Ontario Science Centre Announces Winner of the 2009 Weston Youth Innovation Award

Calgary student Eden Full picks up $2,000 national prize

TORONTO - Since the age of nine, Eden Full has been tinkering with solar panels, looking for ways to make them more efficient and easy to use. She is particularly interested in helping people living in developing countries. Eden's latest invention, Dynamic Photovoltaics, has landed her the Ontario Science Centre's inaugural Weston Youth Innovation Award.

Students from across Canada aged 14 to 18 were asked to profile how they have shown initiative and leadership to be agents of change in addressing a current issue they are passionate about. Entries were judged on the degree to which they demonstrate the key characteristics of innovation: inspiration, creativity, collaboration, risk-taking and real-world problem-solving.

"The Weston Youth Innovation Award has a mandate to stimulate innovative thinking in the leaders of tomorrow. The W. Garfield Weston Foundation is pleased to support the passion for innovation and scientific pursuit exemplified in student Eden Full's work," said Geordie Dalglish, Chairman, The W. Garfield Weston Foundation. "We were struck by her desire to make a difference in the world today."

"We were very impressed with Eden Full's originality. Her solar panel tracking apparatus - made from simple materials - showed real insight and a depth of thinking that promises great work in the future," said Dr. Hooley McLaughlin, Director of Visitor Experience, Ontario Science Centre. "We were also pleased to see that Ms. Full used her invention as a stimulus for an environmental awareness campaign targeted at students. We hope her work will result in other young people choosing careers in science and technology."

The finalists for the 2009 Weston Youth Innovation Award included:

- Albert Hu, founder of the Northern Secondary Robotic Innovation Team (Toronto, ON)

- Courtney Marshall, Adam Mitchell and Jake Mitchell (Napanee, ON), with the Solar Stirling Engine Project

- Meredith Drieseberg, Azra Shirji and Meagan McKeen (Oakville, ON) with iCCOMMIT, a youth movement to fight climate change.

Winning Project

Student Eden Full's winning project, Dynamic Photovoltaics, is a passive solar tracker that moves panels towards the sun using inexpensive, environmentally-safe materials that are commonly found in developing countries and elsewhere. The device maximizes the efficiency of solar panels by having them track the sun during the course of the day, and can be easily maintained and repaired with simple instructions. Her use of bi-metallic strips to facilitate movement is particularly innovative.

"I am very honoured to be a recipient of the Weston Youth Innovation Award, it will greatly benefit the fruition of the Dynamic Photovoltaics project as I pursue the patenting and implementation of my photovoltaics system in developing countries," said Eden, a grade 12 student from John G. Diefenbaker High School in Calgary. "I can only hope that one day I can use my passion to contribute to benefiting others' lives, and encourage other like-minded youth to do so as well."

The seventeen-year-old will be awarded the $2,000 prize at an upcoming event at the Ontario Science Centre. In addition, she will work with an Ontario Science Centre multimedia team to create a short animation showcasing her project to be displayed in the Weston Family Innovation Centre. Details of her project and the award will be posted at www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/innovationaward/.

The Weston Youth Innovation Award was established to encourage and recognize young Canadian innovators and was named in recognition of The W. Garfield Weston Foundation's $15 million lead gift to the Ontario Science Centre's Agents of Change initiative, and to honour the Foundation's support and commitment to education.