Society Fellow Sydney Bergman鈥檚 Student is coming to Intel ISEF

By Caitlin Jennings, Communications Specialist, 中文无码 & the Public

Matthew True Haynes had an idea about how to generate electricity through a gentle wave motion, not just violent waves. 鈥淚 wanted to design [and] build a scaled model of a prototype of a generator that could be used to create electricity from motion waves.鈥�

With the help of聽厂辞肠颈别迟测听贵别濒濒辞飞聽Sydney Bergman and his mentor Robert Badhe, True built his project and competed in the聽, which Intel also sponsors. 鈥淚t uses the up and down motion of the waves and it captures that with a buoy.鈥� True says that by linking the buoy to the generator, it turns that energy into electricity, both when the waves rise, and as they fall.

Sydney says that, without the Society Fellowship, which provides resources with generous funding from Intel, the school would not have been able to help True purchase the materials for his project. 鈥淗e ended up needing a lot of stuff鈥�over the course of months, so I really appreciated the Society’s flexibility with that,鈥� she says. True made several trips to Home Depot to get new supplies throughout the year, and wasn鈥檛 necessarily sure at the start of his project what specific supplies he would need, Sydney says, 鈥淏ecause he was essentially creating something that hadn鈥檛 been made before, there was a lot tweaking and adjusting as things go.鈥�

Sydney鈥檚 other students also took home first and second place awards, along with several special awards. True also won a number of special awards and was surprised when he won the grand award. 鈥淚 really did not think I was going to win,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t was one of the craziest experiences of my life.鈥澛� After the Fair ended and he had some time to process what winning meant and what it will be like going to Intel ISEF in Los Angeles, he has only gotten more excited, he says,聽鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be amazing.鈥�