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A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#51

Post by yardie »

ordu wrote: post #27

> If his motor continues to perform with high speed and efficiency, he says he’ll move forward with the patenting process. Is it a wise move? Shouldn't he just file a patent application instantly? (It is not a kind of a sarcasm or something. I really do not know, and I'd like to hear from people experienced with patent applications.)

Its kind of expensive. About $30-50k for the entire process. For a big company with deep pockets and IP lawyers already on retainer that price is just the cost of doing business and an investment of beating the competition. If your an individual $30k for a not sure bet is a hell of a lot of money.

A good friend patented a makeup applicator and she's not sure if she'll ever get that money back.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#52

Post by melony »

sebastianconcpt wrote: post #45
melony wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is from an upper middle class family at the minimum. Hardware projects at his scale is not exactly a low cost expenditure, even with AliExpress and cheap Asian parts of questionable quality. I doubt he even needs the winnings to pay tuition.

In what all that resentment towards him is helping you or anyone?

No, but pointing out something that most people seem to gloss over. It is like reading "startup X raised Y dollar with a Z year old founder" articles and oohing and aahing while misunderstanding the actual circumstances that got them there. It is never about solely the product and idea, HN hates to acknowledge this but you don't raise money without strong connections and network, and it is the same story for science fairs (especially at the pre-undergraduate level). Follow your children to the next state-level science fair and most of the top award winners will have similar backgrounds. Almost always a relative or "family friend" in academia/research who's guiding them, either that or a blank cheque for the children/extremely well funded school clubs.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#54

Post by cma »

ordu wrote: post #27

> If his motor continues to perform with high speed and efficiency, he says he’ll move forward with the patenting process. Is it a wise move? Shouldn't he just file a patent application instantly? (It is not a kind of a sarcasm or something. I really do not know, and I'd like to hear from people experienced with patent applications.)

Even publishing it gets him a 1 year inventor's grace period where his publication can act as prior art to stop others from patenting, but doesn't stop him from patenting, under the newish first to file rules. But I dont know about internationally.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#55

Post by cheschire »

throw_m239339 wrote: post #47
jwitchel wrote: post #26

Robert Sansone, great job! So many young prospective engineers read HN every day. Let's find comments that are encouraging or thought provoking or point readers in helpful directions Like @londons_explore did. Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. Especially bad for young engineers. This kid is impressive, straight up impressive. Let's encourage him and others like him. HN shouldn't someone's supervillain origin…

> Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. It's healthy to question media narrative as the media tend to sensationalize and embellish stories for clicks or views. It's disingenuous to try to make people feel guilty about it arguing if we question that story that child will turn bad or something, in an post-truth era. Nobody is attacking that kid, just how the media cover these stories with a template.

Will the kid understand that's everyone's intent, I wonder?

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#56

Post by tiahura »

throw_m239339 wrote: post #47
jwitchel wrote: post #26

Robert Sansone, great job! So many young prospective engineers read HN every day. Let's find comments that are encouraging or thought provoking or point readers in helpful directions Like @londons_explore did. Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. Especially bad for young engineers. This kid is impressive, straight up impressive. Let's encourage him and others like him. HN shouldn't someone's supervillain origin…

> Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. It's healthy to question media narrative as the media tend to sensationalize and embellish stories for clicks or views. It's disingenuous to try to make people feel guilty about it arguing if we question that story that child will turn bad or something, in an post-truth era. Nobody is attacking that kid, just how the media cover these stories with a template.

Being a curmudgeon isn't a virtue.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#57

Post by tromp »

b3nji wrote: post #12
londons_explore wrote: post #2

A tesla Model 3 motor already is partially a reluctance motor. This youtube video describes it rather well, and I'd recommend giving it a watch [1]. Notice the air gaps - thats the reluctance part of the rotor. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio

> A tesla Model 3 motor already is partially a reluctance motor. This youtube video describes it rather well, and I'd recommend giving it a watch [1]. Notice the air gaps - thats the reluctance part of the rotor. > [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio I dont think he's using air gaps? "Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor."

Air gaps are the traditional way to make a reluctance motor. Sansone is exploring a different way to make a reluctance motor, improving performance at the cost of added complexity.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#58

Post by ekianjo »

c22 wrote: post #10
callumprentice wrote: post #6

Inspiring story all round but this paragraph stood out for me: “I didn't have a mentor to help me, really, so each time a motor failed, I had to do tons of research and try and troubleshoot what went wrong,” he says. “But eventually on the 15th motor, I was able to get a working prototype.” I imagine most 17 year old would not have kept going 15+ times until they arrived at something which worked.

Really? In my observations only 17 year olds have the time and patience to do crap like this.

Most 17 years old don't have access to 3d printers. Equipment is a big factor in making something tangible.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#59

Post by jwitchel »

throw_m239339 wrote: post #47
jwitchel wrote: post #26

Robert Sansone, great job! So many young prospective engineers read HN every day. Let's find comments that are encouraging or thought provoking or point readers in helpful directions Like @londons_explore did. Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. Especially bad for young engineers. This kid is impressive, straight up impressive. Let's encourage him and others like him. HN shouldn't someone's supervillain origin…

> Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. It's healthy to question media narrative as the media tend to sensationalize and embellish stories for clicks or views. It's disingenuous to try to make people feel guilty about it arguing if we question that story that child will turn bad or something, in an post-truth era. Nobody is attacking that kid, just how the media cover these stories with a template.

Fair enough, but context matters and there are two that matter here: (1) The subject was the tech and the engineer not biased media narratives, and (2) HN is a forum that so many people look up to. So if you want to context switch to a discussion about the media (a worthy subject BTW) post a new thread; let's not do it on a thread that is spotlighting interesting tech from a promising engineer.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#60

Post by Reason077 »

> "The video explained that most electric car motors require magnets made from rare-earth elements"

For years, Tesla exclusively used induction motors with no permanent magnets. It's only relatively recently (when the Model 3 was released) that they started using permanent magnets in order to gain a few % better efficiency.

Even now, dual-motor cars often pair an induction motor with a permanent magnet motor. This configuration has various advantages: the induction motor can spin freely with no resistance when no power is required, so using one of each provides the best combination of efficiency and power.

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