WEBVTT

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Alright, so in 6th grade I began
my research for science fair

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with a relatively simple project.

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If I changed the design
of an SS model rocket in different ways,

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which design will fly the highest?

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Now, I had predicted that the rocket

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with no modifications
would go the highest,

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but in fact, this hypothesis
was wrong in one case.

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The rocket that I had added tape
to sticking out all over

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ended up flying the highest,

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even though I predicted
that the tape would add drag,

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therefore the rocket
would not fly as high.

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So I did some research as to why
this might've happened

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and I decided that maybe the tape
had acted as vortex generators.

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Now vortex generators sound
more complicated than they really are.

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They're just these little blades,
I guess you could call them,

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that are used on generally
smaller airplanes to reduce the drag

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and add lift at a slow speed
in order to reduce stall speed.

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A stall is when the wing of an airplane

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gets at a very high angle
to the air coming at it

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and the air comes over
and separates off the end of the wing,

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as you can see in the picture on the left.

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Now the wing can no longer create lift,

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but with vortex generators,

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the air comes over the wing
and adheres to the wing

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so the wing continues to create lift.

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7th grade was
the blood and bones of my project.

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I was privileged to work with a mentor
named Adrian Adamson that year.

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He worked on the Spirit
and Opportunity Mars rovers.

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He's obviously really smart,
as you can tell,

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and in his spare time, he made
these altimeters right here.

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They're for model rockets,

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and they measure altitude and speed
among other things.

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I remember the first time
he came over to my house

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to explain how to use his altimeters.

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We were sitting at my dining room table,

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and he was explaining how to use
the altimeter, and pointing to a computer,

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and explaining
all of these complex equations,

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and I just had no idea
what he was talking about.

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You know that feeling you get

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when you so much so don't know
what somebody is talking about

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where you can't even
ask questions about it?

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That's the feeling that I got.

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After he left, my mom
came up to me and said,

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"What did he tell you
about the altimeter?"

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and I said, "I pretty much nodded
and smiled my way through it,

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and I wrote down these random words
I heard here and there,

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but other than that, I didn't know
what he was talking about."

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But, undeterred
by his superior intelligence,

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I took the few ideas
that I had written down

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and did some research,

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and actually did some Q&A
back and forth with Adrian,

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and I came up with a plan
for my seventh grade science project.

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The plan was to do 24 launches

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to prove that vortex generators
reduce drag on model rockets.

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The plan didn't go exactly as intended.

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So I launched out at my cousin's ranch
in the winter in the snow,

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and it was cold.

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On top of all of that, it was windy,

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so that meant that the rockets pretty much
never landed within the ranch's property.

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So there was a lot of running and jumping
of fences and avoiding barbed wire.

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Look at that great hair-do I have there.

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(Laughter)

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That not only sacrificed my sanity,
but also my jeans.

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Also the rockets never lasted
maybe more than six launches

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without needing a repair.

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So, there I was, torn pants and all,
running after these rockets

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like a deranged dog
running after tennis balls,

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there's snow in my boots,

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and I'm trying to make these repairs
really quick and easy in my car,

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and it smells like sulphur and glue,

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and then I'm running all the way
back out into the middle of the field

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to enter in this data from my altimeter
into this computer with frozen hands.

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Unfortunately, instead of 24 times,
I had to repeat it 43 times.

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This is because about half way through,

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I realized that the data I was getting
was not accurate.

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So, I had to do 19 more launches
in order to make it accurate.

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That was not fun.

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Near the end, I was in tears
because my shock cord had broke,

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and the altimeter plummeted
to the ground for the thousandth time,

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and the wires had popped out
and it was cold, and I was hungry,

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and it was late.

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I just wanted to be done.

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But I kept testing
for the glory of discovery.

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In 8th grade, I was given
the fantastic opportunity

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to work in the wind tunnel at CU Denver

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with the assistance
of professor Joe Cullen.

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The really cool thing if you think
about it, of using a wind tunnel,

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is the Wright brothers
all the way back when they invented

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the first powered airplane
used wind tunnels to test their designs.

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Now NASA uses wind tunnels
to test their designs,

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and now I got to test
a wind tunnel to test my design.

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So when I first arrived at the wind tunnel
and met Professor Cullen

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was that same feeling when I met Adrian,

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and he was explaining all this equipment
and all this data I would be getting,

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and all of these words
that I did not understand,

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and all I was hearing was Charlie Brown's

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teacher going "wah, wah, wah, wah."

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But eventually, because Mr. Cullen was
very good at explaining these concepts,

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eventually, I figured out
the ways of the wind tunnel.

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The nice thing about using the wind tunnel
was that I was able to control variables

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such as wind
and the tilting of the rocket

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that I was not able to control the year
before when launching the rockets.

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So even though everything
was going great in the wind tunnel,

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there's always a point in an experiment

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where everything
just comes to a screeching halt.

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This happened for me when I realized
that the data this year

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was conflicting with the data
the year before.

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It was showing that the vortex generators
in the wind tunnel were adding drag

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at every position and every speed,
which I did not want,

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while the year before,

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the vortex generators
had consistently reduced drag

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at a low speed, so I had to find out
why are these results conflicting?

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Where had I gone wrong?

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At that moment, my future
flashed before my eyes,

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and I knew that
if I did not solve this problem

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I would be doomed to a life of failure

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and my dreams of becoming
an aerospace engineer were dashed.

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But, coming back to reality,
Professor Cullen came to my aid,

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and we went through
some extensive brainstorming

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about what might be the issue,

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and we came up with an idea
that maybe the very things

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that we were trying to control
with the wind tunnel,

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such as the wind
and the tilting of the rocket,

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were the things that allowed
the vortex generators

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to reduce the drag in the first place.

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So to simulate this idea,

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I mounted the rocket at an angle
in the wind tunnel.

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You can see that here.

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These tests proved very successful
because the vortex generators

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consistently reduced drag
when the rocket was at an angle.

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So now, I made this mechanism here.

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There's me in my incredibly messy shed.

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I made this mechanism
that extends the vortex generators

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when they reduce drag,
and they're in while they add drag.

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I have this radio controlled
airplane controller,

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and I flip this switch,
and it sends a signal to this servo.

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You can tell it's actually pretty simple.

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It sends a signal to this servo in here,
and that servo pushes down on this,

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which is pretty flimsy,
but it's a prototype,

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and it's got vortex generators on the end.

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It pushes down on this cone in here,

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and the vortex generators
push down and out on that cone

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and out of the rocket.

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After these three years of hard work
on these science fair projects,

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I was able to have
some pretty amazing opportunities.

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After a long application process,

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I was chosen among 29
other 7th, 8th, and 9th graders

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to participate in
this Broadcom MASTERS Competition.

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It was great because I met
and worked with kids

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that had the same interests as me
in the STEM category,

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which is science, technology,
engineering, and math.

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(Cheers)

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We met the President,
and he's really tall,

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and we got a minor planet named after us,

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which is pretty cool too.

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And now here I am doing a TEDx talk,

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and it all started
with the science fair and an idea.

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So now let's move ahead in time.

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How can what I've learnt
be applied in the future?

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NASA and other private companies
are breaking new ground

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in developing space flight technologies,

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not only for exploration,
but also for flight around the globe,

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commercial space flight.

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Vortex generators may be able
to be applied to these new rocket designs

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in order to reduce the drag
while the rocket is in the atmosphere.

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SpaceX is a company
in the aerospace industry,

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and they've developed this rocket
called the Grasshopper.

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What the Grasshopper can do,
which is very cool,

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is it launches from one spot, and then,
it can launch, maneuver, even hover,

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and the it comes back down
and can land in that same spot upright,

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unlike a space shuttle, which launches
and lands like an airplane.

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Colorado has been,
and will continue to be,

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a very important part
of the aerospace industry.

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We have CU, which has
a nationally-recognized aerospace program,

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Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance,

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and Sierra Nevada,
who is working on the Dream Chaser,

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which could possibly be
NASA's next space vehicle.

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One more cool thing about Colorado:

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we have Front Range Airport, which soon
may very well be Front Range Space Port

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for space flight transportation.

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Imagine yourself,
instead of climbing into an airplane

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for a trip from New York to London
that would take eight hours,

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climbing into a rocket
to blast into low earth orbit

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at 17,500 miles per hour for a trip
of an hour and a half instead.

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Or even imagine yourself being one of
the first people to step onto an asteroid,

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or even Mars.

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As a kid, you're at the perfect age
to accomplish this goal

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of being an astronaut.

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But there are these barriers,
unfortunately, that will have to be passed

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in order for all of this to be possible.

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One is expense, two is fuel
and propulsion, three is efficiency.

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Researchers and scientists
are all working on these issues,

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but young, fresh minds are really
necessary to come up with these ideas

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that nobody has come up with before.

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All it takes is to have just a little bit
of drive, passion, motivation,

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just interest in the things around you.

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Ask your counselor or teacher
about getting a mentor like I did,

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and new opportunities
will open themselves up to you.

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Just experiment
with the things around you also.

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There's so much more to explore
and be discovered.

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The Universe is immense, you can see here,

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and expanding.

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This is a real photo.

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Each of those lights is a galaxy

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and each galaxy
has hundreds of billions of stars.

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Each star has a Solar System,
and each Solar System has planets,

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and we are just one planet
in one Solar System.

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That just tells you
how vast the Universe is,

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and how much more
there is to be explored.

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So, exploration and discovery
should be a part of life.

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Make them a part of yours.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)