One of the biggest draws of the fair is meeting leading scientists, but this year’s star guest was much closer in age to the students attending, USA Today reports. The 14-year-old Ahmed made the rounds, introducing himself and taking selfies with the finalists and visiting students. “We learned about you in school!” one student from Oakland, Calif., happily told him, USA Today says.
Ahmed, a self-professed fan of robotics, was arrested after he brought a homemade clock to his school in Irving, Texas. His teachers suspected that the device might actually be a bomb. It turned out that it was, like many of the inventions on display at Google’s event, just an innovative (and innocent) science project.
The controversy rocketed the teenager to celebrity status. Within days, he received a deluge of invites from the likes of Facebook, Google and even President Barack Obama. Google’s invite to the Science Fair was the first that he’s accepted to date, USA Today says.
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