> Florida-based inventor estimates he’s completed at least 60 engineering projects in his spare time. And he’s only 17 years old. Give me a fucking break. Yes, some kids are bright and can do lots of *hobby* projects. But to think that they would be aware of all the practical problems and requirements and, likely with few tools, somehow best the industry's best designs from decades of development, is beyond retarded. > Synchronous reluctance motors don’t use magnets. Instead, a steel rotor with air gaps cut into it aligns itself with the rotating magnetic field. Reluctance, or the magnetism of a material, is key to this process. As the rotor spins along with the rotating magnetic field, torque is produced. More torque is produced when the saliency ratio, or difference in magnetism between materials (in this case, the steel and the non-magnetic air gaps), is greater. > > Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor. This would increase this saliency ratio and, in turn, produce more torque. Because those in industry would have *never* thought of doing this. I'm not faulting the kid at all. He should pursue these with a touch of fantasy that he's solving problems in novel ways. But the adults around him shouldn't indulge in this fantasy. It's not good for laypeople and it's not good for the kid. He needs to come hard against reality and find that his stuff has already been done and that's he's likely not breaking any records for efficiency etc. > “He's definitely looking at things the right way,” Hofmann (a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Michigan) says of Sansone. “There's the potential that it could be the next big thing.” Though, he adds that many professors work on research their whole lives, and it’s “fairly rare that they end up taking over the world.” This is how you approach it. This guy is realistic.