{"id":60886,"date":"2025-08-14T13:44:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T13:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/pupil-who-invented-device-to-help-homeless-named-girl-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T13:44:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T13:44:37","slug":"pupil-who-invented-device-to-help-homeless-named-girl-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/pupil-who-invented-device-to-help-homeless-named-girl-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Pupil who invented device to help homeless named ‘girl of the year’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Jonathan Geddes<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC Scotland News<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"StoryStory Shop<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Rebecca Young designed the solar-powered backpack and blanket for a competition<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A Glasgow school pupil has been named among Time magazine’s girls of the year for inventing a device to help homeless people warm.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Young, 12, designed a solar-powered blanket, which an engineering firm Thales then turned into reality.<\/p>\n

The Kelvinside Academy pupil is now among 10 girls from across the world selected by Time<\/a> who have inspired and helped communities.<\/p>\n

She told BBC Scotland News that she was shocked and honoured by the recognition, which has also seen her turned into a Lego mini-figure, due to the awards being run in partnership with the Danish toy manufacturer.<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rebecca first came up with the idea while attending an engineering club at school.<\/p>\n

She explained: “Seeing all the homeless people, it made me want to help \u2013 it’s a problem that should be fixed.<\/p>\n

“During the day, the heat from the sun can energise the solar panels and they go into a battery pack that can store the heat. When it’s cold at night people can use the energy stored in the battery pack to sleep on. <\/p>\n

“In Glasgow it can be freezing at night<\/a> and they [homeless people] will have no power, so I thought the solar panel could heat it.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rebecca was first recognised for the idea in 2023<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Rebecca’s idea came out on top in the UK Primary Engineer competition, where more than 70,000 pupils entered ideas aimed around addressing a social issue.<\/p>\n

Engineering company Thales then turned the idea into a working prototype, with 35 units given to Homeless Project Scotland to use in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

That achievement led Rebecca to a spot on Time’s list, which the magazine’s chief executive Jessica Sibley said highlights “those who are turning imagination into real-world impact”.<\/p>\n

Rebecca’s mum Louise told BBC Scotland News: “I couldn’t be more proud, it’s fantastic. It’s obviously all come from a drawing and going from that to it actually being made is amazing.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TIMETIME<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Rebecca has been turned into Lego mini-figure as part of the award<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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As part of the honour, Rebecca and the other nine winners are appearing on a digital cover of the famous magazine, where they are styled as Lego mini-figures – something the 12-year-old said was both “really cool and crazy”.<\/p>\n

She also had advice for any other girls who wanted to get involved in Stem subjects – an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. <\/p>\n

Rebecca said: “If you have an idea like I did, then join clubs and talk to people about it, it helps.”<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the Time magazine recognition, she added: “All my friends think it’s awesome.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TIMETIME<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The magazine cover will be available digitally, while the girls’ stories will be featured in Time for Kids<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Colin McInnes, the founder of Homeless Project Scotland, said the initiative had already been successful. <\/p>\n

He added: “When somebody is having to rough sleep because the shelter is full, we can offer that comfort to a homeless person, of having a warm blanket to wrap around them during the night. <\/p>\n

“We would 100% take the opportunity to have more of them.” <\/p>\n

Daniel Wyatt, the rector at Kelvinside Academy, said Rebecca was a “shining example of a caring young person”. <\/p>\n

He added: “She is also a role model for any young person who wants to follow their own path in life.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Jonathan Geddes BBC Scotland News Story Shop Rebecca Young designed the solar-powered backpack and blanket for a competition A Glasgow school pupil has been named among Time magazine’s girls of the year for inventing a device to help homeless people warm. Rebecca Young, 12, designed a solar-powered blanket, which an engineering firm Thales then turned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67],"tags":[5502,1041,4229,18135,4347,4834,653],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60888,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60886\/revisions\/60888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}