The science fair, that durable American institution in which earnest young people explain their poster boards to politely nodding judges, is about to acquire a passport.

The National STEM Festival, which began in 2023 as the National STEM Challenge and has since become an annual gathering in Washington for student inventors, announced plans to expand internationally, starting with an event in London scheduled for May 2027. A Mexico expansion is also in the works, according to Explr, the educational media company that runs the festival.

The original event was founded with the explicit goal of attracting students who might not see themselves as traditional science types — a demographic that, one suspects, includes most of the population. Explr was co-founded by Kari Byron, a former cast member of the Discovery Channel series "MythBusters," which spent 14 seasons making physics entertaining by blowing things up.

"We've been able to connect students with leaders and mentors and just bigger opportunities, so that they could develop their ideas even further," Ms. Byron said.

The British edition will accept applications from students ages 13 to 19 through November 22, with up to 40 selected to present their work. Travel and accommodations will be covered, according to Jenny Buccos, Explr's chief executive, who noted that one event will take place at the House of Lords. (The American version, presumably, will continue to make do with the Capitol.)

At the 2026 festival in June, about 42 percent of projects involved artificial intelligence in some capacity, though only about 14 percent focused primarily on A.I. and machine learning — a ratio that Explr interprets as evidence that students are not simply chasing trends. Past projects have included a machine to recycle waste plastic into 3D printing filament and a pill-counting app for under-resourced pharmacies.

"The projects are increasingly showing us what young people believe is worth solving," Ms. Buccos said.

What they believe, apparently, is that the world has problems worth crossing an ocean to address.

Original story published in Fast Company: "The National STEM Festival is taking its science fair global"