Miles Wu, 14, from New York City, has been folding origami for over six years. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Society for Science
Heroes USATeen’s Origami Design Lifts 10,000 Times Its Weight!
A 14-year-old student from the United States has won a $25,000 prize for developing an origami structure so strong it can hold 10,000 times its own weight, inspiring new ideas for disaster relief shelters.
“Miura-ori folds are strong, light and compact — they could transform emergency housing,” said winner Miles Wu, who hopes to turn his design into deployable shelters for real-world crises.
Wu tested 54-fold variations and found that even ordinary copy paper, when folded precisely, achieved exceptional strength-to-weight ratios. His design, based on geometric patterns that collapse and expand with precision, could influence architecture, space engineering and medical devices, proving how creativity and curiosity can power meaningful innovation.
