Schlagwort: Melissa Pickering

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Wow, we haven’t stopped smiling since yesterday’s live Coolest Projects celebration! Hosts Maddie Moate and Greg Foot led us through a live online event jam-packed with stories from participants, cool tech creations, and inspiring messages from our special judges. AND they revealed whose projects the judges picked as their favourites from among all of this year’s projects — congrats to the favourites’ creators, and to everyone who has participated in Coolest Projects online 2021!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS6lTKoaOKA?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

1385 young tech creators from 47 countries are part of this year’s Coolest Projects online, and they have shared 1168 wonderful projects with the world in the showcase gallery! For yesterday’s celebration live stream, the whole Coolest Projects community came together to applaud all the creators for their dedication, creativity, and love for making things with tech.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxHuGhbdwqc?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

So which projects did the special judges choose as their favourites from among all these amazing creations? Here are this year’s favourites, and why the judges have chosen them!

Colin Furze’s favourites

Colin Furze is a British YouTube personality, presenter, inventor, and five-time Guinness world record holder from Lincolnshire, England. See all his favourites:

• Vivien, from the USA, with the Hardware project A Consumer IoT Seismometer for Earthquake Early Warning. Why Colin chose this: “An impressive project”
• Yusuf and Ömer Faruk, from Turkey, with the Unity-based Game project Science Fighter. Why Colin chose this project: “The idea behind Science Fighter is magical”
• Clara, Hannah, and Alondra, from a CoderDojo in the USA, with the Web project Zoom Chat: New and Improved. Why Colin chose this project: “The simplicity of this is fantastic”
• Muntadar, from a CoderDojo in Iraq, with the Scratch project Math Race. Why Colin chose this project: “A great little game”
• Dillon, from a CoderDojo in Ireland, with the Mobile App project Safe Circle. Why Colin chose this: “A brilliant and complete project”
• Nathaniel, from the USA, with the Advanced Programming project Using Machine Learning To Mind Control A Flamethrower. Why Colin chose this project: “Alan Pan would be proud”

Melissa Pickering’s favourites

Melissa Pickering is Head of Product at LEGO Education, leading a cross-functional team to design and develop learning through play experiences for kids globally. See all her favourites:

• Lavie, from the USA, with the Hardware project Playable Lego Steinway Piano. Why Melissa chose this project: “A true engineer’s journey”
• Niamh, from a CoderDojo in Ireland, with the VR-based Game project Escape the Maze. Why Melissa chose this project: “Super skill-building”
• Theo, from a Code Club in the UK, with the Web project Bookwriggle. Why Melissa chose this project: “Excellent approach”
• Patrick Elliot, from Indonesia, with the Scratch project Rocket Game. Why Melissa chose this project: “Simply fun”
• Yuvati, from India, with the Mobile App project Hospito. Why Melissa chose this project: “So timely and relevant”
• Arvin, from the USA, with the Advanced Programming project A Deep Learning Based Backyard Squirrel Detection System Utilizing Raspberry Pi. Why Melissa chose this project: “A fantastic way to apply statistics and data science”

Fig O’Reilly’s  favourites

Fionnghuala O’Reilly is an Irish-American model, beauty pageant titleholder, engineer, and NASA Datanaut. Fig is a passionate advocate for women and diversity in STEM subjects. See all her favourites:

• Sonali, Lina, and Samiksha, from a Code Club in India, with the Hardware project, Anti-touching face cap for COVID-19. Why Fig chose this project: “Very timely (and fashionable!)”
• Colvin, from the USA, with the Minecraft-based Game project Coolest Minecraft Mod. Why Fig chose this project: “A lot of attention to detail”
• Anna and Harry, from the UK, with the Web project Pen and paper puzzles. Why Fig chose this project: “Because of the skill used on the front end and back end of the site”
• Althafazrais, from Indonesia, with the Scratch project Mars Rover Simulator. Why Fig chose this project: “Informative and fun”
• Kayleigh and Kaitlyn, from Ireland, with the Mobile App project Give Me That ENERGY!. Why Fig chose this project: “Built for the creators’ community”
• Pradnyan, from a Code Club in India, with the Advanced Programming project Gaze Controlled Keyboard. Why Fig chose this project: “An innovative solution”

James Whelton’s  favourites

James Whelton is a coder, entrepreneur, and co-founder of CoderDojo. At 16, James gained worldwide recognition for discovering a hack for the iPod Nano. See all his favourites:

• Jayanth, from the United Arab Emirates, with the Hardware project, MediBuddy. Why James chose this project: “Great project overview”
• Agustín, Joaquín, Lucero, Lucía, and Luis Salvador, from Peru, with the Python-based Game project Think Twice. Why James chose this project: “Very thoughtful”
• Xiomara, from a CoderDojo in Mexico, with the Web project Accenture Dojo VideoLife. Why James chose this project: “You have a lot of skill”
• Bhavishyaa, from Canada, with the Scratch project Earth OS. Why James chose this project: “Very sophisticated”
• Shunsuke, from a CoderDojo in Japan, with the Mobile App project Birds AI Peep-chan. Why James chose this project: “Super cool idea and personal story”
• Artur, from Poland, with the Advanced Programming project Friction experiments made easy. Why James chose this project: “Great combination of technologies”

Sponsors’ favourites

Coolest Projects wouldn’t be possible without the support of our sponsors, and because they love this global tech showcase and admire all the participants, they’ve chosen their favourite projects too!

Discover more than 1000 projects

You can explore all the young tech creators’ projects — games, hardware builds, Scratch projects, mobile apps, websites, and more — in our showcase gallery now.

The support of our Coolest Projects sponsors has enabled us to make this year’s online showcase the inspiring experience it is for the young people taking part. We want to say a big thank you to all of them!

Website: LINK

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Young tech creators from more than 40 countries have already registered to take part in this year’s Coolest Projects online showcase! To help us celebrate this year’s wonderful group of participants, we’re lucky to have brought on board Colin Furze, Melissa Pickering, James Whelton, and Fig O’Reilly as special judges.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1BYsFKuJ7U?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

“Since the first Coolest Projects in 2012, I’ve been continually inspired seeing thousands of young creators sharing their projects with the world. Building websites, apps, games, and hardware around something they’re passionate about, solving problems they face or just doing something cool, year on year Coolest Projects shows the magic of technology.”

James Whelton

Meet the coolest judges!

Colin Furze is a British YouTube personality, presenter, inventor, and five-time Guinness world record holder from Lincolnshire, England. Colin’s YouTube channel has over 10 million subscribers. Colin left school at 16 to become a plumber, a trade which he pursued until joining the Sky1 TV programme Gadget Geeks. He has used his engineering experience to build many unconventional contraptions, including a homemade hoverbike, a jet-powered bicycle made with pulsejet engines, and the world’s fastest dodgem vehicle for Top Gear. Colin has completed three Star Wars–themed challenges in partnership with eBay: in 2016, he completed a giant AT-AT garden playhouse, followed in 2017 by a full-size Kylo Ren Tie Silencer. In 2019 he completed a moving Landspeeder from Star Wars: A New Hope; the vehicle was auctioned off on eBay, with all of the funds going to BBC Children in Need.

Melissa Pickering is Head of Product at LEGO Education, leading a cross-functional team to design and develop learning through play experiences for kids globally. She has worked in the field of interactive kids’ products for 15 years, from innovating theme parks as a Disney Imagineer to founding an edtech startup. In her six-year LEGO career she has built up and led design teams to innovate LEGO products through digital experiences, with a key focus of using technology to inspire hands-on play.

Fionnghuala O’Reilly is an Irish-American model, beauty pageant titleholder, and engineer. The 27-year-old recently made history as the first woman of colour to represent Ireland at the international Miss Universe pageant. Since getting her degree in Systems Engineering from the George Washington University, O’Reilly, who goes by Fig, has gone on to become a NASA Datanaut, working within the agency’s Open Innovation programme comprised of engineers and scientists who engage with NASA’s open data to create new thinking, processes and products. Fig has joined the two-time Emmy-nominated science television series Mission Unstoppable as the newest correspondent. She is also the founder and CEO of Reach Productions which is the host of NASA’s Space Apps Challenge in Washington DC. In 2020, Fig was named an Ambassador for Engineers Ireland, Ireland’s leading governing body for professional engineers. Fig is a passionate advocate for women and diversity in STEM subjects.

James Whelton is a coder, entrepreneur, and co-founder of CoderDojo. At 16, James gained worldwide recognition for discovering a hack for the iPod Nano. In response to the lack of opportunities to learn computing at school, he co-founded CoderDojo in 2011, a global community of code clubs for young people where they can learn to build websites, apps and games, and explore technology in an informal, creative, and social environment. James has developed apps and systems with over a million users around the world. He is currently developing an online platform that helps its users achieve their personal goals and build healthier, happier habits and behaviours.

Register a project today

These four fabulous people will choose their favourites from among all of this year’s projects — a unique honour that the young tech creator in your life could receive if they take part! We hope this will be a big boost of motivation for them to register their project for the Coolest Projects showcase before the 3 May deadline.

We’ll be announcing the special judges’ favourite projects as part of our big live-streamed Coolest Projects celebration on 8 June!

Everyone up to age 18 can register for Coolest Projects, and we welcome all projects, all experience levels, and all kinds of projects, made with any programming language or any hardware. Through Coolest Projects, young people are able to show the world something they’ve made with tech that they love, and the projects are as diverse as the participants!

Discover all the support we offer young people to help them create something with tech that they will be proud of.

The showcase gallery is open for you already

You can explore the projects of the young tech creators who’ve already registered if you visit the Coolest Projects online showcase gallery! Which one is your favourite project so far?

Website: LINK