For an impressive third year running, a King Edward’s School team will be in the UK Final of the annual PA Raspberry Pi Competition. Indeed, not one but THREE KES teams are among the finalists hoping to impress the judges at the Awards Day held at Google HQ in London next week.
The PA Raspberry Pi Competition is a celebration of STEM education, giving schoolchildren the tools and opportunity to invent products that can benefit society. Using engineering and coding skills and a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, students put their ingenuity to the test to come up with inspiring solutions to global challenges.
This year’s competition asked entrants aged 8-18yrs to invent products that will help individuals to improve their health and wellbeing, and be able to do this wherever is best for them – at home, in the office, during school or on the move. In response, the KES teams have developed three ingenious devices.
Meet the KES Finalists
- Having won the Year 4-6 category for the last two years, a Junior School team has once again been selected as a finalist. This year, the Raspberry Teddies team has invented ARTIE Bear, a product designed to help children’s mental wellbeing by offering emotional support.
An interactive product with a built-in Raspberry Pi Screen, ARTIE Bear offers support to children by responding to their different moods. A user can select a button mode in accordance with their mood (happy, sad, angry, worried etc) and ARTIE then provides different options in response, such as playing music, suggesting breathing exercises or playing different games etc.
- Competing in the Years 7-9 section, the KES Year 8 PulseTech team has built The Gauntlet, a health monitoring device worn as a glove. This allows quick heart rate information to be sent in real-time to The Gauntlet’s accompanying website, allowing users to access the data to monitor their health.
- BaeMax, the third KES team, taking part in the Year 10-11 category, has invented a social media companion – a calming desktop robot that filters negative content on social media feeds and allows users to connect with others through built in chatrooms.
At next week’s final, the teams will exhibit and present their concepts to a judging panel drawn from the likes of Google, Moderna, BAE Systems, Procter & Gamble and NHS England. They will also participate in an inclusion and diversity challenge and take part in a speed networking session with business leaders from across the UK.
Commenting on the teams’ progress to the final, Laura James, Head of Computing at the Senior School, said, “This was the first year that teams from the Senior School entered this competition and it has been a steep learning curve for all involved. Anyone dealing with physical computing projects will know how fragile circuit boards and electronic components can be.
“So, it has been truly inspiring for me to see how quickly pupils picked up concepts such as wiring a breadboard and coding components using Python. I was also pleased to see how the different teams collaborated on their ideas: from brainstorming initial ideas and designs, to making the videos, coding and then building the finished product.
“It had been a lengthy process but one that they have enjoyed and it’s amazing that two of our original four Senior School teams have made it all the way to the grand final at Google HQ.”
Samantha Cook, ICT Co-ordinator from the Junior School, added, “We had three teams from the Junior School take part in the competition this year. They were all so committed and worked relentlessly on their projects during lunch times and any moment they had spare.
“They spent time exploring the brief which then led them to research and identify what areas of health and wellbeing could be improved using technology. All teams produced very original viable solutions. Working in their teams they followed a creative and technical process from their original concepts through the design, development, programming, testing and feedback.
“Two of the teams visited our Pre-Prep to test out their inventions and gather valuable feedback which they could act upon. The Raspberry Teddies team are now incredibly busy preparing for the final at Google HQ which we are all so excited about.
“I would like to thank Mrs Mucunska and Mrs Sawyer for their support with the projects. We are so proud of our pupils and the progress they have made since November.”