News – Blog
Innovators of tomorrow: Announcing the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize winners!
15 July 2021
- Franklina Owusu-Brobbey
From a two-way AI-enabled British Sign Language (BSL) translator to a self-contained digester box that uses mealworm larvae – the innovation and quality of this year’s winners of the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize was incredible!
The Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize challenges young, innovative minds to design and develop technological solutions to the big issues of our time that deliver social good. The competition is free for all 11-16 year olds to enter, with resources and support provided throughout the academic year. By distributing £40,000 in prize money to the winners and runner-ups, it is one of the biggest prizes of its kind for schools in the UK. The winning teams can use the funding to develop their ideas further, supporting entrepreneurship, science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) development at their school or youth group.
Our expert panel of judges had the really challenging task of selecting onlyfour teams out of 40 to receive prizes. The winning ideas were announced today at our virtual Awards ceremony with speakers such as Lauren Kisser, Director at Amazon’s Development Centre in Cambridge and Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize judge who said:
Every entry in this year’s final has demonstrated serious ingenuity and creativity. It has been really exciting to see the finalists commit themselves to the process and develop their ideas into prototypes with support from Amazon mentors.
Winner
The overall winner chosen was BSL: Educate-2-Translate, a two-way AI-enabled British Sign Language (BSL) translator.
Inspired by the experience of their friend who is deaf – as well as the experience of the 11 million people in the UK who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and the UK’s 151,000 BSL speakers – the team designed, developed and coded BSL: Educate-2-Translate to interpret BSL and translate it into spoken English, and likewise translate spoken English into BSL videos. In addition, the app aims to teach BSL to non-speakers with personalised feedback to video footage of the user practising.
What did the judges say?
The expert judging pane commended BSL: Educate-2-Translate as “a cutting-edge project, with impressive teamwork. The team demonstrated an advanced use of technology and AI, creating a complex prototype that is simple to use”. The judging panel also commented that BSL: Educate-2-Translate shows great potential with large investors and were impressed by the young team’s business plan
Runners-up
Three runners up were also chosen by the judges who will win £5,000 each for their schools. Congratulations!
Plasticivore – Insect-Powered Plastic Digester by The Real Meal team
Plasticivore is a self-contained digester box, designed for both homes and businesses, that uses mealworm larvae to break down non-recyclable plastic waste. Using sensors, the box can be remotely monitored to ensure optimal conditions for decomposition.
The judges commended the teamwork clearly shown in this project and were impressed by the forward-thinking concept. They believed the project was innovative and showed a lot of work to develop an alternative solution to a common problem, and were particularly impressed with the team’s prototype that works in real life.
Pura-Sky: Bluetooth Pollution Device by the LA Besties team
Pura-Sky is a device that can be worn as a badge or wristband that measures air pollution in the wearers vicinity and shares advice to reduce their exposure.
The judges felt this was a really impressive project, with a working prototype, bringing attention to the important issue of air pollution
Rainforest DRAGEN project by the Rainforest DRAGEN team
Rainforest DRAGEN project is a piece of monitoring hardware for recording environmental data in communities living in and by rainforests to promote conservation. It has a companion website for sharing the data and learnings to enable young people across the world to build their own versions. The team has worked with other young people in Borneo and Rwanda already.
The judges felt this was an innovative platform, with a wide range of users and intersects technology and young people impressively, with great outreach to communities around the world undertaken already.
People’s Choice Award Winner
In addition, thousands of votes were cast by the public to crown Bioclear by Team Elektrica the winners of the People’s Choice Award, receiving £5,000 for their school.
Bioclear is a spherical robot that operates in water to detect and remove microplastics through infrared sensors, trapping them as a ferrofluid (made with oil and magnetite) to magnets in the back of the biobot, whilst allowing purified water to escape through a manta net.
What did the judges say?
The Judges were also hugely impressed with this entry, considering it to be of a similar quality to the runners up and were pleased to see the enthusiasm that the public showed for it.
Congratulations to the winners – we are so excited to see where you take your projects next! And to our other finalist teams – a huge well done for completing your projects and to such a high standard that our judges agonised over every decision. All of the teams should all be incredibly proud and we know each and every one of you will go on to do amazing things.
