends ago; apparently,
you shrink back really quickly.
(laughter)
It makes your head bigger too.
(laughter)
But I don't know how big.
America has also got a selfie-taking rover that's
Instagramming from Mars.
The International Space Station just got its first
inflatable habitat for astronauts.
SpaceX, on the commercial, private venture side of
space, just landed a returning rocket on a drone
ship in the middle of the ocean.
And that's opening up the possibility of reusing our
rockets instead of just throwing them away once they
have launched.
So the progress we're seeing across the board is
extraordinary, and it's just the beginning.
The rest is going to be up to you, the next generation.
Somewhere in your generation,
maybe in this room, are pioneers who are going to be
the first to set their foot on Mars
-- the first humans, anyway.
I don't know about other life forms.
(laughter)
And I know what you're capable of because I just
had a chance to see some of the exhibits,
and we had some of the press pool follow.
If you were not blown away from some of the young
people that we just had a chance to meet,
then you had too big of a lunch and you were falling
asleep, because if you were paying attention
it was unbelievable.
We've got Maya Varma, who is a senior
from San Jose, California.
Where is Maya?
Yay, there's Maya.
Maya is using a low-cost microcontroller,
software freely available on the Internet,
and a smartphone, and she designed a tool that allows
people with asthma and other lung diseases to diagnose
and monitor their own symptoms.
So her goal was to use smartphone technology to
make diagnostic tests for all kinds of diseases
a lot cheaper.
"My aspiration is not only to create the next big thing
in my field one day," Maya says,
"but also to make it accessible to more than a
privileged few in the world."
So give Maya a big round of applause.
(applause)
I do have to say -- this is just an aside -- the only
problem with the Science Fair is it makes me feel a
little inadequate.
(laughter)
Because I think back to my high school, and,
first of all, I didn't have a field.
Maya talked about her "field."
I don't know exactly what my field of study was at that
time, but it wasn't that.
(laughter)
We also have nine-year-old Jacob Leggette
from Baltimore.
Where is Jacob?
There you go, in the bowtie.
(applause)
So Jacob loved programming ever since the age of two,
when he nearly wiped clean his grandma's computer --
(laughter)
-- which I'm sure she was thrilled with.
But don't worry, Jacob fixed it.
Last summer, this young maker wrote to a company
that manufactures 3D printers,
asked them if he could have one of the 3D printers in
exchange for feedback on whether their printers
are kid-friendly.
So clearly he's a good negotiator and business person.
(laughter)
And today, Jacob is churning out toys and games for
himself and his little sister,
and he dreams one day of making artificial organs for
people.
I should add, by the way, Jacob, John,
had a very good idea, which is that we should have -- in
addition to our PCAST, which is my science advisory
group, all these scientists and leaders in various
fields, we should have a kid's advisory group that
starts explaining to us what's interesting to them
and what's working, and could help us shape advances
in STEM education.
Anyway, that was Jacob's idea.
So way to go, Jacob.
We're going to follow up on that.
Give Jacob a round of applause.
(applause)
We have 16-year-old Anarudh Ganesan.
Where is Anarudh?
There he is, right there.
(applause)
So when Anarudh was little, his grandparents walked him
10 miles to a remote clinic in his native India for
vaccinations, only to find out that the vaccines had
spoiled in the heat.
Though he eventually got the shots that he needed,
he thought, well, this is a problem,
and wanted to prevent other children from facing
the same risk.
So he developed what he calls the VAXXWAGON,
and it's a refrigerator on wheels that transports
vaccines to remote destinations.
That's the kind of innovation and compassion
that we're seeing from so many of these young people.
So give Anarudh a big round of applause.
(applause)
And we have Olivia Hallisey, a high school senior
from Greenwich, Connecticut.
Where is Olivia?
There she is.
Hi, Olivia.
Now, think about this -- so Olivia swept
the Google Science Fair.
She read about the Ebola epidemic in the news.
She decides, I want to make a faster,
less-expensive test for the disease,
as opposed to a lot of adults who were just
thinking, how do I avoid getting Ebola?
(laughter)
She decides, well, I'm going to fix this.
So she wants a faster, less-expensive test.
An old test cost $1,000, took up to 12 hours
to conduct.
Using silk as a base instead,
Olivia made the test cost $5,
without requiring refrigeration,
with results that are available
in under 30 minutes.
What were you doing in high school?
(laughter)
Give Olivia a big round of applause.
(applause)
So this is just a small sample of the incredible
talent that is on display at this science fair.
And we couldn't be prouder.
To all the students, to all the young people,
we could not be prouder of you.
I want to thank the parents and the teachers and mentors
who stood behind these young people,
encouraged them to pursue their dreams.
I asked all the young people who I had a chance to meet,
how did you get interested in this?
And there were a couple whose parents were in the
sciences, but for the majority of them,
there was a teacher, a mentor, a program,
something that just got them hooked.
And it's a reminder that science is not something
that is out of reach, it's not just for the few,
it's for the many, as long as it's something that we're
weaving into our curriculum and it's something that
we're valuing as a society.
And so I hope that every company and every college
and every community and every parent and every
teacher joins us in encouraging this next
generation of students to actively engage and pursue
science and push the boundaries
of what's possible.
We've got to give all of our young people the tools that
they need to explore and discover,
and to dig their hands in stuff, and experiment,
and invent, and uncover something new,
and try things, and see hypotheses or experiments
fail, and then learn how to extract some knowledge from
things that didn't work as well as things that worked.
That's another theme that came out of a lot of the
conversations I had with young people.
And that's why we're building on our efforts to
bring hands-on computer science learning,
for example, to all students.
As I've said before, in the new economy,
computer science isn't optional,
it's a basic skill, along with the three Rs.
So we're issuing new guidance to school districts
for how they can better support
computer science education.
Oracle will invest in getting
125,000 more students into computer science classes.
Give Oracle a big round of applause for that.
We appreciate that.
(applause)
We've got more than 500 schools that are committing
to expand access to computer science.
And this is just a sample of the things that we've been
putting together over the last several years to try to
expand opportunity for the kind of brilliant work
that's being done by these students.
And we're seeing entire states take action.
For example, last month, Rhode Island got on a path
to bring computer science to every school
within two years.
So we're going to build on this progress.
We want to make sure every single one of our students
-- no matter where they're from,
what income their parents bring in,
regardless of their backgrounds -- we want to
make sure that they've got access to hands-on science,
technology, engineering, and math education that's going
to set them up for success and keep our nation
competitive in the 21st century.
That includes, by the way, working through some of the
structural biases that exist in science.
Some of them -- a lot of them are unconscious.
But the fact is, is that we've got to get more of our
young women and minorities into science and technology,
engineering and math, and computer science.
I've been really pleased to see the number of young
women who have gotten more and more involved in our
science fairs over the course
of these last several years.
And as I said to a group that I had a chance to meet
with outside, we're not going to succeed if we got
half the team on the bench, especially when it's the
smarter half of the team.
(laughter)
Our diversity is a strength.
And we've got to leverage all of our talent in order
to make ourselves as creative and solve as many
problems as we can be.
And one of the things I find so inspiring about these
young thinkers and makers is that they look at all these
seemingly intractable problems as something that
we can solve.
There is a confidence when you are pursuing science.
They don't consider age a barrier.
They don't think, well, that's just the way things are.
They're not afraid to try things
and ask tough questions.
And above all, what we've seen today is that they feel
an obligation to use their gifts to do something not
just for themselves but for other people as well.
Olivia said after she was working on this Ebola
diagnostic tool, "My generation has been raised
with an awareness that we're part of a global community.
It's everybody's responsibility to take a
proactive approach and think of solutions."
She is right.
I want you to call up Congress and tell them your
thinking on that.
(laughter)
That was just a joke.
(laughter)
Maybe not.
(laughter)
But it's all up to us to work together with our
youngest talent leading the way.
A century ago, Albert Einstein predicted the
existence of gravitational waves.
This year, a team of scientists
finally proved him right.
This was very cool, by the way.
I don't know -- those of you guys who had a chance to
read about this -- the way they measured it was the
building got a little longer.
The building that -- from which they were measuring
this gravitational wave grew, like, a little bit.
(laughter)
And then it kind of shrank back,
which is really weird and really interesting.
(laughter)
And that's the thing about science -- you don't always
cross the finish line yourself.
You may have a hypothesis, a theory,
and then people build off of it,
and it's like you're running a race
and you're passing a baton.
Everything that we're working with today is based
on some young person like you 10 years ago,
50 years ago, 100 or 300 years ago,
who were asking themselves the same question.
And while even Einstein didn't see all the fruits of
his labor, because he went as far as his curiosity and
hard work would take him, generations of scientists
continue to build on his progress.
So that's what we're going to need from all of you.
We are counting on all of you to help build a brighter
future, and for you to use your talents to help your
communities and your country and the world.
We will be with you every step of the way.
And I will be keenly following your progress so
that when you invent some cancer cure or find some new
source of cheap, clean energy,
I will take some of the credit.
(laughter)
I'll say, if it hadn't been for the White House Science
Fair, who knows what might have happened -- even though
it won't really be my credit to take.
So I'm just teasing, guys.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Proud of you.
Good job.
(applause)