Don't get hung up on "14 year old". Pay attention to "took up origami 6 years ago". That's 6 years of passionate learning, experimenting and improvement.
uoaei 5 minutes ago [-]
Also don't get hung up on "folded". He hasn't innovated a design (it was invented by a Japanese astrophysicist, Miura-Ori), merely measured sustainable load across different designs.
MagicMoonlight 7 minutes ago [-]
So what is the ideal pattern and how can you build a shelter with it?
I think it would be fun to build a playhouse out of it.
pants2 33 minutes ago [-]
Fun when these things hold a surprising amount of weight. Reminds me when these two engineers on Lego Masters made a bridge:
Could concept be applied to submarine vehicles to exponential increase their resistance to pressure at depth?
codeddesign 17 minutes ago [-]
This is weight distribution on a flat plain. Think of Roman Arches.
On a curved plain, weight distribution of THIS origami falls apart as pressure is added horizontally (not just vertically).
amelius 1 hours ago [-]
Where can we read about the other submissions?
nuclearnicer 45 minutes ago [-]
It looks like the top 10% from 6th to 8th grade Society of Science fairs are invited to participate. They are then selected down to a top 300[1] and a top 30.[2] You can find a project name for the top 300 and a paragraph on each of the top 30.
I think it would be fun to build a playhouse out of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9WT6TB15yE
14yo won $25k for origami that holds 10k times its weight - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46106871 - Dec 2025 (9 comments)
[1] https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-top-300-junior-in... [2] https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-finalists/
https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-project-showcase/