At the White House on Tuesday, some of the nation’s most talented students met to showcase their inventions. Among these exceptional ideas and contraptions are electric cars, rockets, historical video games, and hovercrafts.

“If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House,” President Obama said at the event. “Well, if you’re a young person and you produce the best experiment or design,” he added, “the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.”

Many of the ideas presented surpass innovations used today, exhibiting what education can do when applied decorously to young and impressionable minds. Four years ago, President Obama helped in creating an atmosphere where America’s youth can be rewarded for intellectual pursuit at the White House Science Fair.

Here are two powerhouse teams spawned from the inception of the fair:

“Team Rocket Power” of Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties, Maryland (Rebecca Chapin-Ridgely, 17; Jasmyn Logan, 15; and Nia’mani Robinson, 15)
These girls were one of the 100 teams to qualify for last year’s Team America Rocketry Challenge. To top this, they were one of the nine all-girl teams that qualified. To top that, they were the only African American all-girl teams. They designed a rocket that soared to approximately 750ft, which then returned an egg, “payload,” to the ground safely. These young ladies plan to enter college studying medicine, journalism and architecture while applying their proficiency in rocketry to these fields.

Amena Jamali, 16; Juan Ramos, 17; of Dallas, TX
Two years ago, Juan Ramos moved from El Salvador to the United States. At this time he only knew a few words in English. Not only has he picked up quickly but, he and another classmate Amena Jamali have started a company called JJ New World, which specializes in creating software programming for online games. Their debut game, “Better than History,” encourages players to critically think about the world with an increased understanding. The players can then change endings to historic events to see how they would have played out. They plan to use the revenue from their business to fund poverty reduction programs and scholarships in their home countries of El Salvador and India.