What started as an academic problem in a robotics class—how to build a robot that can hop like a pogo stick, roll on wheels, and walk up stairs—has grown into a concept that could one day help with search-and-rescue missions.

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On May 4, 2007, a two-mile-wide F5 tornado destroyed 95 percent of Greensburg, Kansas, leaving two thirds of the town’s 1,500 inhabitants homeless. Many thought the town was finished. But in fact, the townspeople decided to rebuild using the greenest, most forward-thinking materials and construction methods possible.

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When Lawrence Tech's Element One team won top honors in the first-ever Formula Zero design competition—a contest created by two Dutch auto designers to get young engineers interested in hydrogen cars—they received two prizes: a fuel cell, and a deadline. The award meant they had the green light to build their design and race against other student teams in the Formula Zero hydrogen-powered go-kart race, which starts this month in the Netherlands. And just like that, they were off, scrambling to get their kart ready in time.

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