Team RoboGems wins 2018 Mayor’s Telstra Technology Awards
The all-female team, RoboGems, from Chancellor State College, has taken out first place at the third annual Mayor’s Telstra Technology Awards.
The all-female team, RoboGems, from Chancellor State College, has taken out first place at the third annual Mayor’s Telstra Technology Awards.
Team members Sarah Eisenmenger, Zara Barnsley and Ellie Vloedmans designed the Kitchen Top Helper (KTH), an automated irrigation system to water micro greens in small spaces such as kitchen tops or balconies.
Sarah said the product saves water and her team wants to go on to produce it using recyclable materials.
“Our product is about being sustainable and helping the planet and through our design we are not only saving water, but helping clean up the ocean at the same time,” she said.
“We did tests regarding water usage over a couple of weeks and found our robot saved up to 1.2 litres of water a day just growing alfalfa.
“When we first designed the KTH, we were focussed on how we could make the product better but the mentors showed us that it’s not about us, it’s about the customers and how we can make their life better and the global community’s life better.
“Our team name, RoboGems, stands for Girls in Engineering, Maths and Science and we’re ambassadors for girls and women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers. We think it’s really important for the future.”
The winning students each took home a Galaxy Tab, Google Home Mini, Spark Drone and a Virtual Reality Headset valued at $1500 each. The overall prize package for all winners was valued at $10,000.
The winning team and female entrepreneur winner also won an all-expenses paid trip to Sydney to visit the Telstra Experience Centre and tour a content production studio.
Team RoboKings from Chancellor State College placed second with their design “Deuce”, an automatic tennis partner and third place was awarded to Growing Smart from Mountain Creek State High School with their farm land irrigation system.
Thirty-three students from five schools across the Sunshine Coast participated in this year’s awards which were designed to encourage the region’s young people to apply their passion for problem solving and creativity to develop solutions that could benefit a wide audience.
The competition started in February with finalists announced in April.
The 11 finalist teams participated in a four week entrepreneurial mentoring program to refine their ideas with the help of some of the Sunshine Coast’s sharpest minds with technology start-up business experience.
The Female Entrepreneur award winner Yashvi Parmar, from Growing Smart, said she was shocked and surprised to win the award.
“The awards and council are saying they want more female entrepreneurs, more girls getting involved, and it’s working,” Yashvi said.
“The idea of this award shows women can do anything and we can come out here and be entrepreneurs.
“This field hasn’t been very open towards women and winning this award broadens my idea that I can go out there and be an entrepreneur, I can go up on stage, talk to people and be recognised for what I do.
“You don’t have to go into something in order to win.
“You need to go into it because you want to do it, you want to learn, engage, have fun and gain a new experience from it.”
Mayor Mark Jamieson said council was pleased to partner with Telstra again to bring the competition to the Sunshine Coast for a third year, and show our region’s young minds the future career options and pathways offered in the technology industry.
“Initiatives like the Mayor’s Telstra Technology Awards, Start-Up Weekend, Coder Dojo, Generation Innovation, Future Careers and Big Day In all encourage our bright young minds and out-of-the-box thinkers to emerge,” Mayor Jamieson said.
“This year’s entries were by far some of the most impressive we’ve had the privilege to judge.
“Over the past four weeks we’ve been blown away by the talent, ingenuity and strategies employed by all students to take a problem and develop a solution.
“Knowledge and professional services is one of the seven high-value industries that are keys to future employment and economic prosperity on the Sunshine Coast.
“We’re very fortunate to have so many talented young people in our healthy, smart and creative region and I’m sure many of you here tonight will go on to be future leaders of the Sunshine Coast.
“I would like to thank everyone who has been involved this year, especially our partner Telstra along with the mentors, school coordinators, families, SCRIPT, Schoolzine and Beach City.”