Building a Better Umbrella

STUDENT DRIVEN INNOVATION RESULTS IN PATENT FOR WINDPROOF UMBRELLA

by EUGENE CHEN `19 & RAY CHEN `19

Living in a subtropical climate country, Taiwan, where rain often pours and wind often roars, keeping an umbrella intact can be a challenge. While many people might be motivated to address this problem, their solutions are simply modest changes to existing designs rather than developing a superior model. We approached the problem by strengthening the structure of the umbrella while making it rotate to reduce wind resistance. The rotating idea originated from our childhood experience playing with a whipping top.

After conducting extensive research, we discovered that the concept of gyroscopic effect affects the umbrella design and performance. Experiments and testing revealed our new umbrella design increased wind resistance by 28 percent. During testing, we used an industrial fan as our wind source and implemented a variety of design ideas including trying different dimensions to the ribs, stretchers, and canopy in order to measure which combination provides the best resistance. The first of the two umbrellas we developed was destroyed in testing because of the wind.

While the construction was the hardest part, attending science fairs was the most fun part in this process. We felt a sense of accomplishment. In 2016, we attended the “Archimedes - Moscow International Salon of Inventions.” It is a big exhibition for people around the world to show their inventions. While there, we observed how creative human beings can be and how hard the participants work on their inventions. We, with our umbrella, earned a gold medal for Taiwan. Before attending the invention fair in Russia, we also participated in the National Science Fair of Taiwan and won third place. As siblings we’ve been working together since we were born, but it was special to win something together. We’d participated in all kinds of science fairs with biology experiments; this was our first invention.

At present, the umbrella has not been mass manufactured and so is not available to the general public.