Team Passion, from Ullapool High School, have been announced the winners in a Highlands and Islands-wide information and communications technology competition.
Their reward, presented by Highlands and Islands Enterprise's (HIE) director of Regional Competitiveness Alex Paterson at a prize-giving ceremony last Friday, will be a learning journey to Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s world-renowned Media Lab in Boston in September.
The annual contest, now in its seventh year, sponsored by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), BT Scotland, Microsoft and other supporters, invites young people to submit ideas for information and communication technology of the future.
This year’s competition attracted entries from 155 teams from all over the Highlands and Islands, more than any previous year. Six finalists last week took part in a residential “hothouse” at Fairburn Activity Centre, Ross-shire, fine tuning their ideas with help from experts in fields such as intellectual property rights, prototyping and commercialisation, before presenting their inventions to the judging panel.
Passion have spent the weeks of Youth Challenge developing their idea for E-GO, an environmentally friendly MP3 player.
John Mackenzie, Development Manager for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at HIE, said: "Once again the quality of ideas and the dedication of all the teams taking part this year clearly demonstrated that there is a real spirit of enterprise and innovation within the youth of the Highlands and Islands."
Afnan Ullah Khan at BT, said: “The idea was simply brilliant and the commercial potential of this idea is massive which makes it really attractive for the corporate world. I wish the Passion team very well for their future endeavours."
Also bound for America is TIC from Wick High School, whose idea for the KIS (Keep It Simple) Tablet won them the Microsoft-sponsored award for the project with the best commercial potential. While visiting the company’s lab in Seattle in October, the team will have the opportunity to pitch their idea to Microsoft’s Scots-born Vice President Bob McDowell.
Microsoft Scotland’s Raymond O’Hare said “The breadth of the ideas this year showed how, given the opportunity, our young people can be truly visionary. As the competition progressed and they developed their ideas, the teams’ inventiveness shone through. Everyone at Microsoft Scotland is really proud of the character, perseverance and innovation show by all the teams, and especially the winners.”
The winners of the UHI Millennium Institute award were KLACH from Dornoch Academy. They win a trip to a UHI institution to see first hand the research and development taking place and speak to key professionals about their idea, the Blow and Go, a breathalyser built into the steering wheel of a car allowing it to start only if the driver has passed a breathalyser test.
Visual Radiance from Keith grammar School won the BT Award for Communication. Their prize will be to visit BT’s Futurology Lab in Ipswich.
Unfamous 5 from Sanday Junior High School in Orkney and Team Siren from Plockton High School were also finalists.
Speaking at the prize-giving ceremony, Alex Paterson, told the teams reaching the finals of the competition was an incredible achievement.
He added: “All of the teams which took part in this competition have learnt a valuable new set of skills for the future and many of their ideas were outstandingly good. What this fantastic region needs is more people getting involved in technology, innovation and enterprise and these young people are leading the way."
On behalf of the delivery team, Ali Murray said: “We’re really proud of all the teams. This competition helps them understand that in the Highlands and Islands today they really can do anything they want. They just have to believe in themselves, set goals, work hard and learn to use appropriate networks.”