Magis Loyola wins Honorable Mention in NOVUS Case Competition’s STEM category

Magis Loyola, a team composed of four Ateneo de Manila Senior High School students, won the Honorable Mention award in the NOVUS Case Competition’s STEM category. Rency Tiongson (11-Tsuji), Darlene Amante (11-Tsuji), Third Cruz (11-Tsuji) and Van Alcantara (12-Miki) of Magis Loyola received the Honorable Mention/2nd Runner-Up award for their research proposal, “‘Recycling’ Pedestrian Footsteps as Green Energy: Powering Railway Systems Through Hybrid Composition of Fuel-Cells and Batteries,” on February 18, 2023, in De La Salle University’s Bonifacio Global City (BGC) Campus in Taguig. Tiongson estimates that 30 teams from more than 20 schools submitted proposals to the NOVUS Case Competition.

The executive summary of Magis Loyola’s paper is as follows: “Electricity can be generated through the kinetic energy from the footsteps of pedestrians. This is done through the use of piezoelectric tiles wherein reverse electrowetting shall be applied. This concept is based on the Nano Power Shoes technology formed by researchers from Wisconsin Madison University. It states that through viscous liquid with tiny metal droplets, once pressure is applied, electricity can be produced. The process is as follows: a pressure plate in this setup will be the quartz substrate, the electric generator will be the flowing of the metal droplets once pressure is applied, and the electric rectifiers as the electrodes that transfers the generated electricity into the batteries. The generated electricity is then transferred to a lithium ion battery underneath the electrode plates. Through the implementation of fuel-cell hybrid trains, the batteries will power up the trains, allowing rail transport in the Philippines to be independent from diesel.”

Making the Ateneans’ podium finish even more impressive is the fact that the ASHS students joined the competition without the supervision of a teacher. Rency Tiongson, Vice President of the ASHS Math Organization and the eventual primary investigator of Magis Loyola, heard about NOVUS from the district head of the ASHS’ STEM orgs, who encouraged them to join. When Alcantara, Amante and Cruz agreed to join the team after they were approached by Tiongson, Magis Loyola had three months to write the paper. Due to their many school commitments, however, the students were only able to finalize their topic one month before the deadline, submitting their proposal a week before it was due.  

NOVUS is a case contest for high school students to propose innovations for the future through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and the Spoken Word, one which also provides participants an opportunity to tackle real and relevant problems, learn from experts in the field, and connect with like-minded peers.