The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair is a big international STEM competition of higher schools that takes place every year in the United States. In the last edition, the young scientists of higher schools worldwide won almost 8 million dollars in awards and scholarships.
Among them – obtaining a prize worth 75,000 dollars – there is also a student committed to a project whose mission is revolutionizing the world of electric motors. He is the seventeen years old Robert Sansone from Fort Pierce, in Florida. The teenager has already accomplished over 60 projects connected with the engineering world and today the focus is on his project to improve the synchronous reluctance motor, which can operate without magnets and without using rare earths.
We cannot reveal a lot because the technology is not patented, yet. However, we can say the teenager, not relying on many resources to implement advanced motors, has to manufacture a scale prototype by using a 3D printer and exploiting plastic. The delivered torque exceeds 39%, whereas efficiency is 31% higher at a rotation speed of 300 rpm. At 750 rpm, the efficiency has improved by 37%. Clearly, they are much lower rotation speeds than motors on trade because the prototype has not been brought to higher rotation rates to avoid overheating plastic components. Maybe that money won will allow him further developments.
