2014 may go down in history as the geekiest year ever here at the White House.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve welcomed makers, coders, gamers, Nobel Prize winners, student scientists, and broadcast meteorologists to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and we’ve adorned our halls with robots, 3D printers, and science projects.
We’ve continued to gather top expert-geeks online to discuss a range of topics such as asteroids, superhero science, the science of cooking, and extreme weather (including one dialed in from the bottom of the ocean).
This year, the President and his Administration continued momentum on a range of science, technology, and innovation priorities that promise to benefit American citizens — from steps to unleash troves of government data as fuel for innovation, to releasing the most comprehensive scientific assessment ever of the domestic impacts of climate change, to telling the untold story of women in science and technology.
Here are some science and technology highlights from 2014:
1. President Obama became the first President to write a line of code.
2. The President invited meteorologists to talk climate science at the White House.
3. The President met an 18-foot robotic giraffe at the first-ever White House Maker Faire.
4. We hosted kid innovators at the White House Science Fair (with a first-ever focus on girls in STEM).
And the President even snapped a selfie with Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson:
5. We filled the White House with high-tech holiday decorations.
6. We held the first White House Student Film Festival, focusing on technology in classrooms.
7. The President got scanned for the first-ever 3D-printed presidential bust.
8. The President engaged with entrepreneurs across the country.
