Engineering Design
- Tech
Pokémon Go players helped build new maps of cities
Players often upload pictures of landmarks. AI can use these to build a virtual 3-D model of a city, which robots might use like a map to navigate the real thing.
- Computing
Teen’s new app guards against the rise of villainous AI bots
Sometimes good chatbots and AI agents go rogue. A Regeneron ISEF finalist’s new app helps guard against bots developing dangerous personalities.
- Physics
Origami research takes top prize at 2026 Regeneron ISEF competition
The top three winners each won at least $80,000. Other teen finalists shared in more than $7 million in prizes at this international science fair.
- Artificial Intelligence
AI may be giving teens bad diet advice
The meal plans that AI made for fictional teens cut an entire meal’s worth of calories per day.
- Plants
Perfect pitch? Scientists lay new grounds for World Cup ‘26
High-tech turfgrass carpets will be unrolled in 16 stadiums across North America — including five that must survive despite getting no natural sunlight.
- Chemistry
New polish could turn long nails into touchscreen styluses
It registers nails' touch by disrupting the touchscreen’s electric field. But this high-tech varnish isn’t ready to hit store shelves yet.
- Artificial Intelligence
Don’t trust AI for help with citations, science-fair judges warn
Fake, AI-generated citations have begun disqualifying major science-fair projects. Such ‘ghost’ references even haunt research journals.
- Artificial Intelligence
A new shield could guard AI agents against cyberattacks
A teen’s software could help guard AI that handles sensitive data against sneaky “prompt injection attacks.”
- Artificial Intelligence
Sneaky: AI auto-complete may be shaping our views
People are increasingly using AI auto-complete features when writing. Those tools may change how we think — even without our knowing.
- Environment
Teen engineer finds eco-friendly way to fight harmful algal blooms
The Netflix series Outer Banks inspired this teen engineer to help clean up algal blooms in a local waterway.
- Tech
This Band Aid-like device could let you ‘feel’ the virtual world
Using a grid of tiny, fast-moving dots, this device realistically renders virtual textures by mimicking the feel of real-world objects.
- Space
Artemis II just made a historic loop around the moon
The astronauts had a front-row view of the lunar farside and the first eclipse ever seen from the moon.
