This Teen's Invention Means You Could Charge Your Cellphone in Less Than 30 Seconds

With an increasing dependence and demand for always-on devices running apps and streaming content, having to plug in and juice up can be a hassle. But a device developed by a California teen could at least alleviate the wait time to less than a minute.

Eesha Khare, 18, of Saratoga was honored with Intel Foundation's Young Scientist Award for her work in chemistry that created a tiny device that fits inside a cellphone battery and charges it completely in just 20 to 30 seconds.

Eesha Khare holding her device in the clear plastic dish. (Photo: Intel)

Khare told KPIX 5 she couldn't believe she received the honor.

“I’m in a daze," she said.

Khare's device was a runner-up in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair to the first-place winner who created a model for a low-cost, self-driving car. More than 1,600 participants from more than 70 countries entered in the fair. Khare received a $50,000 scholarship for her accomplishment.

To KPIX 5, Khare described her device as a "supercapacitor, which is basically an energy storage device which can hold a lot of energy in a small amount of volume." Her own cellphone battery dying at inconvenient times is what spurred the project, Khare told NBC News.

Watch Khare accept her award and talk about the accomplishment in this video:

In addition to small devices like cellphones, Intel's press release stated that Khare's device could someday be formatted to work on car batteries as well.

Khare will be attending Harvard University in the fall and plans to be "setting the world on fire" someday.

(H/T: Daily Mail)

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