Woodside middle schooler Georgia Hutchinson took home top honors and a $25,000 prize at a national science and engineering competition on Oct. 23.

Georgia, an eighth-grader at Woodside Elementary School, was one of 30 national finalists in the Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars) middle school competition in Washington, D.C. She won the Samueli Foundation Prize for building a system that allows solar panels to follow the sun for maximum energy production.

"Being a Broadcom MASTER was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where I got to share my love of science and engineering with a group of people who love it as much as I do!" Georgia wrote in an email. "Winning the Samueli Foundation prize was the icing on the cake of one of the best experiences of my life (so far!)"

Georgia's more efficient and cost-effective solar power system relies on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to determine where the sun will be at any date and time. She built a computer model to illustrate how electricity from solar panels pointed at those spots would compare to electricity produced by fixed-position panels and created a computer program to control her tracker's motor and the position of the solar panels.

Georgia is working with an attorney to get a patent on the system. Her next prototype will be even more durable so it could actually go on a roof and weather the elements, she said.

Her project, which she initially entered in her school's STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Fair last school year, won first place in the state science fair before earning the national award.

During the national competition in Washington, Georgia competed in team challenges, met with government officials and showed her project to the public at the National Geographic Society on Oct. 20.

The prize money will go toward her education.

Up next for Georgia? High school, water polo and spreading her love of STEM are all on her to-do list.

Further down the line?

"More solutions. More awards. Anything and everything," Georgia's science teacher Jennifer Parker wrote in an email. "I know our future will be better because of Georgia Hutchinson!"

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