Cookstown High School students among prize winners at national STEM competition at Birmingham's NEC
Students from Northern Ireland have scooped awards in The Big Bang Competition, a prestigious nationwide competition for young engineers, scientists and technologists.
Daniel Brownlee and Luke Johnston, year 11 students Cookstown High School were crowned the UK Young Technologists of the Year, supported by Siemens, for their project ‘TrailTalk: AI-powered experience mapping’.
Mykyta Telychko, a year 13 student Lumen Christi College, Derry won the Accenture Award for Excellence in Artificial Intelligence with their project ‘AI sign language learning platform’.
The TrailTalk team created an app to help travellers find experiences that match how they want to feel, instead of prioritising popularity and ratings as existing platforms do. The talented duo built TrailTalk using AI, voice input and GPS data to help people discover places that meet both their practical and emotional needs. They hope their invention will help travellers discover meaningful, authentic and personal places, while also promoting sustainable travel and benefitting communities not in typical tourist hotspots.
At the awards ceremony Daniel from the team, said: “It means alot - it's been two years of hard work coming into this. It's lovely to see it get recognised in this way. It's been an amazing event to be a part of and to win an award at.”
Mark Wood, Social Sustainability Lead at Siemens GB&I, commented: “Projects like TrailTalk highlight the imagination and talent that the next generation brings to STEM, boosted by new and developing technologies. Through initiatives such as The Big Bang Competition, young people are encouraged to channel their creativity into solving real-world challenges. And with individuals like Luke and Daniel leading the way, the future is in very capable hands.”
Ananyaa Rahate, a year 13 student from Ambition Network NI, won the Senior Science award with their project ‘Bio-assisted micro-combustion: using soybean chemiluminescence to modulate ignition and investigating if this can lead to a more sustainable fuel source’. This explored whether energy from natural light emissions from soybeans could be used as a sustainable fuel source for aviation.
The winners of The Competition, which recognises and rewards talented young innovators, were announced at an awards ceremony at The Big Bang Fair. The Fair is the UK’s largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) for young people and took place recently at Birmingham’s NEC.