Vancouver Wa Real Estate - Elite Realty NW

My buddy Todd told me about a 12 year old boy in Oregon who invented a new kind of solar panel and he suggested that I write a post about him. This is pretty incredible.

Seventh Grader, William Yuan's bright idea to create a new, more efficient 3 dimensional solar cell earned him top honors as Oregon's only 2008 Davidson Fellow.

His name is William Yuan and he is a seventh-grader in Meadow Park Middle School's Summa options program. He is an active member of the school's Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Club, First Lego League team and participant in the Science Bowl and MathCounts programs. He is also a two-time, second-place chess champion for the state. Seems pretty normal for a 12 year old boy, doesn't it?

Recognizing his interest in science, math, Yuan's science teacher encouraged him to tackle a challenging engineering project for the Northwest Science Expo and introducing him to nanotechnology and renewable energy research. The young boy researched energy and environmental issues and decided to undertake a project that would help solve some of the problems of the world. Yuan decided to focus his project on finding the most efficient way to generate energy from the sun.

While other 12 year olds were playing Guitar Hero and Mario video games, the young Mr. Yuan was thinking, "We need to make solar energy more cost effective and efficient."

Those are some very big thoughts for seventh grade boy. With that thought driving him Yuan worked on his project for the past two years with the encouragement of his science teacher Susan Duncan; support of his parents Gang Yuan and Zhiming Mei; and counsel of professional mentors Professor Chunfei Li of Portland State University's Center for Nanofabrication and Electron Microscopy, Fred Li of Applied Materials Inc. and Professor Shaofan Li of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of California - Berkeley.

So exactly what did he do?  In his own words, Yuan says, "Current solar cells are flat and can only absorb visible light," he said. "I came up with an innovative solar cell that absorbs both visible and UV light. My project focused on finding the optimum solar cell to further increase the light absorption and efficiency and design a nanotube for light-electricity conversion efficiency." He is planning on talking to manufacturers to see if they will help him make a working prototype. If his prototype works, we may have a new higher efficiency and affordable solar panel on the market soon.

As part of the honor, the 12-year-old Bethany boy was flown to Washington, D.C., for a reception Sept. 24 at the Library of Congress where he received his award and a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development.

He plans to use the money to "attend one of the best universities in the country" and study nanotechnology, biotechnology or medicine.

It looks like William Yuan has a bright future ahead of him!

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