Ninth-graders from Jenks win their division in an Army competition for science, technology, engineering and math.
"We created a mechanism that would go into a revolving door and harness the kinetic energy of people walking through the revolving door to power an LED light or power a building or any light source," said team member Riya Kaul.
It was team Power Up’s fourth year competing in the Army's eCYBERMISSION contest, third year in the national competition and first time winning. Power Up entered their fourth prototype into the competition. Their first prototype took inspiration from a stationary bike that uses a battery and inverter to generate electricity.
"From then on, we made refinements from each model," Kaul said. "Like we replaced the 12-volt battery with a 5.5-volt supercapacitor."
The team is working with Fab Lab Tulsa to refine and test the concept.
"If we try it and it really works properly, then we will work toward actually putting it in a real door and then go from there," Kaul said.
Each team member won a $5,000 savings bond. They each won a total of $9,000 in savings bonds for winning at the state and regional levels, too.
