THE potential of young minds to be imaginative and creative is endless. The show “Junior Edison,” now airing on Shanghai television, provides a platform for young people to exercise their inventive thinking.

Now in its fourth season, the show is watched by elementary and high school students in China and across the world.

The children are invited to submit inventions that are both practical and have market potential. It’s a competition, of sorts, with final winners treated to a scientific research trip to the North Pole.

So what kind of wheels are spinning in young minds? We meet a few of the young innovators of whom Thomas Edison would be proud.

“Junior Edison”

News Channel, Saturdays, 8:30pm

DANIEL Jacobsson

A Swedish native, senior high school student Daniel Jacobsson is fascinated with mathematics. While many Chinese students may view the subject as a necessary evil toward good exam grades, Jacobsson believes that mathematics is a tool for improving everything.

His invention: a coffee cup that doesn’t spill.

“Spilling is a widespread problem that people keep complaining about but nobody actually tries to solve,” says Jacobsson. “That is mainly what inspired me to create this invention.”

What do spilled coffee cups have to do with mathematics?

Jacobsson designed a series of experiments to show what makes coffee spill when people are carrying a cup as they walk.

The experiments investigated how the cup moves when walking is kept at an even pace and then when it is accelerated.

The experiments were conducted on a treadmill involving 19 test people and about 10 controlled speeds. The movement of their cups was recorded in 3D.

“Most of the experiments were carried out in a gym,” Jacobsson says.

“I persuaded people around me to take part. I received quite a lot of help from people, but the research was all mine. I didn’t have any supervisor.”

The solution he came upon is simple. If the ring-shaped device inside a cup is increased, the resonance of the movement of person and cup is reduced, and thus the cup won’t spill liquid even if its carrier is walking fast.

Jacobsson says it’s only a matter of time before some version of his idea hits the market.

“Using science to solve such a practical problem may inspire some people to develop more interest in the natural sciences,” he said.

He adds that having fun in life is equally important, and nothing is more fun that solving problems.

YANG Guanyu

BORN in a farm community in rural Hunan Province, 12-year-old Yang Guanyu was raised by his grandfather when his parents left to seek work in cities. To the young lad, his grandfather was a superhero who tinkered with homemade devices that eased life’s burdens.

Now, it’s Yang’s turn to create something to help his beloved mentor.

The invention is a feeding machine for piglets. Its origins lie in a sad tale.

Five years ago, Yuan’s grandfather raised pigs to make a living. If a sow gave birth to a dozen piglets, she didn’t have enough nipples to feed them all and his grandfather had to feed some of the young by hand.

“Because of malnutrition, one of the piglets fell ill with fever and diarrhea,” recalls Yuan. “The sickness spread from one piglet to another, and soon several of them had died.”

One piglet equaled about 1,000 yuan (US$144) in income, which is considerable in a poor community. Yang’s grandfather was distraught.

“I was thinking that I should invent a device that could feed the piglets and administer medicine if they became sick,” says Yang.

His invention resembles a coffee machine — two barrels linked by a tube. In one barrel, the milk could be heated automatically, while medicinal herbs could be ground in the other.

Artificial nipples were installed at the bottom of the device so that the piglets could suck in the milk, or the milk with herbs if they were sick.

“I believe the device could be widely used on pig farms,” says Yang. “The automation of the device saves a lot of manual labor and raises the successful survival rate of piglets.”

Yang says he received help on the project from his grandfather, who once worked in an electric motor factory.

Modifications were made until the invention worked as designed.

“My grandfather gave up raising pigs after losing those piglets,” Yang says. “But I know he still wants to raise them. With this device, I think he can now pick up where he left off.”

THE 3+1 Team

FORMED by three high school students and their teacher at the High School affiliated to Shanghai University, the 3+1 Team set its sights on the problem of finding parking spaces in the city.

Xu Jiajian, 18, was the initiator of the idea. It started when he and his father once had to drive for miles to find an available parking space. He recounted the incident to friends, who all chimed in with their own experiences of the problem.

“We believed that the ultimate problem is information asymmetry,” says 16-year-old Zhang Yuchen, the team’s program developer. “There are actually adequate parking spaces in the city, but people can’t find them. So we got the idea of developing a mobile device app linking people who need a parking space with people who have one to provide.”

The app “Searching Good Space” allows people to rent out their private parking spaces to others by publishing the information online, with GPS directions. People looking for a place to park can access the site.

“Although there are parking-search apps on the market, they all focus on just public parking lots,” says 15-year-old Zhou Zhijun, marketing specialist of the team. “Our app gives a wider range of choices.”

The idea, however, faced challenges. Sun Xiaofang, a lawyer, said that not every private parking space advertised may be legally allowed for rental.

“Take residential complexes, for example,” she says. “According to property law, surface parking spaces belong to all the property owners, and no one could rent those spaces without the agreement from all the owners.”

Underground parking spaces that are included in ownership certificates could be rented out, Sun adds. “But underground parking lots are supervised by property management companies, and the security guards they employ have full rights to say no to strange vehicles,” she says.

Other experts say the team’s app has great potential, and the municipal government may ease current restrictions as the parking problem grows into a citywide headache.

Yu Lizhong, chancellor of New York University Shanghai and a member of municipal People’s Congress, says discussions on the issue have been undertaken.

“With their invention, the students have given us a new road to explore, and I think it’s worth further discussion,” says Yu.