A 15-year-old high school student, Angelo Casimiro, has come up with a way to harness the energy from one’s footsteps and turn it into electricity to charge batteries for devices such as cell phones.
He submitted his project, “Electricity-Generating Footwear,” to this year’s edition of Google Science Fair, which is “a global online science and technology competition open to individuals and teams from ages 13 to 18,” according to the organizers.
Submissions are now closed. Regional finalists and local award winners will be announced on June 26, while global finalists and the “Science in Action Award” winner will be announced on August 6. There will be another event for finalists on September 22, said the organizers.
In his submission video, the young inventor said that he had been making projects since he was four, together with his grandfather, whom he called his “biggest inspiration.”
When the latter passed away, Angelo continued to create projects in honor of his lolo. Aside from this, Angelo says he does tutorials and write-ups on his projects and posts these on various web sites. He has also participated and won in robotics competitions.
Because of his interest in renewable energy, the teen created an insole generator placed inside an old pair of shoes. He then soldered the insole generator onto the battery of a power bank. The latter could then be used to charge a gadget through a USB connection.
One experiment showed that jogging for eight straight hours could fully charge a 400 mAh Lithium-ion battery.
Another showed that playing basketball for two straight hours could charge a cell phone battery sufficient to provide 10 minutes of power.
The teen said the insole generator felt comfortable, thanks to the “squishy” foam he used.
On his account published on the idea-sharing site Instructables.com, where he also posted the project, he said the project cost just P304, thanks to the recycled materials which he incorporated.
He has earned praise from Netizens, such as Templarum, who said, “It’s always a pleasure to see young minds at work in such great ideas. I hope you do win the contest. You have my vote!”
Many commented with suggestions on ways he could improve the product, but there was one who said that it had already been developed by SolePower , also an insole that is connected to a power pack outside the shoe.
Nevertheless, the teen’s creativity is admirable.
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“I plan to become an engineer someday and work for a company who innovates new products,” he wrote on his About page. “Most of my projects focus on Electronics, Woodworking, and Robotics.”
View his video below:
