I love reading about young people who are kicking ass in science and engineering!!!  Kids like this are what give me hope in the future.

Pretty brilliant!

Eesha Khare is the mind behind a super-powerful and tiny gizmo that packs more energy into a small space, delivers a charge more quickly, and holds that charge longer than the typical battery. Khare showed off her so-called super-capacitor last week at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Ariz. In her demonstration, she showed it powering a light-emitting diode, or LED light, but the itty-bitty device could fit inside cell phone batteries, delivering a full charge in 20-30 seconds. It takes several hours for the average cell phone to fully charge.

Khare also pointed out that the super-capacitor “can last for 10,000 charge cycles compared to batteries which are good for only 1,000 cycles.”

The video is worth watching:

I agree. This also gives me hope. Love this. Even though I'm not remotely qualified to understand this kid:) 

How do we inspire more kids to do things like this?

Easy. Stop standardizing curriculum. Give them room to explore. Get rid of the crushing amounts of testing. Creativity and over-regulation are diametrically opposed. Maybe apply a bit of Eric Ries to ed reform instead of the trend toward heavy overregulation we're seeing now. That never produced an innovator in American (or world) history, no reason to think it will now. 

I'm ready to sign up for the world you describe!

That world won't exist soon. Too many stakeholders protecting fiefdoms in this field. Sad. Think of how much money is made just in standardized testing alone. But you just gave me an idea, so thanks... 

Have you seen this one--it may be posted here already. Pretty impressive. http://www.scpr.org/news/2011/12/08/30262/california-teen-wins-grand-prize-potential-cancer-/

I had not seen that. Very impressive!