Plenty of kids wile away the hours tossing hand-folded paper airplanes. But it takes a young innovator to ponder, “How can I do this better?”
In his study, “Flight Properties of a Paper Glider,” middle-school student Miro Brunou, age 14, from Savonlinna, Finland, studied the flying times of different kinds of paper airplanes.
His experiments were designed to determine which style of wings provided the best aerodynamics and lifting power and gave the glider the longest flight distance. His conclusion: The best glider has a large wing surface that is short in relation to paper’s natural size.
Miro presented his findings at the Finnish National Science and Engineering Fair, where judges selected him to represent Finland at the 2014 Broadcom MASTERS International program. On hand to present the award to Miro was Broadcom Senior Director, Systems Design Engineering Kari Pehkonen, from the Mobile & Wireless Group.
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Miro, whose other interests include bowling, firefighting and flying, demonstrated a passion for research, overcame common obstacles and presented his findings to the public in a clear, relatable way, prompting the judges to choose him for their final candidate.
Stay tuned for more photos and blogs on the 2014 MASTERS International program and updates on all the action , follow Broadcom Foundation’s @BroadcomSTEM handle on Twitter.