2023 Year 3 Winners

Best Entry Overall

Fluffy Bot

Fluffy Bot is a mental health helper and friend who can talk to people about their problems. Fluffy bot is in the shape of a cuddly toy to make it feel like a safe person to talk to. Fluffy bot will use artificial intelligence to be able to talk to the owner about their problems and give them help. Fluffy bot is different from psychiatrists and psychologists because it can help to prevent problems, solve small problems before they get too big, and can give help to people who are too shy to get help in other ways.

Winner:  Perth College

Best Use of STEM

Snake Scarer Device

The problem is that people are getting hurt by snakes. There are lots of snakes in Australia that are poisonous. Australia has around 140 species of land snakes, and 32 recorded species of sea snakes. Around 100 Australian snakes are venomous, although only 12 are likely to inflict a wound that could kill you. Current solutions are, people use long pants, gloves, leather boots and very thick wellies, thick clothes or other things that can stop snakes fangs from sinking into your body. Snakes are scared of vibration so you can make some noise and vibrations to scare snakes away. Our solution is the Snake Scarer which will scare the snake because it will make vibrations. The snake Scarer is worn on your head because it is a hat. A fake snake springs out of your hat and lands in front of the real snake.

Winner:  Perth College

Best Presentation

Children Are The Future

We need peoples’ behaviour to change for a more sustainable future. This project will create a program for kids on how to live more sustainably. A program designed for kids, by kids. The Energetic Environmental Experts (EEE) website will contain videos, articles, downloadable fact sheets, games and more!

Winner:  Mount Claremont Primary

2023 Year 4 Winners

Best Entry Overall

Space Junk Collector

The problem we are trying to solve is to prevent space junk from hitting the Earth. Did you know, that every year the weight equivalent to 20 elephants of space junk falls through the atmosphere and lands on our planet! Our Space Junk Collector Machine will endeavour to collect and destroy the space debris before it can hit the Earth. We looked at the technology and machines used to clean the ocean to help design a machine to remove space junk and keep Earth safe.

Winner:  John XXIII College

Best Use of STEM 

Ocean Robot

We are trying to reduce the rubbish in our oceans. We have designed a robot and system that uses satires, solar panels, sensors and a ground station that uses an automated system to continually collect rubbish from the ocean.

Winner:  Shelley Primary School

Best Presentation

Spectrum Squares

Our project has a very important purpose, which is Autism. It is aimed towards one of our team members, and other children just like him, who actually have Autism. We decided to make the quadrants after researching that people with Autism struggle with sensory skills. We planned to make quadrants with feelings, colours and designs that people with Autism enjoy. For example, people with Autism enjoy neutral colours, numbers, letters, and the scent ‘lavender’. This is why we decided to add designs on the squares such as numbers, letters, flowers and art. We also decided to add the strong, relaxing smell of lavender because we researched that people with Autism like strong smells like this. We also researched that there are three levels of Autism: level one is when people may just seem awkward, level two is when people may know someone has a medium disability because of their behaviour and reactions, level three is when people will know someone has a severe disability because they often don’t speak and may need a carer to help them each day.

Winner:  St Paul’s Primary School

2023 Year 5 Winners

Best Entry Overall

Visionary Walking Stick

Our design is to help vision impaired people to navigate their surrounding. It will include speakers, microbit sensors and a walking stick. It will help people understand their surroundings by telling them what’s around them. If there is something in from of them it will state “Object in front of you”. We hope to develop a code that will identify the object. The sensor flashes it’s light and uses that light to map out the surroundings.

Winner:  Shelley Primary School

Best Use of STEM

Word 3D Room

We have designed a sensory space that will help students with autism. It will include areas and resources to support them relaxing, breathing and playing. We are designing a fan bot that will be a sensory toy that is constructed with reusable materials.

Winner:  Shelley Primary School

Best Presentation

Oil Free Oceans

The problem we are trying to solve is oil spills in the ocean. This major problem affects over 25,900 marine animals. Our invention would be great because it is easy to make, solves the massive problem of oil spills and doesn’t cost very much. Our invention will catch oil using a filtration device and store it so it can be properly disposed of. It’s designed to be environmentally friendly, making sure no fish or wildlife get caught. There are annotations on the next page.

Winner:  Perth College

2023 Year 6 Winners

Best Entry Overall

Sustainable Pens

Our group wants to use STEM to reduce plastic use. Every year, over 10 billion disposable pens are thrown into landfills all over the world. In Australia, over 140 million pens add 700 tonnes of plastic waste to landfill annually. People currently use plastic pens as a disposable item. However, the resources needed to make them and dispose of them are not sustainable. We are designing a pen that is sustainable to create, will decompose without harming the environment or people, and is affordable and fun. The pen will be made from sustainable plastic alternatives including bamboo, seaweed and natural inks. We want to encourage people to not dispose of pens, but to keep and refill them. So, we will offer personalised pens, with names or designs on them that make them special and unique to their owner.

Winner:  Mount Claremont Primary

Best Use of STEM 

Natural Disaster Housing

Our problem is safe housing from natural disasters such as earthquakes, flooding and bushfires.it will solve the problem by using materials that are insulating, waterproof and fire resistant. The shape of the building is a pyramid as it is the most stable shape for withstanding earthquakes. We are aiming to make it as cost-effective as possible for struggling communities.

Winner:  Shelley Primary School

Best Presentation

Fast Fashion

Problem: Stores produce cheap clothing for consumers to buy, once they buy it, they may wear it a few times but then throw it out into landfill. With every new trend new fashion follows, making consumers purchase new clothing weekly. Approximately 200,000,000 kilograms of clothing and textiles go to landfill every year. For comparison, 200,000,000 kilograms is about the weight of 1000 fully-grown Blue Wales. Idea: Big clothing brands like The Iconic, David Jones and Cotton On could pay a small fee per clothing piece sold. These funds would go towards a collection centre where they would be recycled into new stuff. To encourage people to do this, each clothing turned in would give you some amount of money, like 10c for example. It would be a similar strategy to containers for change.

Winner:  Beaconsfield Primary 

2023 Year 7/8 Winners

Best Entry Overall

Ash Press Housing

We are focusing on the world problem of carbon emissions being produced by current houses. Low-carbon housing will be important to homeowners and almost all Australian Citizens, who are being impacted by this problem of unsustainable high-carbon housing, creating a domino effect in the future, and causing further problems. It relates to the idea of “people” with how the idea of ‘who’ is affected, and “place” becomes the focal point of our design issue to solve. “Prosperity” is implemented through the issue being solved and the use of “space” will help us achieve our main goal and solution. It is important to solve the problem of lowering carbon emissions being produced since powering a house in the future is a broad problem for citizens and homeowners as they are currently being affected by this. To narrow this problem down, we decided to innovate a solution that optimises the use of carbon emissions to power a house in 2040. Not only will our innovation insist on a low carbon footprint design to power a home in 2040, implementing passive design, but it will also help limit global warming, climate change and air pollution. To attain this goal, we have designed a house plan that uses 7 components to create a house that emits low carbon, each contributes to the transfer and powering of the house. Using materials like fly ash, which reduces 10 % of carbon emissions, can reduce the amount of energy used when constructing the house as well as the energy produced by it. Our outcome is to achieve a low-carbon house, implementing a passive design, that produces minimized carbon emissions, as carbon emissions are the cause of many other world problems, such as global warming, climate change and air pollution.

Winner:  Harrisdale Senior High School

Best Use of STEM 

Astro Spin

AstroSpin is environmentally friendly, it is durable and cost efficient it is a great replacement for traditional rocket launching, all tho it cannot launch humans it can launch satellites and cameras into orbit. It can also swallow any small amounts of space junk that comes in its way. The cost of each launch is $250,000 which is way cheaper than normal launching (normal launching costing a couple million dollars).

Winner:  Bunbury Senior High School

Best Presentation

Locator For The Angels

The idea is to Design a tracker for the elderly with dementia/Alzheimer’s. I have firsthand seen how people with dementia like to run away because my grandmother has dementia and my grandad has had to contact many people in order to find her. And if it looks like jewellery then there would be a higher chance that they would wear it. This is a worldwide issue that currently affects over 55 million people. There is 10 million new cases of dementia ever year. This is especially prominent in women as statistically are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s and dementia then men. The targeted audience would be the elderly ages 70 years to 85 years.

Winner:  Shenton College

2023 Year 9 Winners

Best Entry Overall

Suberashi

The world’s energy needs are expanding every single day and at the same time, our valuable resources are depleting. Along with that, greenhouse gases are flooding our atmosphere. These are problems being faced by the environment and will affect the many generations to come. Fossil fuels that we currently use for our energy needs such as natural gas, coal and oil can be replaced by solar panels. But even those are not perfect. Majority of the world’s waste comes from households. We are proposing a solution to allow households to generate, control and store their own renewable energy and become a carbon free household with the use of AI, improved batteries and solar panels which can capture more energy. This solution is called the Subarashii, standing for Self-Utilised Bot Aided Recovering and Safe Home Intelligence Inc. This artificial intelligence is hooked up to solar panels and a house and aims to solve the problem of renewable energy while working to increase efficiency. The solar panels absorb sunlight which is then connected to the AI. The AI then decides where to distribute the energy according to the electricity usage in each room. For example, a room that is currently not being used requires the AI to provide no electricity toward that room but more energy towards rooms that are currently being used. The more electronic devices being used in a room, the more energy distributed to that room for maximum efficiency while saving energy for rooms which are to be used later. The AI also monitors the use of energy depending on the time of day and alters the angle at which the solar panels are facing so that they are facing towards the sun. This ensures maximum efficiency in the home while using electricity. Our solution hopes to preserve the earth and its atmosphere so that it is safe to live in for the future generations to come.

Winner:  Harrisdale Senior High School

Best Use of STEM 

The Life Cart

Many people around the world suffer from a water source that is unclean, and they are forced to drink that disgusting water to survive. Some numbers suggest that up to 26% of the world’s population don’t have access to clean drinking water in their homes. These countries range from Papua New Guinea, to Uganda, to Pakistan. People in those countries could get diarrhea, vomiting, and various other illnesses, or even death, just from drinking that unclean water. This is why I present to you, the Life Cart. This cart boils water, and condensates the water vapour, making even the most unclean of river water, or even seawater, into a safe, drinkable water, through the process of distillation. My goal is to get households around the world safe and clean drinking water, so they are not put at risk every time they take their cup to their mouths.

Winner:  Bunbury Senior High School

Best Presentation

Cargo Link

The problems we are trying to solve are the slow, inefficient, and inconsistent delivery times and expensive fees for domestic deliveries, targeting the UN Goals 9 and 11. This problem comes in three parts. The first part is that prices are high as delivery fees increase the price of goods and services. The second part is that people in urban areas endure long delivery times with delays, and the third part is that the bottleneck in the supply chain makes a lot of goods and services inaccessible to people living in rural and remote communities. This is due to the flaws that are within our current system, like delays caused by road conditions, weather, and ineffective planning [1]. Consumers within urban and rural areas are affected by this inefficient delivery system, especially as more than two-thirds of consumers are affected by delivery problems [2]. By solving this problem of logistics, the price of goods and services will decrease, and more needs and wants can be fulfilled for groups in both urban and rural areas, allowing higher living standards and growth in the economy. We also plan to reduce carbon emissions from our heavily car-based domestic delivery system, allowing our cities to remain more sustainable for the future. Our project consists of different modules connected to each other and to consumers’ houses. These modules will be circular, in which a capsule will be placed and pulled by electromagnets. This will make deliveries faster than conventional methods while also being feasible to manufacture. The capsules will have a very simple design, consisting of a metal shell and wheels that will roll on the inside of the modules. The modules will have locks in case of damage that will seal shut to prevent packages from crashing into each other in congested areas. This will further help repairability as the modularity will allow for quick replacement and repair or recycling of damaged modules. With this project, we want to enhance delivery so that carbon emissions are lowered, delivery times are drastically reduced, and rural areas will have better access to a large variety of goods and services.

Winner:  Harrisdale Senior High

2023 Year 10 Winners

Best Entry Overall

Bee Drones

Our project aligns with UN Sustainable Goal 2, addressing world hunger and food security. Climate change poses a significant threat to bee populations, with predictions of extinction by 2050 without intervention. In Australia, heavily reliant on agriculture, this issue is particularly pertinent. Our innovation, the “drone bee,” draws inspiration from bee pollination and offers customizable functionalities, including soil sampling, health monitoring, seed planting, livestock surveillance, and pest control, allowing farmers to choose add-on features. Powered by solar energy, these drones return to rooftop charging arrays when low on power, functioning like a public transport system for entire regions. Orders can be placed via a user-friendly app. Beyond agriculture, the drone bee finds practical applications in bushfire detection, AI-based pest control, wildlife monitoring, and soil health assessment. We’re developing a scheduling app to facilitate data sharing with farmer consent, fostering knowledge exchange. In the current environmental consciousness context, the drone bee contributes to biodiversity projects, such as creating wildlife corridors for habitat protection and animal movement, thanks to its monitoring, pollinating, and portable capabilities.

There are several benefits to our solution which allows it to solve the problem at hand. First and foremost, we think that this idea is revolutionary due to its highly realistic potential due to the rising increase of the use of AI. This means that the idea would be quite easily implemented in the present world. In addition, it reduces the litter on the side of highways, thus reducing the risk on animals which may eat the litter. It also ensures reduced soil contamination by picking the rubbish up, preventing the plastics from the litter from intoxicating the soil and affecting plant growth. Also, this will be cost effective after initial costs of manufacturing the robots since they are solar powered and they will reduce costs of man labour which would have been required if humans were to pick up the rubbish.

Winner:  Perth Modern

Best Use of STEM 

Rubbish Collector on Highways

We are looking to solve the increasing issue of litter on the highway due to people throwing their rubbish out of cars due to there not being bins. This is becoming a major issue in Australia for both Australian wildlife and the environment. Many animals are eating or getting stuck in rubbish and waste that is thrown out of vehicles on highways. This is becoming an increasing issue as more animals are dying each year. According to WWF, plastic pollution is one of the greatest threats to wildlife in our world today and the large amounts of rubbish including food, chip packets, plastic wrappers and tin cans on highways mean a large threat to native animals in Australia. Adding on, waste also causes toxic pollution in the environment. This is because, as litter degrades, several microparticles and chemicals are released which can cause several problems to the environment since they are not natural. Therefore, these waste products on highways not only cause air pollution but also contaminate the soil.

There are several benefits to our solution which allows it to solve the problem at hand. First and foremost, we think that this idea is revolutionary due to its highly realistic potential due to the rising increase of the use of AI. This means that the idea would be quite easily implemented in the present world. In addition, it reduces the litter on the side of highways, thus reducing the risk on animals which may eat the litter. It also ensures reduced soil contamination by picking the rubbish up, preventing the plastics from the litter from intoxicating the soil and affecting plant growth. Also, this will be cost effective after initial costs of manufacturing the robots since they are solar powered and they will reduce costs of man labour which would have been required if humans were to pick up the rubbish.

Winner:  Shenton College

Best Presentation

Methane Monkeys

The problem that our group is trying is the methane gas released from abandoned mines, by making the methane that we produce into cyanamide fertilizer which we can sell to fertilizer companies, of which the profits from selling the fertilizer will go to restoring the mines. As we saw that the problem of abandoned mines were being neglected by most mining companies and that the methane that is released from them causes detrimental harm to the environment, we decided to choose this issue. Our solution to this problem will benefit many different people such as; the people living near the abandoned mines due to the methane and toxic gasses that will be removed from their atmosphere. The environment will benefit due to the removal of a major methane producer which reduces global warming. And the fertilizer companies as we will be supplying them with a product that they can sell for a profit.

Winner:  Shenton College