MEXICAN TEEN WINS GOLD FOR A SPEAKER THAT PUTS OUT FIRES
In the creators’ own tests, small flames died in five to eight seconds, hit by nothing but sound. That’s the pitch behind a sound fire extinguisher prototype from Altamira, Tamaulipas, Mexico, built by student Ángela Karime Hernández Venegas.
She took gold in the technology category at ISIF 2026 in Indonesia, held October 14–16, 2026, according to Milenio. She studies at CETis 78. Milenio and El Horizonte put her age at 17, though El Financiero says 16.
The project is called Vortex Tech. Noroeste lists it under the more formal name “Fire Suppression System Using Acoustic.”
The hardware is modest: a 12-volt battery, a frequency generator, an amplifier and a speaker. The speaker pushes out low-frequency sound at roughly 30 hertz.
The idea is that the sound stirs up turbulence around the flame, which disturbs the oxygen supply and breaks up combustion. Nothing gets sprayed.
There are limits, and Yahoo Tec h spelled them out. The prototype is not commercially certified as a fire extinguisher, and the medal is not a professional fire-protection ruling.
Before Indonesia, the project climbed through the municipal, regional and state stages of Tamaulipas’s creativity competition, then went national, the state government said. Adviser José Arturo Hernández Muñoz backed her along the way.
On October 22, 2026, Excélsior reported that President Claudia Sheinbaum congratulated the student.
There is more ahead. On October 26, 2026, the state government said her IYSA Semi Grand Award gives her the right to enter the Indonesia International Applied Science Project Olympiad, an online event run by the Indonesia Young Scientist Association with Universitas Gadjah Mada.
