Aaron Goldin, a 17-year-old high-school student from San Diego County, California, has won the individual category of the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Mathematics, Science, and Technology. Goldin invented a device that generates electricity from ocean waves. “I was playing with a gyroscope when I felt the familiar torque on my wrist … and eventually I realized I could build a wave-powered generator from it,” he says. A prototype, built in his garage, is about 20% efficient in energy conversion, roughly half that of a power station. Goldin hopes that with further refinements, the energy efficiency could be more than doubled.

The main advantage of Goldin’s invention over other deep-sea wave-powered generators is that it directly converts the periodic torque of the ocean against the floating device into electrical energy. Other generators require a secondary step. All the moving parts are encased inside a protective shell away from saltwater, which in...

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