Meet Ann Makosinski

Growing Up

Ann has always had an interest in creating things. From an early age, she says she used to take her hot glue gun and stick things together, “I’d take garbage and I’d glue them together and create inventions”.

At university, Ann studies English Literature as she believes it’s important to have a balance of science and art so you have some experience in both fields. She says this comes in handy particularly when creating new inventions.

Ann’s Invention

When coming up with her torch design, named the ‘Hollow Flashlight’, she realized that the warmth generated by the human body was overlooked as an energy source.

Her project objective was to create a flashlight that ran solely off the heat of the hand, this makes the torch useable in countries where access to electricity is harder to come by.

Ann realised that Peltier tiles have the ability to capture and convert body heat. These Peltier tiles produce electricity when one side of the tile is heated and the other side is 5 degrees cooler, this is known as the Peltier effect. Ann realized that if she used these tiles on the outside of the torch and left the inside hollow, this would create energy for her flashlight. The power created by the tiles was enough to power an LED light for over 20 minutes at a time, making it perfect for emergency situations.

Ann went on to win the aged 15-16 category of the 2013 Google Science Fair. More recently, she also invented a mug that charges your phone from the heat of the drink – we definitely need this cup in our lives!

Awards

Filipina-Polish Canadian Andini Makosinski is one of Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30, Times Magazine’s 30 Under 30, Glamour Magazine’s College Women of the Year, Entrepreneur Magazine’s Young Millionaires & Popular Science’s Young Inventor of the Year.

Check out Ann’s website here >>