Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

smithsonianmag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 296 posts

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

#231

Post by hellohowareu »

This is awesome.

He mentions not having a mentor... "“I didn't have a mentor to help me, really,"

But I am skeptical about that claim-- I think good guidance by good parents is arguably mentorship.

A quick google search yielded a family run HVAC company, Sasone-AC in St. Lucie, Florida, which is essentially a suburb next to Fort Pierce, Florida, where Robert Sasone resides. Nicolas Sansone is an owner & Vice President of Sansone-AC. Nicolas Sansone who is related to Robert Sansone.

I think it's likely this kid's father, mother, uncle, etc. is an engineer and/or entrepreneur/business person (or engineer/scientist of sorts) and mentored him.

https://www.spokeo.com/Joseph-Sansone/Florida/Fort-Pierce--P...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-sansone-25111132/

https://www.sansone-ac.com/about/meet-the-team/

That said, Robert's Sansone's accomplishment here is really awesome.

My dad was an alcoholic doctor and all I turned out to be is a software engineer (I say this with sarcasm and jokingly :P). All kidding aside though: I think having parents who offer good guidance does make a difference.

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

#232

Post by tzs »

PaulHoule wrote: post #127
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)

What a ridiculous article. It says:

> Last year my son, who was in third grade at the time, came home with a sheet of paper from his school that listed three categories for appropriate projects: developing a hypothesis and conducting an experiment to test that theory, inventing something new, or researching "something specific." The guidelines listed "whales" as an example of something specific. Given that my son was 8 years old, the idea that he could, on his own, do any single one of these things seemed ludicrous.

> Even the easiest of these items—researching a topic—is nearly impossible for a child who hasn’t yet mastered the ability to browse the Internet. (As a parent and the founder of a tech company, I’ve observed that in order to browse the Internet one needs to know how to scan the screen, differentiate between actual content and ads, and evaluate the trustworthiness of a resource—elements that are far out of reach of most 8-year-olds.)

Has that parent never heard of books and libraries? If their school has a library it should have books appropriate for a child with enough information for an 8 year old to research some topic like whales. If the school is one of the ones that has ditched their library, a good public library should do.

Even if they have to resort to using the internet, the parent should be able to easily point the child at some sites that are trustworthy and ad free, such as PBS Kids. If the parent does that, and keeps an eye on the kid while the kid is searching to make sure they stay on kid friendly sites, that's not going to count as the parent doing the work for the kid and should be acceptable.

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

#233

Post by skunkworker »

perf1 wrote: post #14

Why are there no improvements in traditional petrol engines? They basically convert 60% into heat. Like use the heat to run a steam engine?

There is, especially in Racing. In Formula 1 some engines have reached 52% thermal efficiency [1], but the amount of hardware required in order to capture the excess heat (see MGU-H)[2], makes this costly and difficult to improve upon, and currently with the new F1 engine regulations they are dropping some complex systems so the barrier to entry is less expensive.

[1] https://www.racefans.net/2021/11/11/how-f1-can-push-the-worl...

[2] https://www.quora.com/What-are-MGU-H-and-MGU-K-in-an-F1-car-...

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

#234

Post by LilBytes »

johnohara wrote: post #35
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.

My experience teaching high school kids was just the opposite. Quite a few will stay with a problem long after most so-called "prudent" adults have moved on. As adults, we forget that 17 year olds are still living their lives in a world of what they don't know, not in what they know. And once they do know they can be very insistent about being right. Because, it's all they know. It's also how a team of 16-17 yr olds…

"My experience teaching high school kids was just the opposite. Quite a few will stay with a problem long after most so-called "prudent" adults have moved on."

Honestly I've made a career of this but I never got close to building a novel engine as a kid, I was too busy wanting to play C+C or breaking through my parents tea collection, trying to smoke them and calculating if there was a high or how much it caused me to cough.

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

#235

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 »

conductr wrote: post #224
ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember when I was in high-school agonizing for over a year over the 100$ fee to publish an app on google play. Ultimately it's hard to ignore the pattern when you see the stories about these precocious kids on the news, they always come from wealth.

Even I retrospect I think of this 2 ways 1. Could I have made that $100 if I did it specifically for the purpose of publishing the app? (For me, the answer is always yes at that amount. I could have easily washed some cars, mowed some grass, etc. I had so much free time) 2. When it comes to business, tech, particularly the early internet boom, probably some other domains; I’m just thankful to be in the minority of th…

It's not about making the money, it's about what you spend it on. If 100$ is a significant amount you're not going to spend it on a frivolous purchase, you'll spend it on the absolute necessities. And if you do want to make a purchase purely because it makes you happy, you're going to agonize over it and feel guilty for a long while.

I went on to make 20,000 euros doing freelance over the next five years while in college but it all went to my student loans, rent and other necessary costs while I was starting my career, not anything I actually wanted to buy for myself.

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

#237

Post by melony »

sebastianconcpt wrote: post #198
ekianjo wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> resentment towards him is helping you or anyone? Where do you see resentment? It's like saying "anyone could have been Bill Gates" except that Bill Gates had access to lab computers much earlier than any other kid of his generation (and his family was well off, too). A touch with reality is always helpful in an ocean of optimism.

In your judgment about what he and his family needs are, your pre-supposed hypothesis about their condition and about the usage of his tuition and the resources of his prize which are not your prerogative. That comment which is subtly derogatory and distractive to the merit in question is your search or highlight of what exactly?

Yeah I bet you are real fun at parties. You are the type who will go around defending billionaires because they spent their money building tech you like. You are not a temporarily embarrassed billionaire and success isn't purely the result of individual agency.

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

#238

Post by fragmede »

philosopher1234 wrote: post #212
nkzd wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How important is it to have accomplishments?

That are important to yourself, or to others?

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

#239

Post by DakotaR »

Reason077 wrote: post #60

> "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 co…

I really like the EESM motors cars like the Renault Zoe use. It's basically a permanent magnet motor, but the rotor uses electromagnets that are energized through wireless power transfer.

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

#240

Post by ianai »

moffkalast wrote: post #142
mortenjorck wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is the right angle to take. Unlike a lot of breathless "engineering breakthrough" stories, this piece, as well as young Mr. Sansone himself, readily acknowledge that this is a work in progress and may not pan out. Even if it doesn't, what an incredible achievement for a high-schooler – and just imagine the great contributions to the field this kid is poised to make in the coming decades.

> and just imagine the great contributions to the field this kid is poised to make in the coming decades Well let's curb the expectations for now, it can be quite damaging for a kid be held forever to an potentially unrealistic standard just because they did something great once. I mean sure for the occasional genius it turns out fine because they live up to it, but for the rest it's a self hate and imposter syndrome…

No expectations, just recognition of potential and effort.
Post reply on HN