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TIME has included
Scottish pupil Rebecca Young in its inaugural global list of the
magazine's 'Girls of the Year.' Rebecca, aged eleven, designed a
solar-powered backpack blanket for homeless people.
Her novel invention beat
over 70,000 entrants in the UK Primary Engineer competition and Thales,
as sponsor, has since produced a working model currently being trialled
by a homeless shelter in Glasgow.
Colin McInnes, founder of Homeless Project Scotland, reports Rebecca's
initiative is already a success. 'When somebody is having to sleep rough
because the shelter is full we can offer that comfort to a homeless
person of having a warm blanket to wrap around them during the night.'
Now 13, the Kelvinside Academy schoolgirl was asked during an
extracurricular club get together to come up with an idea focused on
helping people. The outcome followed her research into different types
of solar panels, wiring and batteries to draw up a detailed blueprint.
Manufacturing plans
Rebecca's novel engineering project caught the eye of TIME, reporting an
initial 30 of the blankets have been distributed with plans to produce a
further 120. Of course, the homelessness problem won't be solved with
blankets alone: 'But her experience was a first taste of engineering in
practice,' the magazine comments.
Rebecca: 'It helped me see a different aspect of engineering and how it
could actually help people. That definitely helped inspire me.' The BBC
notes how says she was 'both shocked and honoured' by the recognition,
adding how she has also been turned into a Lego mini-figure by one
awards partner, a Danish toy manufacturer.
Rebecca explains that on seeing all the homeless people it made her want
to help: 'It's a problem that should be fixed. During the day the heat
from the sun can energise the solar panels and they go into a battery
pack that can store the heat.
'When it's cold at night people can use the energy stored in the battery
pack to sleep on. In Glasgow it can be freezing at night and they will
have no power, so I thought the solar panel could heat it.
STEM Booster
Rebecca has advice for any other girls wanting to become involved in
STEM subject, acronym for science, technology, engineering and maths:
'If you have an idea like I did, then join clubs and talk to people
about it, it helps.'
Reflecting on the TIME Magazine recognition, she told the BBC: 'All my
friends think it's awesome.' Kelvinside Academy Rector Daniel Wyatt
describes Rebecca as a 'shining example of a caring young person' and a
role model for anyone who wants to follow their own path in lif |
