A 14-year-old student has won a prestigious $25,000 STEM award for creating an ultra-lightweight origami-inspired structure which can withstand 10,000 times its own weight. The design makes use of minimal material and delivers maximum load-bearing capacity, making it both flexible and strong.
According to the experts, the structure can be applied in spacecraft components, soft robotics, sustainable packaging and transport systems and deployable shelters.
The prize, awarded as part of a global STEM competition, felicitates teenagers who employ science and engineering principles to deal with real-world problems. Judges appreciated the initiative for its "rare combination of elegance, originality, and engineering relevance."
The fold pattern of the structure redistributes stress across multiple ridges, enabling the model to compress without breaking, expand without tearing and tackle extreme force while staying ultra-light
The student undertook continuous stress tests, making use of both physical prototypes and digital simulations, proving that the structure consistently handled weight loads thousands of times greater than its mass.
A breakthrough by a 14-year-old emphasises how rapidly young minds are progressing in STEM, especially those with access to hands-on innovation platforms. The young inventor wishes to rework the model further for field applications. "I wanted to show how art and science can come together to solve real problems," the student said after the win.
