A Canadian teenager’s desire to help a friend in the Philippines read at night resulted in a one of the top prizes at the Google Science Fair in California.
“I’m in shock, I’m in shock,” said Ann Makosinski, who invented a battery-free flashlight. She is a student at St. Michaels University School in the city of Victoria in the Pacific coast province of British Columbia.
Ann Makosinski’s flashlight uses the temperature difference between a person’s hand and the air to generate power to light LED bulbs. (Photo: YouTube)
To help a friend who needed to study at night, she wanted to develop a flashlight that would work solely by the heat of a hand. After much experimentation, she came up with a solution.
The flashlight contains devices called Peltier tiles that produce electricity when heated on one side and cooled on the other.
Makosinski’s flashlight is hollow. The tiles are warmed on the outside, and cooled by the air inside.That generates enough power to maintain a steady beam of light for 20 minutes.
She received her trophy for her invention at an awards gala Monday night (September 23). Her prizes are a $25,000 scholarship and a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” from either CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), LEGO or Google.
More information:
CBC News – Google Science Fair wins include B.C. teen’s body-heat-powered flashlight – here
National Post – B.C. teen’s battery-free flashlight wins her a top prize in Google global science fair – here
Ann Makosinski’s YouTube flashlight video – here or click image below
Earlier video in which Ann Makosinki explains how the flashlight works – here
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