Apps to change the world - outstanding creativity at BelTech EDU 2021
Our Security Engineer and NIAA Higher Apprentice of the Year 2021 James Matchett summarises this year's BelTech EDU and runs us through the fantastic winning apps.
Each year as part of BelTech, the annual technology event that Kainos curates, we also run BelTech Edu, an app-design competition aimed at secondary school pupils to inspire creativity and give the pupils a platform for them to bring their problem solving ideas to life.
This year, the pupils across Northern Ireland were given a brief, to design an app that:
- Brings people together during lockdown
- Innovates in education
- Solves a problem faced by many people
- Sustainably improves the planet for the better
Other than that, the brief was entirely open-ended and any submissions were entirely from the inspiration and imagination of the pupils.
The originality, creativity, and the level of execution in each submission was of industry standard rather than the classroom!
First place: Storm and Hope Ballantyne for their period poverty app
This app design tackled the very real and prominent problem of lack of access to sanitary products, especially among school pupils who feel the matter is taboo and are afraid to request help or assistance acquiring them in person.
The judges were simply amazed at the level of problem research Storm and Hope undertook to understand and analyse the problem. They reached out to the captain of the Northern Ireland football team for advice, researched existing sanitary product schemes and considered the executive sponsorship required for their app design to function.
It goes beyond just supplying access to these products for free; the app includes physical and mental wellbeing advice to its users to encourage them not to drop out of their usual activities and routines, something that their user research highlighted as an issue.
The UI was extremely well put together, and the whole design spoke volumes of the forethought, planning and research that had gone into the idea.
Second place: Sam Jardine and Harrison Gill for their remote education app
This app set out to combat the core issue of remote learning that both of the authors experienced first-hand during the height of the pandemic, which is the struggle of both pupils and teachers staying on top of the education being delivered without falling behind by potentially missing messages, resources and other communications vital for remote learning.
Their design allows a pupil to see everything that they may have missed from a single screen, and offers a means for teachers to be able to track academic performance as well as mental wellbeing, something that I personally feel is sorely needed in today's educational ecosystem. The judges very much appreciated how the authors used their own personal experiences during the pandemic to shape their app's features.
Third place: Criofan Savage for their electric vehicle charger locating app
This app tackles a real world problem that will be extremely prominent in the coming years - the fact that EV (Electric Vehicle) sales are booming, yet the deployment of new electric vehicle charging stations is stagnant. The app helps drivers locate and book EV charging slots. It includes features such as booking it for a set period of time and choosing the type of charger needed.
The judges loved how the app also displayed local amenities and the cleanliness of the UI designed. It approaches a real world problem in a mature way with forward-looking research and is an idea seeking to stay ahead of the curve, before it becomes a critical issue!
Fourth place: Lauren Bond for their science backed diet app
This app tackles the widespread problem of ineffective and potentially dangerous 'fad diets' as well as presenting the user a comprehensive cost-to-nutrition analysis to dispel the myth that healthy eating has to be expensive and effectively promotes healthy eating to all audiences, especially those currently under-represented by apps of this nature.
The judges loved how the app approached the problem by delivering safe, achievable results across a long-term, instead of how other apps would approach the issue. As the author said during their presentation "Most people just need a slight nudge towards healthier eating". The style of presentation was extremely persuasive in convincing the judges of the purpose and need of the application.
Despite having to take place entirely remotely due to the pandemic, I feel this year's BelTech EDU was extremely successful and the strength of the submissions has shown me that secondary school pupils simply have so many great ideas to offer the world if you give them a platform to do so!
What did you think of our four winners for BelTech EDU this year? Which idea do you think has the potential for the most change?