Samantha Spillman

The 26-year-old coffee educator in Seattle is this year’s U.S. Barista Championship winner. Celebratory espresso shots, anyone?

Eric Stark

This Metro driver took a bullet, then drove his passengers away from the deadly shooting in North Seattle in March. Respect your bus driver, especially if he’s a hero.

Emma Haruka Iwao

The new world record for calculating the value of pi: 31.4 trillion digits. The brain behind it: this Seattle-based Google computer scientist.

Dominic Gates

The veteran Seattle Times aviation reporter broke a lot of the biggest news in the Boeing 737 Max catastrophe. Compelling coverage, but maybe not the best in-flight reading.

Eshika Saxena

The Bellevue high school senior has developed a smartphone app to diagnose sickle cell disease with 95 percent accuracy. That’s 100 percent incredible.