Schools from across Berkshire enjoyed an exciting day trying out the very latest technology from search and rescue cameras to the dna mapping of fruit and veg. Working alongside some of the UK’s most talented engineers and scientists, they also took part in a series of challenges.

The SeaVision Challenge

Winners : Forest School ‘B’ in 1 min 12.47

Runners up: Charters  ‘A’ in 1 min 12.33

The JVC Tech Quiz

Winner: Alex Davis from St Bartholomew’s School

The Innovation Zone – Design An App Challenge

We’re lucky enough to have two of the UKs best app designers, Dave Addey and Justyn Spooner from Agant  leading this challenge which is fiercely competitive. It was hard to decide on the winners but here they are:

Best Icon Design

Trevelyan School
“MediTech”
An app to take a photo of a medical problem and send it to a medical expert. The icon was clear, clean and instantly recognisable.
Most Marketable Idea
Kennett School
“Pocket ID”
An app that means you always have a secure copy of your passport, driving license and other ID with you.
Most Innovative Idea
Edgebarrow School
“Music Maker”
An app that takes your favourite songs, and removes one instrument from the mix so that you can play along yourself.

Just 30 seconds to pitch your app. It's not easy.

 

Best Pitch

Holt School B
“WC Finder”
An app to help you find a toilet anywhere in the world. Their pitch was told as a funny and engaging story, including someone being directed to a nearby toilet!
Best Teamwork
Ranelagh School
“Eco App”
The team had clearly defined roles, and worked together effectively as a team with a good shared vision.
Best App Overall
Charters School
“Snapshot”
An app that lets you take a photo of any item of clothing you see, and searches online stores to find close matches. It then allows you to order that item for delivery to your own address. Charters had a great idea, very good teamwork, and a really nice pitch and icon.
The Sony Experience
Well done to Park House School who’ll be heading out to Sony for the day to try their hand at 3D film making

The Ideas Wall

The  wall is always crammed with ideas at the end of the day but at Ascot, it was covered by 10am and we had to move to other walls to hold all the ideas. The wall was judged by a group of successful local entrepreneurs led by Marshal Leopold , who singled out three winners who each took home an  ipod and were also promised a visit to their school by one of the entrepreneurs to show their entire class how to take an idea from post it note to start up company.

Liberty from Edgebarrow collects her award from Maggie Philbin and entrepreneur, Marshall Leopold

 

But at the presentation, Marshall said he wanted to commend NINE winners. Three young people were given ‘special mentions’ for having ideas which Marshall knew were already in development. He promised to arrange for the CEOs of those companies to go into their schools to talk about how they had successfully developed very similar concepts.

And three runners up were chosen because Marshall felt they were all  likely to become real products within the next five years. Again, the winners will receive school visits from an entrepreneur to help them see how you decide whether or not an idea has ‘legs’.

Winners:

Fatima – Reading Girls’ School ‘A system where you use your thumb print instaed of a credit, bus or ID card’

Jake – Kennet School, ‘an app that diagnoses illness like cancer, picking up the location of a tumour by radio waves’

Liberty, Edgebarrow School. ‘ Holograms which allow you to switch your outfit to save time shopping’

Runners Up

Lucy, Reading Girls

Louis – Ranelagh School, ‘Regrow lost limbs by injecting stem cells into the severed limb”

Anish – Forest School,’5D – you can also smell it’

Special Mentions

Jamie – Kennet School, ‘Handheld MRI scanners, which can connet to a wireless pc. MRI scanners take up a whole room and this cannot be transported to third world countries as they do not have enough money’

Sarah – Charters School, ‘Shoes with heaters so that in the winter you can have warm feet’

Liberty, Edgebarrow, ‘No-one likes to dry after a shower, so just press a button to heat up inside the shower like a hairdryer’