Teenage scientist Eesha Khare is smart. Very very smart. So smart, last weekend she managed changed the future of battery technology and win herself a $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist prize. Khare,of Saratoga California, used nano chemistry to create a supercapacitor battery that could allow devices to charge in 20 to 30 seconds.
Her motivation: “My cellphone battery always dies.”
From NBC:
Waiting hours for a cellphone to charge may become a thing of the past, thanks to an 18-year-old high-school student’s invention. She won a $50,000 prize Friday at an international science fair for creating an energy storage device that can be fully juiced in 20 to 30 seconds. The fast-charging device is a so-called supercapacitor, a gizmo that can pack a lot of energy into a tiny space, charges quickly and holds its charge for a long time. What’s more, it can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared with 1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries, according to Eesha Khare of Saratoga, Calif.
Khare won the Young Scientist Prize along with 17-year-old Henry Lin, whose computer model simulates thousands of galaxies. The big winner was Romanian 19-year-old, Ionut Alexandru Budisteanu who won the $75,000 Gordan E. Moore prize for his low-cost solution to driverless cars. The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair is an annual event that was held in Phoenix, Arizona this year.
So far, Eesha Khare’s supercapacitor has only been used to power an LED. But the implications are clear. Her device is flexible and scalable which means it could be used for anything that relies on a battery, even electric cars! I’m sure this young scientist has a bright future ahead of her and we’ll be hearing more about her in the years to come.
Congrats, Eesha, and all the winners!
[Via: NBC]