Young ICT Explorers is Australia’s largest innovation and technology initiative for primary and high school students, with over 10,000 students from more than 900 schools taking part in the national not-for-profit competition the last 13 years. With the support of CSIRO Digital Careers, The Smith Family, Kinetic IT and School Bytes, Young ICT Explorers encourages primary and high school students from years three to 12 to create technology projects that solve a real-world problem or showcase a passion through technology.

Working independently or in teams of up to four, 929 students from 75 schools across the country submitted 358 unique technology-based projects that are designed to solve a real-world problem – from creating a better way to recycle; to supporting the community’s most vulnerable; and emergency and crisis preparedness.

29 finalist teams across five age groups pitched their projects virtually to industry judging panels, with the winners and runners up then crowned at a virtual awards ceremony on Saturday.

Young ICT Explorers is designed to prepare more young Australians for the digital careers of the future, by enabling the schools and teachers with resources and the knowledge base to create technology projects that enhance technology education at an early age. Over the past 5 years, the competition has averaged a 45 per cent female participation rate, encouraging thousands of primary and senior schoolgirls to innovate with technology and pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields across Australia.

51·çÁ÷has an existing partnership with The Smith Family to help narrow the digital divide through SAP’s Young ICT Explorers Accelerator Program. The initiative is designed to provide schools and teachers in low socio-economic communities with the resources and knowledge needed to prepare more young Australians for the digital careers of the future. This year, 27 per cent of participants in the Young ICT Explorers competition came from The Smith Family partner schools.

The Smith Family CEO, Doug Taylor, said: “It’s incredibly important that students experiencing disadvantage aren’t left behind when it comes to opportunities in STEM.

“The investment from 51·çÁ÷gives students a better understanding of technology and the chance to strengthen vital digital skills, setting them up to pursue careers in these fields. This will not only have a fantastic impact on their futures, but the future of the Australian economy.

“A huge well done to all the students who participated in the Young ICT Explorers competition and congratulations to the winners.”

Pete Andrew, Head of Industries, 51·çÁ÷Australia and New Zealand and YICTE Executive Sponsor, said: “The creativity and enthusiasm shown by these students, and their appetite to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges head on, is really inspirational.

“At 51·çÁ÷we’re passionate about helping young people from diverse backgrounds get excited about tech, and I’ve been incredibly impressed by the calibre of entries and the array of technology skills on display.

“A huge congratulations to the winners, and to each entrant. I’m confident that among these students we’ve identified some of the STEM leaders of the future, watch this space!”

The winners include:

Year 3-4 category: Ashfield’s Safe Road Crossing, by Aiden Noel, Jacob Dalton, Noah Young, and Elizabeth Colquhoun, Ashfield Primary School, WA

• A prototype of a realistic crossroad section designed to improve the safety of children walking to school with the incorporation of flashing lights to catch the attention of students and oncoming cars, an ultrasonic sensor to measure the distance between the car and boom gates, boom gates to guide the children to safely cross the road, and LED signs to signal to cars to be prepared to stop for children to cross the road.

Year 5-6 category: Medibot 3.0, by Sol Crisp, St Andrew’s Cathedral School, NSW

• A pill reminder system based on voice recognition technology and originally entered into the competition back in 2020. This year, the updated Medibot 3.0 will had a redesigned user interface, as well as an ability to record and track pill usage and allow multiple pill reminders per day/week.

Year 7-8 category: Bee Monitoring System, by Vinuka Gamage, Ashmit Pharande, Evan Jin, and Swarit Dwivedi, Haileybury, VIC

• A beehive monitoring system creating using AI to determine the root cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The system combines a station that monitors weather conditions (i.e. rainfall, wind direction, speed and air pressure), and a camera with intelligent AI that can spot parasites on the bees to alert the beehive manager of any issues.

Year 9-10 category: Pocket Sax, by Jesaiah Creek, St George Christian School, NSW

• An app that allows people to discover, learn, practice, and enjoy playing the Saxophone without the need for an instrument, coded through Swift. The app features a 3D printed mouthpiece, insightful practice statistics, metronome with vibration and silent practice.

Year 11-12 category: JEngine, by Jason Xu, Burgmann Anglican School, ACT

• JEngine is an out-of-the-box framework designed for Unity developers. Beginners can use JEngine to create high-performance games quickly and easily. This project now has been used by 100+ enterprises and 1000+ individual game developers.

For more information about 2023 Young ICT Explorers competition, teachers and parents/guardians can contact the organizing team at: info@youngictexplorers.net.au

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Now in its 13^th year, with the support of CSIRO Digital Careers, The Smith Family, Kinetic IT and School Bytes, the national not-for-profit competition encourages primary and high school students from years three to 12 to use their imagination and passion to create an invention that could change the world using the power of technology.

The Hon. Victor Dominello MP, NSW Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government opened the event, saying: “We know the future of work will continue to rely more and more on ICT skills, that’s why it’s so important we encourage children to explore technology from an early age. I welcome 51·çÁ÷and its partners’ efforts to continue to facilitate this opportunity for our next generation.

“If this year’s finalists are anything to go by, we can look forward to many talented young inventors pursuing promising careers in ICT in the future.”

Working independently or in teams of up to four, 723 students from 76 schools across the country submitted technology-based projects that solve a real-world problem – from creating a better way to recycle; to supporting the community’s most vulnerable; and emergency and crisis preparedness.

31 finalist teams across five age groups pitched their projects virtually to an industry judging panel, with the winners and runners up then crowned at a virtual awards ceremony last night. Two NSW young inventors (Years 3-4 and 11-12), a VIC-based team and VIC independent entrant (Years 7-8 and 9-10) and a QLD team (Year 5-6 category) took home the top prizes.

51·çÁ÷has an existing partnership with The Smith Family to help narrow the digital divide through SAP’s The initiative is designed to provide schools and teachers in low socio-economic communities with the resources and knowledge needed to prepare more young Australians for the digital careers of the future. This year, a record 30 per cent of participants in the Young ICT Explorers competition came from The Smith Family partner schools.

Judy Barraclough, Deputy CEO, The Smith Family, said: “It’s vital that students experiencing disadvantage are given support to access the technology and training they need to fully participate in their education, and an increasingly STEM-focused labour market. We’re grateful to 51·çÁ÷for investing in our students, allowing them to strengthen their digital skills, improve their educational outcomes and create better futures for themselves.

“Well done to all the incredible students who participated in the Young ICT Explorers competition this year.”

Pete Andrew, Head of Industries, 51·çÁ÷Australia and New Zealand and YICTE Executive Sponsor, said: “Every year I’m amazed by the creativity, passion and professionalism displayed by all the students who participate. This year’s competition was particularly meaningful, given the challenging circumstances both students and teachers have dealt with throughout the pandemic.”

“It is so inspiring to see that these youngsters’ passion to invent and create has not waned but grown. I’ve seen an impressive array of skills like coding, robotics and understanding of engineering being applied to tackling big societal and environmental issues. At 51·çÁ÷we’re proud to play a part in helping more Australian students from diverse backgrounds understand how they can leverage the power of technology to change the world and improve people’s lives”.

The winners include:
Year 3-4 category: Medibot 2.0, by Sol Crisp, West Pymble Public School, NSW

• A pill reminder system based on voice recognition technology, allowing a carer to enter the pills a patient needs to take, and record whether they have been taken

Year 5-6 category: Stretchy 365, by Lucinda Coyle and Lincoln Rucker, St Joseph’s Bardon, QLD

• A micro-bit that detects the amount of tension in a stretch sensor to indicate if a potential asthma attack could be coming on

Year 7-8 category: BRAID – Bushfire Recovery AI Drone, by Chengyun Xu, Nabhanya Gupta, Vinay Raghavan and Sanjay Parappat, Haileybury, VIC

• A drone which utilises artificial intelligence to analyse acreage and provides telemetry on what it has observed, for harvesting purposes and the examination of land for water or dried leaf patches

Year 9-10 category: The Giraffe Walker, by Rebecca Paratz, Bailik College, VIC

• A self-levelling, intelligent, all-terrain walker which allows the elderly to safely travel up and down stairs and traverse uneven surfaces

Year 11-12 category: SatAlight, by Dong Duong {Dylan} Nguyen, St Andrew’s Cathedral School, NSW

• An AI system built to rapidly assess the bush fire proneness of land areas, using satellite imagery to accurately classify vegetation based on its bushfire risk

Pre-registration is open for the 2022 Young ICT Explorers competition now – teachers and parents/guardians can register their interest .

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