Xiaofan, a smart boy from Shenzhen, used to have difficulty in getting up on time, and his alarm clock was of no use at all. It made him upset. One day, he had a good idea.

Xiaofan went to a shop and bought a tape. Back home, he started to record what he wanted. After that, he took out a tool box and connected his tape player with the new tape to his alarm clock. A special alarm clock was born. At a certain time in the morning, the tape player would play soft music with a low and sweet voice of a young girl, “Wake up, please.” Five minutes later, the tape player would play again, and it might be loud music. At the same time, he could hear a recording of his parent, “Wake up at once, or you’ll be late!”

Several days later, Xiaofan got used to the sound of the recordings. After the recordings, he was still sleepy, and even fell asleep again. That was terrible! So he went to the library and borrowed plenty of books home to deal with his problem of getting up late.

He made it! With the help of what he had learned from the books, he put a mechanical (机械学) arm at the end of the bed. Now if Xiaofan still doesn’t get up at last, the arm in the bed will “beat” him, and even make him out of the bed.

The special bed with a mechanical arm helps Xiaofan a lot, but it is not sold in stores.

Anna Du was walking along the beach when she noticed plastics there. She reached down to pick them up, and quickly realized there were many more tiny pieces than she could deal with. It seemed impossible to clean them all up.

Du, 12 years old at the time, tried to solve the problem like any good scientist—first, by doing a little research. That’s how she learned that 8 million tons of plastics end up in the oceans every year.

Then she got to work building something that could help solve the problem: a remote-operated vehicle (遥控潜水器), or ROV. Her ROV can move through water and find plastics on the ocean floor.

The actually cool part of Du’s ROV is the detection system. She uses a camera along with three different kinds of light to find the plastics. She also uses visible (可见的) light to find unnatural colors that might make the plastics stand out.

“She has a very good engineering sense to break down a problem like this and then go after it,” says engineer Casey Machado. “It sounds simple, but it’s a level of thinking that’s really amazing.”

Du started attending public events and workshops at a university when she was five years old, and so she picked up the engineering skills necessary to build her ROV. She says actually getting her ROV to move through water well was not easy. She failed many times, but she never gave up trying and testing.

When asked about future plans, she mentions wanting to address the effects of climate change. “I think there are a lot of problems that could be solved with new inventions,” says Du.

Du thanks her parents, who for years have taken her to student outreach activities, for supporting her interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). She says she has been able to meet students and scientists there.

“I know I want to be an engineer because I like building things to help solve the world’s problems,” says Du. “But I’m not sure what kind of engineer I want to be yet.”

Lovot is a robot. It is very smart. It can reply (回应) to your moods (心情) and do all it can to make you happy. It may not be a living thing, but it will warm your heart.

Lovot is invented by a Japanese company. It takes its name from the words “love” and “robot.” This two-wheeled machine looks like a penguin (企鹅) with cartoon human eyes. Using artificial intelligence, it walks around and “talks” with people in a loud voice. It is surprising that Lovot has a fury (毛茸茸的) body, round head and large eyes. It has a natural baby feel. It can “improve comfort and love feelings”.

Lovot cannot help with the housework or take care of babies. But when you touch it, hug it or just look at it in a friendly way, it will become warm to the touch and you will find yourself relaxed, feeling better. It goes to “sleep” when you hold it in arms. Hearing its name called, it will follow you. It can do some easy work. While you are out, it can keep your house safe through a camera with a mobile app.

Besides, the company offers different robot clothes so you can dress up your Lovot as you like.