Haileybury’s ICT Explorers swept the competition at the 2018 Young ICT Explorers State Final held recently at Deakin University.
This is the third year in a row that the Years 9 and 10 team have won their division. The Year 9 Boys team placed first with their life size version of BB8, the popular robot from Star Wars.
BB8 has an Arduino brain equipped with the Google Assistant AI and is bluetoothed controlled via an android app with internal rollers for movement.
The Year 7 Girls team also won their division with their design for an interactive baby high chair featuring a heat sensor, light up buttons, light sensors and an Arduino electronic platform.
These elements achieve an engaging environment for young children to play and eat. The temperature reader detects the temperature of the food on the child’s plate to ensure that they are not eating food that is too hot.
Haileybury was the largest represented school at the competition, with a total of 50 students from the Keysborough and Berwick campuses.
The Young ICT Explorer competition enables students to apply what they learn in Computing and Digital Technologies classes to develop a technology related project of their choice.
The aim of the challenge is to encourage school students to not just use technology but also become creators and innovators of digital technology.
Year 7 student, Neeraja Ahielan was shocked by the win and grateful for the opportunity to explore technology topics.
“The experience has definitely improved our view on technology in the real world and its impact on our generation,” he said. “After winning this competition we have learned to appreciate other inventions and how they help our daily life.”
Haileybury also placed second and third in the Years 7 and 8 division and third place in the Years 9 and 10 division.
The winning teams will compete in the National Finals in Sydney this December.
