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Science fair project tests body armor upgrade

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — A high-school student’s award-winning science fair project aims to better protect soldiers from battle injuries.

Melissa Carvell, a sophomore at Bartlesville’s Mid-High, won a second-place award in the materials and bioengineering category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in mid-May in Albuquerque, N.M.

She created an upgrade to the body armor worn by U.S. forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This is like winning a Nobel Prize,” Mid-High science teacher Colleen Bennett said of her student’s honor. “This is huge. There were five Nobel Laureates — former Nobel Prize winners in science and engineering — among the judges.”

The girl’s project reinforced the ceramic plates inside the body armor worn by U.S. forces with two layers of carbon fibers set at 90 degree angles to each other.

She tested her idea using an AK47 bullet dropped from different heights and varying weights to mimic the impact of a fired weapon shell. Her research showed the plate strength could be improved by more than 8,000 times what it has been.

“I wanted to do something to help people and I enjoy working with composites,” she said. “So, this was a good project for me.”

She was among 1,500 students from 47 countries competing for prizes in several categories, including biology, chemistry, computer science, Earth sciences and engineering.

The honor brought her a $1,500 cash prize, an $8,000 Navy scholarship and a $1,500 prize from the Air Force.