More than 170 technologically minded Queensland primary and secondary school students converged on The University of Queensland (UQ) campus recently to showcase their technological prowess.
The Young ICT Explorers competition involved 68 student teams displaying innovative Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects they have created.
Run in partnership between UQ and software company SAP Research, the Young ICT Explorers competition aims to foster the development of ICT skills in school students to reflect their increasing importance within society.
Head of UQ’s School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Professor Paul Strooper, said the demand for ICT professionals was growing, so it was important to foster student interest in the industry.
“Young ICT Explorers is a fantastic opportunity for students to gain hands on technological experience and to receive feedback on the projects they have developed,” Professor Strooper said.
“It is always interesting to see the fantastic projects students have developed, all of whom have a bright future ahead of them.”
Awarded projects included a novel lossless audio compression software, a claymation movie, an environmental awareness game and a bi-lingual French and Japanese tutor.
Students of the winning teams received iPods, as well as an iPad for the class room.
Head of SAP Research for the Asia Pacific and Japan regions, Adjunct Professor Karsten Schulz, said the event continues to exceed his expectations each year.
“This event always generates a hive of activity within the classroom and raises the profile of the ICT industry amongst student cohorts,” Adjunct Professor Schulz said.
Photos of the winning teams and award ceremony are available on request.
For more information on the winning projects or the event itself, please visit www.youngictexplorers.net.au.
Media: Madelene Flanagan, m.flanagan@uq.edu.au or 3365 8525.
Winning teams
Years 4 to 5
1st Place: The BFPPF Website
Good News Lutheran School: Joline Liao, Brynlea Gibson and Sophie Baird
The BFPPF website contains fun and helpful information for young people.
2nd Place: Crazy Alien Dude
Mansfield State High School: Aidan Docherty
Crazy Alien Dude is a stop-motion movie.
3rd Place: Robot Movie
St Anthony's Catholic Primary School: Thomas Holzberger, Cody Shields and Reegan Banker
The students programmed a Lego robot to follow a course and hit a ball into a goal. They then filmed the robot in action to reveal the outcome.
Years 6 to 7
1st Place: Cool Lights
Villanova College: Alex Williams and Jack Riley
The students created LED "ice cubes" using LEDs and resin. They were then programmed to flash various sequences.
2nd Place: Junk Food Tower Defence
Ironside State School: Dominic Mercer, Liam Joyce, Georgia Silvestri and Fraser Martin
The Junk Food Tower Defence is a game which contains information on tooth decay and dental care in general. The game involves junk food travelling along a path on its way to a mouth.
Joint 3rd Place: Your Weather
A B Paterson College: Natalie Keeble, Shelby Baston Claudia Tapsall and Ezza Khan
‘Your Weather’ is a website that contains information, games, blogs, links and facts.
AND
3rd Place: Imagination, Walk
Kippa-Ring State School: Zachary Malcolm Angus Morton and Jordan Innes
‘Imagination Walk’ is a claymation movie, with a theme of imagination and an underlying theme that anything is possible. The movie was put together using photo story, powerpoint, movie maker and hammer head.
Years 8 to 9
Joint 1st Place: Cryptum.NET
Cannon Hill Anglican College: Liam Edwards-Playne and Jack McPherson
Cryptum.NET is a website hosted on a shared server by an American based web hosting company called JustHost. It is coded in PHP5, HTML5, CSS and uses SQL databases. Its main purpose is to provide articles concerning computer science.
AND
1st Place: Puzl
Anglican Church Grammar School: Hugo Kawamata
Puzl is a platform game. In the game the player controls a small piece of coloured plastic which jumps and moves around a blocky setting.
2nd Place: Save Our Planet
Caboolture State High School: Amanda Gian
‘Save our Planet’ is a video about environmental problems that humans have caused and provides solutions for these problems. It mainly focuses on the different types of environmental problems.
3rd Place: Infinity Saga
Marist College Ashgrove: Cameron Lake
The game ‘Infinity Saga’ allows the user to be a ninja with the aim of reaching the end of the levels. As a ninja, the user is required to fight enemies and Bosses along the way. Its storyline focuses on time travel.
Years 10 to 12
1st Place: A novel approach to lossless audio compression
Queensland Academy of Science Maths and Technology: Lucky Katahanas
This project demonstrates a novel approach to Lossless Audio Compression. In a realistic case, the algorithm presented trades computational complexity, memory usage and design complexity in order to maximize compression efficiency with respect to information entropy.
2nd Place: Bi-Lingual Tutor
Marist College Ashgrove: Joseph Garrone and Matthew Lake
This Project is a Bi-Lingual French and Japanese tutor for middle school students. It aims to assist students studying these subjects with tutorials and self-paced lessons that are marked, giving students feedback.
3rd Place: The Adventures of Doug also with Wizards
Caboolture State High School: Ben Little and Lachlan Spencer
The animation is about a man called Doug who finds himself sucked into a computer and trapped within the virtual world.
Student Choice Award: Automatic Light Switch Indooroopilly State High School: Murray Goebel and Makenzie Moor
Merit Award for Excellence in Marketing: Mr Green- Keeping the environment clean Clairvaux Mackillop College: Brendan Roffey, Christiane Malapitan, Justin Phan and Sharon Ramanathan
Merit Award for Excellence in Difficulty: Robotic Stretton State College: Matthew Ryan
Merit Award for Excellence in Creativity: Crazy Alien Dude Mansfield State High School: Aidan Docherty
