04/28/2016
18-year-old Ann Makosinski, whose inventions include a body heat-powered flashlight and a cellphone-charging coffee mug, has just been named Popular Science's Young Inventor of the Year! The first-year college student from Victoria, Canada, who has been what she calls “the weird inventor kid" for as long as she can remember, says that her first serious toy was a box of transistors and that she was always encouraged to "go and make [her] own playthings." Ann first came to global attention three years ago when she won her age division at the prestigious Google Science Fair for her invention of a battery-free "Hollow Flashlight"; her latest creation, a phone-charging travel mug called e-Drink, recently won her a $50,000 Quest Climate Grant.
The idea behind Ann's first major invention was spurred by a friend in the Philippines whose lack of light to study by at night was causing her to fail school. Ann says, "I’ve always been interested in doing science projects, so I thought, ‘Why don’t I find a way to provide her and a lot of other people light?’" The result was a flashlight powered only by body heat; it uses Peltier tiles that produce energy when one side is heated and the other side remains cool. After months of experimenting, she was able to build a prototype that could produce light for 20 minutes using only the warmth of the human hand.
The idea for her latest invention, e-Drink, came from her observing a common problem among her peers -- depleted batteries in their cellphones and coffee that was too hot to drink quickly between classes. "I decided to combine both of those problems and find a solution with my e-drink," Ann explains. Her special travel mug captures the excess heat of a hot drink while it cools; her current prototype can prolong a phone's battery by an extra 10 to 30 minutes. This summer, she hopes to work with engineers to build on her work, with the aim of making both of her inventions available to customers this year.
And, while she plans on continuing to come up with new ideas of her own, this Mighty Girl also wants to encourage other young people to try their hand at inventing. "What I kind of want to spread as my message to all kinds of youth that I get to reach out to is, you can do cool stuff, you've just got to put in time and be dedicated."
To read a recent interview with this impressive young inventor in The Ubyssey, visit http://bit.ly/1SBU2Oz / Photo credit: Jeremy Johnson-Silvers
For fun ways to encourage your own Mighty Girl's interest in invention, check out our blog post, "Building Her Dreams: Building and Engineering Toys for Mighty Girls," at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10430
For an excellent book about real-life female inventors throughout history, we highly recommend "Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women," for ages 8 and up at http://www.amightygirl.com/girls-think-of-everything
For two fantastic picture books about Mighty Girls who love to invent, both for ages 4 to 8, check out “The Most Magnificent Thing" (http://www.amightygirl.com/the-most-magnificent-thing) and "Rosie Revere, Engineer" (http://www.amightygirl.com/rosie-revere-engineer).
For teen and adult readers, profiles on several female inventors are also included in the fascinating book "Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science -- And The World" at http://www.amightygirl.com/headstrong-52-women
And, for two parenting books filled with inventive at-home projects to explore with your kids, check out “Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors” (http://www.amightygirl.com/tinkerlab) and “Maker Dad: Lunch Box Guitars, Antigravity Jars, and 22 Other Incredibly Cool Father-Daughter DIY Projects” (http://www.amightygirl.com/maker-dad).
