13th February 2017

Little Big Awards 2017

Thursday 9th February – Little Big Awards 2017 Regional Final.

Mr Hodgson and Mr Carr took 9 x Year 7/8 pupils out to Preston’s College iSTEM centre to compete in the Cisco – Little Big Awards 2017 Regional Final.

A group of 9 pupils have been working every Tuesday after school in the Computing Club since September to develop a product that could be connected to the internet as part of an ‘IoT – Internet of things project. We have had ambassadors from industry working with the pupils each week. Matt- a software developer from ‘Soccer Manager’ and Karen – a manager from Computer Sciences Corporation CSC have given the pupils advice on how to develop their project.

Their idea was to develop a Medi:Bit – A wearable device for people who suffer from epilepsy. If the person has a fit then an alert is sent by radio signal to a base station which then transmits the message to the emergency services and to next of kin. The base station speaks out and talks to the person to reassure them there is help on the way. It is a potentially lifesaving idea that gives people with epilepsy the reassurance that they will be helped if they are having a seizure. Alerts are monitored via a downloadable app which can access the device remotely.

The team presented their idea in a fantastic presentation with a fully working prototype, Mobile App and video to show the architecture of the device. The judges’ feedback concluded that the All Hallows team had produced a brilliant project which served a real world problem and had simply ‘blown them all away!’ The team received a huge trophy and now 6 pupils have been invited to take their idea to the National Finals in London on March 16th.

The names of pupils involved were:-

Year 8
Joshua Lowe

Year 7
Elise Ainsworth, Coel Aspey, Cameron Day, Yasmin Day, George Straker, Edward Swarbrick, Jacob Walne, Johnny Whitworth

It was a super day and the pupils involved did a brilliant job at presenting their idea. They deserved to win the competition and trophy.

Mr Hodgson.