We’re very excited to announce that TWO of our teams have made the final shortlist of 40 inspirational projects for the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize!

The national competition run by Nesta Challenges, encourages entrepreneurship in STEM for teams of 11-16 year olds. This year there were over 150 entries from over 500 young people from which the panel of expert judges selected the top 40 finalists.

Student teams are challenged to develop innovative ‘tech for good’ solutions to help solve society’s biggest issues:

Living Better: How can technology to help us stay happy and healthy in our day to day lives, and improve the lives of others?

Living Greener: How can technology help us protect our planet?

Living Together: How can technology help us live together and stay connected in a way that is easy, safe and environmentally friendly?

Living Longer: How can technology meet the needs of an ageing society?

Year 10’s Heather M, Abbirami Y and Ansley V who make up “Team Local Grocers” described their idea for the Living Greener category:

“Our idea is a smart bin and companion app to help users monitor their waste and recycling which will then offer more eco-friendly options with less plastic.”

“Team Savage Cabbages” – comprising Lollie R, Megan H, Felicity C, Tara M, Rachel A from Year 9, on their idea for the Living Together category:

“Our idea is an app and website to help LGBTQ+ youth contact those who are going through similar experiences, through chat rooms/bots and fun enrichment activities and resources provided on the site.”

As part of the final stage, all finalists will be mentored by an expert to help them create prototypes of their concepts. Team Local Grocers will be mentored by Kevin Robb who works at IBM and Team Savage Cabbages by Dr Duncan Russel who works for Ocado robotics.

They will also be invited to take part in the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize’s Enterprise Academy business day workshops and receive tech support from FireTech UK. 

The top prize is £20,000 or £5,000 for the three runners up for their school or youth group. There is also a People’s Choice Award where the public will be able to vote for their favourite design, with a prize of £5,000, for the winners’ school or youth group.

Following the success of Poly in making the final last year with an AI app to support people with dementia, we have our fingers crossed for both our teams this year! We’ll be following their progress as they develop their ideas for their final submissions in June – watch this space!