Music fans can rock out with virtual guitars on an interactive wall, thanks to a touch-screen technology that Jeff Han tinkered with. Most touch- screens, such as the ones at airport check-in kiosks, allow only one finger touch at a time. But Han’s large, multitouch screens can be activated by touching or sweeping several fingertips across the surface.

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Randal Pinkett is most famous for winning the TV reality show competition, The Apprentice, but his passion is helping those less fortunate. He has multiple engineering degrees from Rutgers University, Oxford University, and MIT.

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A Web site that allows people to make small, $25 loans has become a pretty big deal. Matt Flannery used his programming skills to develop Kiva.org, which allows people to lend money to entrepreneurs in developing countries after browsing their profiles online. Kate Ewhrugakpo in Nigeria borrowed $350 to buy sewing machines and fabric for designing clothes and paid back the loan in eight months.

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Bionic limbs give wounded soldiers a leg up.

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A software designer helped ‘Pirates’ come to life.

One of the key moments in the blockbuster movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was a battle between two ships in a raging ocean storm. The 15-minute scene featured a gigantic whirlpool and lots of lightning, waves, and spray. It wasn’t the type of thing that could be faked in a neighborhood swimming pool or even on a Hollywood soundstage. So the directors came up with a solution: They created the scene on a computer with software developed by Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects company created by George Lucas when he made the first Star Wars film in the 1970s.

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