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Energy-Generating Shoe Insole Concept Wins at International Competition
Monday, February 16, 2015Company Profile | Follow Company
SFU student's innovative concept transforms energy we create by walking
SFU design and business student Taylor Ward's “Step”, an energy-generating shoe insole concept, took first place at the 2015 IxDA Student Design Challenge.
Vancouver, BC, February 16, 2015--(T-Net)--Taylor Ward's innovative concept is off to a winning pace. The Simon Fraser University design and business student's “Step” took first place at this week's 2015 IxDA Student Design Challenge, held at the Interaction15 Conference in San Francisco.
The concept is a wearable insole that can transform kinetic energy from every step we take into potential energy and electricity that can be redistributed to power our cities.
Each insole would contain piezoelectric nanogenerators and compactors, where each step would be able to produce a potential. It would be stored in the insoles until it can be put into the city's power grid at transfer stations through wireless inductive charging.
“There are really no words to describe what it feels like to win this award,” says Ward, a 22-year-old North Delta resident. “It's still pretty surreal. For me, the real award was just being able to compete and learn from the other six talented students.
“To be in that culture where you want your competitors to win because you have too much respect for them is an unreal feeling. Any of us could have won, I just happened to pull ahead in the end.”
Introducting Step: 2015 IXDA Student Design Challenge Submission from Taylor Ward on Vimeo.
Ward will showcase his concept at the SFU Surrey campus Global Community Open House on March 4.
Along with finalists from the United States, Sweden and Italy, he had the opportunity to work with industry professionals at the Interaction15 Conference to sharpen and further develop the concept before pitching it to a panel of judges and over 900 attendees.
Ward's prize is valued at over $3,000 in research and design tools and access to conferences around the world.
This year's theme was “envisioning the wearable city” and it challenged students to develop concepts that connected to and improved their city and life within them.
Ward says the inspiration for his concept came from the City of Vancouver's goal of becoming the greenest city in the world. It challenged him to think of ways how we could harness the 150 million steps we take in our lifetime.
“In Canada, our domestic consumption of electricity in 2013 was nearly 560 trillion watts of power expended in a single hour,” he explains. “That is the sixth highest in the world. This is reflected by our city, as our residents have an ecological footprint three times larger than the Earth can sustain.”
About SFU
As Canada's engaged university, SFU is defined by its dynamic integration of innovative education, cutting-edge research and far-reaching community engagement. SFU was founded almost 50 years ago with a mission to be a different kind of university—to bring an interdisciplinary approach to learning, embrace bold initiatives, and engage with communities near and far. Today, SFU is a leader amongst Canada's comprehensive research universities and is ranked one of the top universities in the world under 50 years of age. With campuses in British Columbia's three largest cities—Vancouver, Surrey and Burnaby—SFU has eight faculties, delivers almost 150 programs to over 30,000 students, and boasts more than 130,000 alumni in 130 countries around the world.
Contact:
Taylor Ward (North Delta resident); tward@sfu.ca
Allen Tung, University Communications 778.782.3210; allent@sfu.ca
Photo and Video Credit: SFU University Communications
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