Ollie Zhao’s attention to detail has caught the attention of some of Canada’s brightest minds.
The 15-year-old David Thompson secondary student nabbed a gold medal at the largest and most prestigious science fair for Canadian youth last week in Regina.
Dubbed Amp Tree, Zhao’s project harnesses electricity from trees in order to power remote-controlled devices — sensors or transmitters — with little to no need for human intervention. The same system can power a small watch, radio, GPS or calculator.
Zhao was among a 65-person Team B.C./Yukon contingent at the Canada-Wide Science Fair, where more than 500 competitors from across Canada convened alongside judges from university faculties and other fields of academia and business.
His win netted Zhao a $4,000 scholarship to attend Western University. From the Youth Science Canada group Zhao received a Challenge Award and $250 to go along with his gold medal. He was one of five team members from B.C./Yukon to win gold.
Fellow David Thompson student Jonathan Cao also found himself in the championship circle, as he left the competition with a silver medal for his project, reduce, reuse, reCompass. The Grade 9 student’s project uses a conveyer belt-like device made from Lego that aims to make single-use Compass Cards completely biodegradable via a thermodynamic system that separates the electronic chips and copper wiring embedded within the cards.
Cao received a $2,000 scholarship to Western University for his contraption.
@JohnKurucz
