The prize
The George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award is the top individual honour at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. In 2022 it carried $75,000, and the Society for Science listed Sansone, 17, of Fort Pierce, Florida, as the winner at the fair held in Atlanta on 12 and 13 May.
The organiser's description is specific: he investigated a novel electric motor design to improve the torque and efficiency of synchronous reluctance motors, creating magnet-free alternatives to traditional permanent-magnet motors for electric vehicles. That sentence contains both the technical target and the reason anyone outside motor engineering should care.
The problem with permanent magnets
Most electric vehicle motors rely on permanent magnets made with rare-earth elements such as neodymium and dysprosium. Those elements are not geologically rare, but their extraction and refining are concentrated, expensive and environmentally costly, which makes the supply chain a strategic weak point for an entire industry.
A synchronous reluctance motor avoids the problem by design. It has no magnets in the rotor at all; instead the rotor is shaped so that it is magnetically easier to align in one direction than another, and the motor turns because iron prefers the path of least resistance. The trade has always been performance: reluctance motors have historically produced less torque, and run less efficiently, than the magnet-based machines they would replace.
What his project attacked
That trade is exactly the gap Sansone's entry addressed. Improving torque and efficiency in a reluctance design is the difference between an interesting alternative and a usable one, because a motor that cannot match the incumbent on power density will not be fitted to a car regardless of what it saves on materials.
The Society's announcement records the aim and the result in outline. It does not publish his test bench figures, the prototype's dimensions, the control electronics or any independent verification, so the size of the improvement is not on the public record here.
The fair he won it at
Regeneron ISEF 2022 returned to a physical hall after the pandemic, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. It assembled 1,750 finalists from 49 US states and 63 countries, regions and territories, competing for nearly $8 million in awards.
Maya Ajmera, president and chief executive of the Society for Science, said of the cohort that "every single Regeneron ISEF finalist has shown true dedication, passion, and grit." Below Sansone that year, two Regeneron Young Scientist Awards of $50,000 each went to Abdullah Al-Ghamdi of Dammam, Saudi Arabia, for a hydrogen-storage material, and Rishab Jain of Portland, Oregon, for AI-assisted drug production.
What is documented — and what is not
Firm: the award, the amount, his age, his home town and the technical description, all published by the body that ran the competition. The story travelled widely at the time, and versions of it circulate with added detail that the organiser's own record does not contain.
Not in this record: any patent, licensing deal, university placement, company or follow-up interview. Readers will find claims online about what happened next; none of them can be confirmed from the source cited here, and this page does not repeat them.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sawsan Ahmed | United States | Broward College's youngest graduate, at 12, in December 2021 | Age 12 |
| Arvind Mahankali | United States | Won the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee at 13 | Age 13 |
| Kerry Close | United States | Won the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee at 13 | Age 13 |
| Shania Muhammad | United States | Langston University's youngest graduate, at 15 | Age 15 |
| Robert Sansone | United States | Every electric car leans on rare-earth magnets. At 17 he built a motor tha | Age 17 |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- $75,000 George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award at Regeneron ISEF 2022, aged 17 (Society for Science)
- Project: magnet-free synchronous reluctance motor design aimed at higher torque and efficiency
- Listed home town of Fort Pierce, Florida
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No published test figures, prototype specification or independent verification
- No patent, licence or commercial deal documented in this record
- No information on his university or work after 2022
Questions people ask about Robert Sansone
What did Robert Sansone invent?
A novel electric motor design intended to improve the torque and efficiency of synchronous reluctance motors, which use no permanent magnets, as an alternative to the rare-earth magnet motors used in electric vehicles.
Why does a magnet-free motor matter?
Permanent-magnet motors depend on rare-earth elements whose supply and refining are concentrated and costly. A reluctance motor removes that dependency, if it can match the performance.
How old was Robert Sansone when he won?
Seventeen, according to the Society for Science. His date of birth is not published in these sources.
How much did he win?
$75,000 — the George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award, the top individual prize at Regeneron ISEF 2022.
Where is Robert Sansone from?
Fort Pierce, Florida, as listed by the fair organisers.
Has his motor been patented or sold?
No source in this record states a patent, licence or commercial agreement. Claims to that effect are not supported by the source cited here.
Where is Robert Sansone now?
Not documented in the sources gathered for this page.
Where was ISEF 2022 held?
At the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, on 12 and 13 May 2022.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Sansone’s story?
What kind of motor did Robert Sansone work on?
What does his design avoid using?
How much was the top ISEF 2022 award worth?
Sources
- High school scientists win nearly $8M at Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair — Society for Science, 2022-05-13
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
Discover More Child Prodigies
50+ stories of contemporary young geniuses changing chess, music, science, and art.
Explore All Prodigies →Related Child Prodigy Profiles
Shania Muhammad🇺🇸 United States — She finished a bachelor's degree at 15. A year later she…
Arvind Mahankali🇺🇸 United States — He spelled 'knaidel', won the national bee…
Sawsan Ahmed🇺🇸 United States — She took her teddy bear into a college biology lab at 10.…
Kerry Close🇺🇸 United States — Four national bees ended in defeat. The fifth ended with a…
Sriram Hathwar🇺🇸 United States — He was the bee's youngest speller at eight. Six years…
Balu Natarajan🇺🇸 United States — An immigrant's son won America's English competition in…
