Teen Innovator Wins Top STEM Prize for Origami-Based Emergency Shelter Design
Miles Wu, a 14-year-old student from New York City, received the $25,000 first prize at the 2025 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge for his research on using origami patterns to create emergency shelters. Wu spent over 250 hours testing variations of the Miura-ori fold, a tessellating parallelogram pattern invented by Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura, discovering that certain configurations could support over 10,000 times their own weight. His project was inspired by the need for shelters that combine sturdiness, ease of deployment, and cost-efficiency during natural disasters. The competition, organized by the Society for Science, recognizes promising middle school STEM projects. Judges praised Wu's transformation of a personal origami hobby into rigorous engineering research with potential real-world applications.
Key facts
- Miles Wu won the $25,000 top prize at the 2025 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge
- Wu tested Miura-ori origami patterns that could hold over 10,000 times their own weight
- The project aimed to develop emergency shelters for natural disasters that are sturdy, easy to deploy, and cost-efficient
- Wu conducted 108 trials with 54 different pattern variants using three paper types
- The competition is organized by the Society for Science and features team STEM challenges in Washington, D.C.
Entities
Artists
- Miles Wu
- Koryo Miura
Institutions
- Hunter College High School
- Society for Science
- Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge
- Princeton University
Locations
- New York City
- Washington, D.C.
- Japan