Wunderkinds

Seventeen-year-old Alex Wulff of Skaneateles, New York, already has multiple inventions that could be of major significance to society. In 2015, he designed and built small, inexpensive devices that scan the path in front of a visually impaired wearer and vibrate to alert him or her to the closeness of objects. HaptoTech won the top award at the 2016 Central New York Science & Engineering Fair. Last year, he created sensors that are placed inside of casts for the purpose of alerting orthopedic doctors to possible problems, winning him a Patent and Trademark Office Society special award.