Sun sine is great for solar panels, but what harm does it do to our environment? Senior Winnie Wei addressed this ever-evolving question with her solar panel research, earning her the title of a 2025 Edison Scholar.
Edison International annually awards 30 Southern California seniors scholarships for their STEM ambitions. This competitive opportunity isn’t easy to get—but after being selected as a top 50 finalist, Wei then had to submit a Youtube video regarding her research on the sustainability of solar panels to fall on the shortlist of 30 people who would earn a $50,000 college scholarship.
“I talk about my observation about the different type of solar panels, like when is the best time to use a solar panel, what time of day you should use it, if there is some solution like where is the best location,” Wei said. “And how we can optimize collecting solar panels while reducing the amount of solar panels because it’s made by lots of chemicals, and many of those chemical materials is actually toxic to environment.”
Inspired by her family members who had recurring questions regarding saving electricity in pools, Wei incorporated anecdotes from witnessed issues into her research. Her passion for math flourished from a young age, and after experimenting with different programs and internships, she’s combined her avocations and vocations in, applying her love for math through green pack research, hoping to find more environmentally friendly utilizations of solar panels.
“We’re trying to improve productivity efficiency, and using my skill for mathematics as a tool, you can type the data and how you can use the numbers to optimize to find something different,” Wei said.
She’s driven by her inherent passion and to excel above standards, as observed by math teacher Christopher Di Antonio, who wrote her letters of recommendations, including the one for Edison.
“She was a top notch student, you give her things to do and it would come very naturally for her so much so that she wanted to extend it beyond what the problem was asking her,” Di Antonio said. “She not only enjoys mathematics, but she’s somebody who has that natural ability to do that mathematics as well.”
Delving into the intricacies of solar panels is a small part of her bigger aspirations, but has been a guiding output to her passion in broadening her research endeavors.
“College is where I can score more, I can see how even solar panels or electricity or helping environmental stuff,” Wei said. “I can use mathematics to solve the actual issues for the world around me.”
