A mobile app for diagnosing disease. A video game aimed at fighting

poverty. A “robo nanny” that assists teachers in the classroom. Sort of

puts your high-school science project to shame, huh? Short on years but

long on vision, more than 300,000 student inventors tackled global

problems for Microsoft’s international competition. Some 500 of them

will descend on Warsaw, Poland, for the finals. “So many young students

are being innovative and bringing new ideas to market,” says Helena Xu,

22, a U.S. team member. “The future is going to be shaped by young

adults like us.” — Suzy Evans