Our brilliant young minds on show!

If the standard of entries in the Mayor’s Telstra Technology Awards is any indication, the future of the Sunshine Coast is in very capable and innovative hands!

A hydrogen-solar hybrid car, a brain mapping network to help people with mental illness and a musical microprocessor that uses light to trigger sound are among the incredible ideas submitted by student teams across six different schools.

Mayor Mark Jamieson said finalists had been selected and would soon embark on an entrepreneurial mentoring program run by Spark Bureau.

“This will enable students to refine their ideas with the help of some of the Sunshine Coast’s sharpest minds who have technology start-up business experience,” Mayor Jamieson said.

“Council is very excited to partner with Telstra to deliver the Mayor’s Telstra Technology Awards on the Sunshine Coast for the first time because it enables our young people to showcase and grow their innovative ideas and it also provides a gateway to the technology industry where there are so many fantastic future career opportunities.

“It was terrific to meet some of the students who have participated in the competition this year. We can’t give too much away yet but my fellow judges and I are going to have tough time finding a winner from such an impressive list of entries.”

Four mentoring sessions will be held for finalists between April 14 and May 4 before the final judging and awards presentations on May 18.

Unity College Caloundra Year 11 student Jordan Josic said participating in the inaugural competition had already been a terrific experience.

“Our team has had so much fun coming up with our submission which is an App that clinical health professionals can use with clients to help them collate data that identifies and monitors periods of stress experienced by the client that can then be used to form the basis of support therapies and stress minimisation strategies,” Jordan said.

“It would also have a set of ‘self-help’ strategies for stress minimisation and links to supporting information online.

“Just participating in the Mayor’s Telstra Technology Awards has been an eye-opening experience. Of course, we’d love to be in the running for a share of the $20,000 in prizes but our team is also very excited to be involved in the upcoming mentoring sessions and really learn more about how to improve our idea from people with real world experience.”

All finalists’ entries will be in the running for the ‘People’s Choice’ award and details on how to vote for this will soon be available via Telstra’s social media pages.

For more information about the Sunshine Coast Mayor’s Telstra Technology Awards visit council’s website: www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au