Lexington Teen Awarded $25,000 for Developing Technology to Improve Airplane Safety and Reduce Emissions
The Davidson Institute for Talent Development has announced the 2019 Davidson Fellows Scholarship winners. Among the honorees is 18-year-old Rachel Seevers of Lexington. Seevers won a $25,000 scholarship for her project, The Virtual Winglet: A Novel Approach to Boundary Layer Manipulation and Wingtip Vortex Suppression. She is one of only 20 students across the country to be recognized as a scholarship winner.
“I am extremely honored to have been chosen as a Davidson Fellow,” said Seevers. “By being able to share my research and more importantly my story with such a large audience, I hope to inspire even one young female to dream big, just as I did.”
Seevers’s project targets two major aerodynamic issues of air travel in a singular invention created not only to diminish costs and reduce emissions, but for the lives it can save. Consisting of interior tubing releasing high-speed air on the underside of the front-edge of the wingtip, the Virtual Winglet is targeted and energy-efficient. The novel ejection site location addresses two of the most dangerous aspects of flow when it comes to flying a plane.
Seevers was co-founder of her school’s girls in STEM club and developed a program called STEMfems which offers STEM workshops at local underprivileged elementary schools. Seevers was also a member of her school’s Chamber Choir, French Club, and National Beta Club, as well as a participant of the Girl Scouts of America since kindergarten. Outside of science she enjoys hiking with family and friends.
Seevers will attend Harvard University in the fall where she will be studying mechanical engineering and economics, with a plan to pursue policy in the future. Her dream is to become the Secretary of Defense or Education.
“We are proud to announce the 2019 Davidson Fellows Scholarship recipients and applaud them for their hard work and achievement in their fields of study,” said Bob Davidson, founder of the Davidson Institute. “By being awarded this recognition, these students have shown immense skill and work ethic, and they should be commended as they continue their educational and research journeys while continuing to work to solve some of the world’s most vexing problems.”
The 2019 Davidson Fellows will be honored at a reception in Washington, D.C., on Friday, September 27, 2019.
The Davidson Fellows Scholarship program offers $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 college scholarships to students 18 or younger, who have completed significant projects that have the potential to benefit society in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literature and music. The Davidson Fellows Scholarship has provided more than $7.5 million in scholarship funds to more than 300 students since its inception in 2001, and has been named one of the most prestigious undergraduate scholarships by U.S. News & World Report. It is a program of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Reno, Nev. that supports profoundly gifted youth.
