(Just kidding, but seriously, it wasn't necessarily just that his problem was under-researched, and it was a competition by Intel, maybe everything had a computational modeling component as a requirement for entry. You're not impressed because you know how to use the software to do what he did, but the innovative step was thinking to use the software to do what he did. Certain strains of flu can be a huge killer, HIV moreso, but neither person cured either disease--you would need a lot more epidemiological details to know which one deserved the prize by your utilitarian standard. This is one of the most petty things I've ever read here.)
Because the scope of research one can complete in a year is so limited (and has to be balanced with school), and the amount of experience everyone has is small, the scope of the work can't really compete with academia.
Source: participated
How does this compare to real scientists/engineers success rate ?
Just out of curiosity - and of course i know it's not the goal here - but education/inspiration is .
You had to piss on the kid's effort and interest in solving a problem. I have to tell you, as a mentor to a great FIRST Robotics team, this is precisely the kind of attitude that can utterly destroy a kid.
Unbelievable.
Now I am a simple programmer but what I would do is create system with 2 circles - outlets that suck air above each passenger and only one pump that pumps air into the cabin. Will either irradiate the air in transit.
Of course you could have provided arguments to show why my criticism of his invention were not valid ... and actually have discussion. But whatever ...
I did not piss on his effort; I actually thought it was worthwhile and impressive for a high-school student. MY point was that on a first look, regarding domain knowledge, there seemed to be more interesting competitors that were more deserving on the prize.
But who am I to judge, anyway?
As an analogy closer to developers, would you be impressed if a 17 years old built a simplistic CRUD phone number agenda app? I'm sure some of you here were accomplishing much greater things by that age. It does not impress you because you know the complexity is not very high, even though the kid is 17 years old.
So while I think we should always encourage science and research at younger ages, I keep my opinion that this is not as impressive as some might believe.
ps.: as per your comment, well, no one can solve all the problems in the world. They lack time to absorb knowledge to understand everything that is out there, and that's why we have specialized education. These people you are mentioning (and me, since you directed it to me) have other problems to solve.
EDIT: I'm just asking an honest question here.
I'm guessing this is standard practice in hospitals, so an old idea applied to a new container, which is the norm with ideas.
What relevance does it have that someone else without domain expertise or post-graduate education is capable of solving this?
I'm not an expert in this field, nor do I think this is "black magic", but it does seem like this kid applied a good amount of ingenuity in attacking this problem.
http://3.design-milk.com/images/2010/11/modern-art-craig-dam...
Just because you understand something semi-esoteric doesn't mean someone else's understanding of it is worth less.
"F*ck you, you didn't."
I mean, what he did is he used a commercial CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software, created a model of the cabin and iterated through different air outlet geometries until he found one that improved the situation. It's a brute-force approach, which could be done even by someone without Masters/PhD level CFD knowledge (we have 1st year undergrad students working on that kind of thing in the university...).
It's cool that he used that for a problem that apparently is not getting the deserved attention, and he is 17 (!) but, at least in my opinion, other inventions competing for the price look much more impacting/life-changing. For instance:
> Two runners-up each received $50,000. They included Wang’s fellow Canadian, Nicole Ticea, 16, who developed an inexpensive, disposable and electricity-free HIV-testing device for use in low-income communities.