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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

#121

Post by OJFord »

dsr_ wrote: post #106
RHSeeger wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So I moved on to my next project, making a solid fuel rocket from scratch Remember when you could get the ingredients to do things like that easily; sometimes even in a "Science Kit for Kids!" one would buy at Caldor or the like? Man, how times have changed.

In the late 1980s, the toy store at the mall carried a section of model rockets and rocket engines, igniters... supermarkets carried cap guns and refills in racks just before checkout.

Can't you get actual guns at some US supermarkets, in the 2020s? Meanwhile I'm pretty sure you can get those combination cap/spud guns in the seasonal aisle at larger UK supermarkets, and almost all French^. Funny.

(^when I was younger I remember being amazed by all the stuff you could get in French supermarkets, aisles and aisles of school supplies, summer toys/beach items, clothes, etc. - seems they were much earlier in that trend, and still seem to lean further into it, though it's been a few years since I've been.)

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

#122

Post by jedberg »

As a parent, my first question is what did his parents do to foster this and enable it, and can I do it too? I know my kids may not be interested in engineering, but I want to at least give them the chance. And I suspect whatever his parents did is applicable to other interests too.

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

#124

Post by BaseballPhysics »

djbusby wrote: post #90
BaseballPhysics wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably. Given some years back the US moved to a first-to-file system, getting an initial patent application filed to establish that date is probably not a bad idea and isn't too terribly expensive.

Can be done for just the filing fee. But you'd likely want to have council help, about $6k last I looked.

You don't need a completed application to get a provisional going. A suitable written description is enough, and is something an individual can probably do on their own. The USPTO even has a whole section providing resources and assistance for folks to do this:

https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/using-legal-services/pr...

That said, promoting that to a full non-provisional application is not something most people should do without a patent attorney as it takes real skill in the art (ha!) to get the claim set right.

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

#125

Post by OJFord »

ekianjo wrote: post #58
c22 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are you sure about that? I don't know when you're allowed to leave school in the US, but they're pretty popular in schools - relatively cheap tools & a lot safer than others. They didn't exist (in the mainstream at least) when I was at school, but we had laser cutter/engravers for example. I know which I'd pick if I were in control of the budget (and had to choose one).

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

#126

Post by potamic »

yardie wrote: post #51
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.

Why does it cost so much to file a patent? Isn't one able to draft and submit an application by themselves?

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

#127

Post by PaulHoule »

bckr wrote: post #84

This is inspiring, and let's look at why so many of us have the impulse to figure out what the flaw or missing part of the story is. For me, it's because I hadn't done something so cool at 17. That makes me think, huh, I wonder if I'm not a "natural born engineer". I start going through my life story so far and beating myself up for playing too many video games, or not going deep enough on my interests. Then I start…

If you want to be cynical about it see

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/why-sc...

(of course that is another clickbait article from a magazine that was good before the web but now specializes in clickbait)

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

#128

Post by Workaccount2 »

Comevius wrote: post #115
causi wrote: post #61

BEVs like Teslas already have a rare-earth-free induction motor in them. They use an additional rare earth motor for efficiency, which in the Model S and X gets them ten percent greater range. The way this article conveniently ignores that fact leads me to believe there's no chance of the modified synchronous reluctance motor exceeding the efficiency of the induction motor and therefore will have no impact on the ele…

This is always the case when these young and wealthy prodigies are being covered by the media. They always invent a toy that the industry already tried or keep trying to make practical. Practical as in not just performance, but cost too.

A group of engineers run the numbers on a thursday afternoon and see immediately that it just isn't practical/possible. The idea dies without ever getting out of the lab or even off the whiteboard.

A kid stumbles into the idea though and has the gumption to actually carry it all the ways to a "working" prototype, which inevitably wows everyone who isn't in the field (pretty much everybody).

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

#129

Post by boxmonster »

dang wrote: post #109
boxmonster wrote: post #105

Quoted post unavailable.

" Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. " - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Even if you're right, it only makes things worse.

No post body was provided.

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

#130

Post by snapcaster »

bckr wrote: post #84

This is inspiring, and let's look at why so many of us have the impulse to figure out what the flaw or missing part of the story is. For me, it's because I hadn't done something so cool at 17. That makes me think, huh, I wonder if I'm not a "natural born engineer". I start going through my life story so far and beating myself up for playing too many video games, or not going deep enough on my interests. Then I start…

Thoughtful post, I think it's such a strong ability to develop to be able to see this thought process happening in your head and being aware of it. Thanks for sharing this
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