When most 14-year-old kids are still folding paper airplanes, Miles Wu, a Chinese-American teenager from New York City, is researching how to use origami technology to improve disaster relief equipment. His innovative research has won him a $25,000 prize and recognition from experts.
According to a report from Business Insider on Friday, Miles Wu won the top prize in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge in October this year with a folding paper research project based on the Miura-ori, a folding technique known for its precise folding and convenient unfolding.
In an interview with the media, Miles said, “I have been a fan of origami for over six years, mainly folding animals or insects. Recently, I have also started designing my own origami pieces.”
Miles drew inspiration for his research from concerns about natural disasters, including the wildfires in Southern California in January and the Hurricane Helene disaster that hit the southeastern United States in 2024. He found a persistent issue in the structure of some emergency rescue equipment.
Explaining further, Miles said, “For example, tents; some are sturdy, some can fold very small, some are easy to unfold, but there are hardly any tents that have all three qualities. The Miura-ori folding could potentially solve this problem. I found it to be really sturdy, light, and can be folded very compactly.”
To determine the best combination, Miles designed a rigorous experimental plan. He tested three different widths of parallelograms, three different folding angles, two different heights, and three types of paper. This meant manually folding 54 variations and conducting 108 experiments.
“For accuracy, I used a cutting machine for folding. Then, I placed them between guardrails to maintain consistent experimental conditions throughout the process. Gradually placing more and more weights on top until they collapsed,” Miles explained.
To Miles’ surprise, these origami structures were much sturdier than expected. He exhausted all the books in his house as weights for experiments and eventually had to ask his parents to purchase heavy weights used for sports to continue his experiments.
“I tested the strongest Miura-ori folding solution, which can withstand over 10,000 times its own weight. I calculated this to be equivalent to a New York City taxi carrying the weight of over four thousand elephants,” Wu said.
Winning the top prize in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge is no easy feat. High school students must first compete in local science or engineering fairs and have their projects nominated by judges in the top 10%.
Out of approximately 2,000 applicants, judges selected 300, which was further narrowed down to 30 finalists. These 30 students then went to Washington D.C. to showcase their work and participate in various challenges.
Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the Society for Science, praised Miles for not only his outstanding project but also his exceptional leadership skills.
Ajmera said, “We not only look at their projects but how they handle problems, creatively solve them, deal with setbacks, and how they engage everyone in a collaborative manner. Miles not only has an extraordinary project but also excelled as a leader in these challenges.”
Emphasizing the importance of introducing STEM education to young people for America to maintain its global innovation leadership and solve world problems, Ajmera stated, “We have a responsibility to truly nurture curiosity.”
STEM education combines the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in an interdisciplinary educational approach.
Miles and his parents have decided to use the $25,000 prize for his future higher education. Although it has been less than a month since winning the award, he is already planning how to translate his research findings into practical applications.
“What I really want to do is create prototype equipment using Miura-ori folding technology, like creating a real emergency shelter. This way, it can be used in real life and truly help people. But overall, I am eager to continue with origami-related research, not only limited to Miura-ori but also exploring the applications of origami as a whole in other fields,” Miles said.