William Yuan is a twelve year old boy from Beaverton, Oregon. Despite his youth, Yuan has developed a 3D Solar Cell that has the potential to revolutionize solar power. His project, named “A Highly-Efficient 3-Dimensional Nanotube Solar Cell for Visible and UV Light” was recently granted a $25,000 scholarship, the Davidson Fellow award, for use on future research.
At the heart of Yuan’s project is a special solar cell that can harness both visible and ultraviolet light. Most solar cells in use today are either photovoltaic, meaning they harness only visible light, or thermal. While visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light are all heavily scattered or absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere, ultraviolet light comes in at shorter wavelengths and with higher energy than both visible and infrared light. Ultraviolet light can provide more energy to a collector than other, longer-wavelength members of the electromagnetic spectrum. Yuan’s solar cells are not just innovative for their collection of UV light, but also because they’re engineered to stand freely in three dimensions (which allows them to collect more light) and make use of carbon nanotubes, which allow the cell to distribute the energy it collects without dissipating as much as traditional cells do.
William’s solar cell utilized carbon nanotubes which double the efficency of light-electricity conversion.
Some of William’s other endeavors include: FLL, Science Bowl, MESA (Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement), Signal to Noise, American Mathematics Competitions, Mathcounts, Chess, Geo-Bee, and the Discovery Education Young Scientist Challenge and Taekwando, a sport in which he holds a blackbelt
Honors/Awards
• 2008 Davidson Fellow
• 2008 Northwest Science Expo, Second Place
• 2008 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Best Engineering Project
• 2008 Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Talent Search, First Place in Oregon State (Verbal)
• 2008 Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Talent Search, First Place in Oregon State (Quantitative)
• 2008 High Tech Kids First Lego League First Lego League (FLL) International Open (team), Second Place Champion’s Award
• 2008 Oregon Chess for Success State Tournament, Team Championship, First Place
• 2008 Oregon Chess for Success State Tournament, Second Place
• 2007 Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Talent Search, First Place in Oregon State
• 2007 Intel Oregon FLL Champion’s Award (team), First Place
• 2007 Oregon Chess for Success State Tournament, Team Championship, First Place
• 2007 Oregon Chess for Success State Tournament, Second Place
• 2007 World Taekwondo Headquarters: Poom Certificate
• 2006 Intel Oregon FLL State Tournament Young Team, First Place
• 2006 Oregon Chess for Success State Tournament, Team Championship, First Place
• 2005 Intel Oregon FLL Regional Tournament (team), First Place Award
• 2005 Oregon Chess for Success State Tournament (team), Second Place