21 Jun Local teens in running for 2017 TeenTech Awards
by Dan Bryans
For the last nine months, 2,000 of the UK’s most creative teenagers have been hard at work saving the world – and now the moment of truth has arrived. From floating cities built to tackle rising sea levels, to kinetic batteries aimed at getting kids moving, the teens have come up with a range of incredible innovations aimed at solving the planet’s most pressing problems.
The pioneering teens are competing in the 2017 TeenTech Awards, an initiative run by TeenTech with leading industry partners that challenges young people aged 11-18 to develop solutions to key societal, health and environmental issues using the power of science, technology and engineering.
Today, 2017’s 63 projects and 143 TeenTech finalists were unveiled. And for the second year running, girls are leading the charge, with 56% of the short-list female.
Innovations include; a biometric bike lock that lets riders ‘stick’ their bike to any metal surface using electromagnets (Alexander Park School, London), a phone charger that uses physical movement to help reduce obesity (Mill Hill School, London), curative contact lenses for hay-fever sufferers (Oldham 6th Form College, Greater Manchester), affordable and ecological micro-homes to tackle the world’s housing crisis (Thurston Community College, Bury St Edmunds), a ‘hearable’ that acts as a personal satnav for the visually impaired (Woldingham School, Surrey) and a floating city designed to cope with rising sea levels (Sheffield High School, Sheffield).
TeenTech co-founder and Tomorrow’s World presenter Maggie Philbin OBE says: “This is the fifth annual TeenTech Awards and we’re constantly blown away by the standard of entries. 2017 has been no exception and we’re seeing again how with the right support and encouragement, young people are more than capable of shaping their own future.
