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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

#171

Post by deepspace »

skapadia wrote: post #145
Comevius wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I missed the part that said his family is wealthy. Can you point me to that?

Just look at the photos. Only a fairly wealthy family could afford to buy him those instruments, and of course, the raw materials for the motors. Even his clothing suggests that there is no lack of money.

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

#172

Post by [deleted] »

skapadia wrote: post #145
Comevius wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I missed the part that said his family is wealthy. Can you point me to that?

[deleted]

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

#173

Post by Silverback_VII »

cheschire wrote: post #55
throw_m239339 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

He surely will have to understand that to be exceptional creates a lot of headwind (certainly in his own field).

"The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."

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

#174

Post by russellbeattie »

This next generation is finally fulfilling the promise of the Internet in my opinion. Every book, article, research paper and millions of high quality instructional videos, lectures and courses are there for the taking. And the Zoomers really are using all that information. It's like water to fish - it's all around them.

I've personally seen my son and his friends get into and then become proficient in a bunch of different topics, like motorcycle maintenance, programming games, film and video editing, drone racing/building, music and a ton of other real-world useful skills, all without a mentor being involved. I've personally learned more about a bunch of different topics I never had a handle on before, like physics and math, where my education was stuck at an 11th grade level until the past few years.

Compared to my teen years, the difference is breathtaking. I think the result will be a better society and a bunch of people doing what they really love for a living.

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

#175

Post by marshray »

causi wrote: post #119
Comevius wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Frankly you could filter out every HN submission with the phrase "-year old" and miss absolutely nothing of value.

It's about the lifecycle of the inventor, not the motor, silly.

Even though the probability is low that he is founding a revolution in magnetodynamics, I personally found this story more inspiring than a blog post about the latest front-end Javascript framework.

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

#176

Post by marshray »

deepspace wrote: post #171
skapadia wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I missed the part that said his family is wealthy. Can you point me to that?

Just look at the photos. Only a fairly wealthy family could afford to buy him those instruments, and of course, the raw materials for the motors. Even his clothing suggests that there is no lack of money.

For what it's worth, that is cheap no-name Chinese test equipment he's using.

Probably a $300-400 setup, which is not nothing, but well within reach of most families.

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

#177

Post by nkzd »

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…

Today, my friend and I cynically talked over a beer about this. We ranted to each other about how we wasted the best years of our life and how we didn't have the resources or education other people have right now. This is a defeatist attitude and your post has inspired me to be better.

Thank you for writing this.

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

#178

Post by Waterluvian »

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…

People are far more likely to become your neighbours or coworkers than they are to replace you. Gotta resist the instinct to be competitive and gatekeep.

This is wonderful work and it makes me feel bubbly about the future of engineering when young adults are _this engaged_.

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

#179

Post by alex_young »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #72
throw_m239339 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I don't think this is totally on the media. The story is sufficiently weasel worded -- the motor "could" "pave the way". Anybody with any experience reads "could" as "probably not" and "pave the way" as "a tiny little step in a long process". Most 6 year olds have figured out that "maybe" means "probably not". Many adults have forgotten that lesson.

Most of the major inventions of the last 2 centuries were the product of many incremental steps. The automobile, the airplane, the computer, the internet, etc.

I think it's worth celebrating even minor contributions toward a potentially world changing future personally.

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

#180

Post by barefeg »

I wonder how much classical education hinders this kind of people. I can see a point in networking, however creating a network of randomly assigned people doesn’t seem so effective. It might be better to create a network from clubs, etc.

I never created anything so impressive while young but I was always curious and building or taking apart stuff. I always felt school got in the way.

in the end I stayed all the way until PhD and later changed careers, but that’s a different story

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