By Anne Widjaja
SAP has announced the winners of the 2012 NSW Young ICT Explorers (YICTE) competition, which took place on Saturday 4 August at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
Run by the SAP Research team, the school-based YICTE competition is designed to encourage young people to develop technology projects across the ICT spectrum and share their creative ideas. Students compete in teams across year 4-12.
In the last two years, the competition has been running in Queensland’s primary and secondary schools, and was launched for the first time in NSW.
This year’s competition saw a total of 36 schools participating across NSW and ACT. Over 50 projects from 16 schools were showcased at UNSW for judging. A judging panel of academics, industry partners and ICT professionals evaluated each project on creativity, uniqueness, quality, level of difficulty and project documentation.
Karsten Schulz, head of SAP Research in the Asia Pacific region and founder of the competition, said that the panel was “blown away” by the “creativity, the innovation and the thinking that goes on behind getting many of these projects up”.
The winning teams are:
Years 4-6
• 1st: Abbotsleigh Junior School with the Super Safety Project. Angela Seitan, Emma Edwards and Julia Kelland created stop motion animations that teach primary school children about safety online, in the sun and on the road.
• 2nd: Wahroonga Public School with the Jonamse Training and Entertaining Robot. Jono Steer, James Casey and Sean Edwards designed a robot to teach a toddler about colours, which dances when they succeed.
• 3rd:: Roseville College with ‘Vas Happening’. Jess Hing, Lindsay Segreto and Emily Dawson set up a One Direction fan page.
• Merit award: Roseville College with Global Warming project. Alex Forbes, Lucy Gattas and Sonvi Karve used claymation in a movie on Antarctica.
Years 7–8
• 1st: De La Salle College with The Battery Meter Report. Victor Tran made a meter which shows how much battery you have on your device.
• 2nd: Newington College with Solar Powered Mac Charger. Michael Knox created a solar panel MacBook Pro charger.
• 3rd:Monte Sant Angelo Mercy College with the Barrels of Fun project. Anna Bonadeo, Yasmin Bamford and Gaby Plazas created a portable and easy to use toy.
• Merit Award: Newington College. Torc. Harry Johnson and Cameron Kirk built an app which activates another phone’s camera by text.
Years 9 –10
• 1st: Newington College with iSchool Application for Iphone/IpodTouch. Darayus Nanavati and Rowan Whiteman created an app to help Newington College students stay up to date with the latest assignments, tests and schedule changes at their school.
• 2nd: Macarthur Anglican School with A Blissymbol to 3D AR programme. David Fyvie, Stuart Mcintosh, Daniel Tanios and Tobias Morgan came up with a programme that helps people who cannot read and write in English to be able to translate English words into blissymbols.
• 3rd: James Ruse Agricultural High School with the Galactic Conquest project. Royce Gu, Jesse Gong and Winney Kuang designed a classic top-down shooter game.
• Merit Award: James Ruse Agricultural High School with Scott++ project. Matthew Chen, Michael Sun and Alexander Yeung put together a single player, bitmap graphic platform game.
Years 11–12
• 1st: Oxford Falls Grammar School with Inroad. Deinyon Davies created an original, visual effect driven HSC IT Multimedia Major Work with an accompanying promotional website and flash mini-game. The film incorporates a wide array of visual effects and multimedia technologies.
• 2nd: St Andrews Cathedral with World War Ridiculous game. Isaac Gresham built a top-down shooter game, complete with Tron-inspired graphics and lasers.
• 3rd: ACT-based Dickson College with the Universal Radio Control Gamepad Adapter. Kris Paice and Steven Walker developed an adapter that opens the human control interface of radio control aircrafts.
Student Choice Award
• Years 4-6: Roseville College with the Digital Paradise project. Eloise Buining, Angelique Manconi, Georgia Smith and Ebony Hanna put together a photography blog aimed to get people around the ages of 12-14 entertained, thinking, and interested in taking pictures.
The Queensland judging event will take place on Saturday, 11 August 2012 at University of Queensland.
Last week, SAP won the 2012 Australian Business Award for Community Contribution for the Young ICT Explorers competition.
The award recognises organisations which implement policies or execute projects that positively impact on the community and generate outcomes with long-term benefits.
Tara Johnston, program director of The Australian Business Awards, said: “These types of accolades don’t come easily – they are underpinned by vision and leadership, both of which require a clear dedication to research and development.”
