This Pinoy student bags international award for inventing solar panels made from waste crops
Carvey Ehren Maigue from Mapua University becomes the first-ever recipient of the James Dyson Sustainability Award
Struggles behind the scene
Before he perfected his invention, Carvey went through numerous setbacks. He was not only struggling with turning his idea into a reality, but also dealing with personal challenges. One might ask why the James Dyson awardee is still in college at the age of 27. Due to some family and financial problems, the former Mapua University scholar had to stop studying for several years. During that time, Carvey worked numerous jobs to save enough money to go back to school. “Things got difficult both for the family and for me financially. I came to the point where I had told our lovely, single mom, who is working hard for my sister and I, that she should focus on my sister, who was also entering college at that time while I would find ways so I could go back to school,” he says. “What I did was I took prototyping projects for students and for some companies as well until I was able to raise enough money.” In 2018, Carvey and his teammates joined the competition but failed to make it to the national leg. But this didn’t stop the young inventor from continuing with his project, even though some of his teammates already graduated. This year, all of his hard works paid off. It wasJames Dyson
, founder and chief engineer at Dyson, himself who brought the good news to Carvey.