WASHINGTON — If President Barack Obama is mingling with inventors, sooner or later there has to be a robot. On Wednesday, it was Russell, the 17-foot electric giraffe towering in the South Lawn of the White House, a symbol of the quirky and clever creations Obama wanted to showcase.
“New tools and technologies are making the building of things easier than ever,” Obama told entrepreneurs and students who gathered at the White House at its first Maker Faire. More than 100 “makers” from 25 states attended the event as Obama focused on helping fledgling businesses create and market their products.
Teens from The Workshop School, a Philadelphia public school, explained how they built a biodiesel sports car. Another showed off a “soofa,” a solar-powered bench that lets people charge their phones. “What on earth have you done to my house?” Obama joked.
