TNJSF JEI Award Winner: Michael Xu

Michael Xu is a rising junior at Delbarton High School and an active aviation enthusiast. With his engineering experience from robotics, Michael set out to design an airplane that could address engineering challenges faced by major aerospace corporations. Specifically, Michael aimed to address the limitation of flight endurance caused by existing battery densities and proposed using solar power to fuel airplanes instead. During the course of his study, his work quickly grew into focusing on the use of solar powered unmanned aerial vehicles to position radio antennas with the potential future use in addressing the growing digital divide.

When describing his research experience, Michael shared that he learned about the patience and perseverance required to undertake a research project. Michael told us his project took over nine months to complete and his airplane had several iterations.However, his patience and willingness to learn from each model eventually led to the development of an airplane with possible implications for future internet and surveillance applications. Michael also expressed that his experiences at TNJSF provided him with invaluable communication skills and has inspired him to continue to improve these to better help others through his future research goals and ambitions.

Congratulations to Michael and his success at TNJSF! We can’t wait to see what he does next!

The material on this page was prepared by Hannah Thompson, JEI Managing Editor and Claire Otero, JEI co-Editor in Chief. Michael Xu provided the photo and answers to standard questions which were lightly edited for clarity.