GoIT Primary competition finals held at Angel Square
Co-op Academies Trust this week held the goIT competition finals with primary academies in partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
The project, which works to broaden the ICT opportunities available to primary pupils, tasked Year 6 pupils with responding to a TCS brief asking them to design a digital solution that will help tackle a sustainability issue in their communities in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The projects were worked on throughout the autumn term with the winning groups from each primary academy presenting their digital ideas to design an AI solution to help reduce the impact of climate change to a panel of esteemed judges from TCS, Co-op and Co-op Academies Trust.
Two in-person events were held on the 28th and 29th January at 1 Angel Square, Manchester with an overall winner chosen from each day.
Shirine Khoury-Haq, CEO of the Co-op Group, presented awards to the winning teams alongside Co-op’s Chief Technology Officer, Rob Elsey. Chris Tomlinson, CEO of Co-op Academies Trust, was also in attendance and spent time congratulating participants on their hard work and creativity.
Our West Yorkshire-based primary academies presented their ideas on day one of the finals.
All of the teams confidently presented their AI solution focused products making for a very difficult final decision.
Co-op Academy Penny Oak’s interactive presentation on their carbon footprint scanning app stood out and saw them being announced as the overall winner. Co-op Academy Beckfield’s interactive litter detection presentation earned them the runner-up position.
On day two, primary academies from the Wirral, Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent presented their projects with Co-op Academy Clarice Cliff’s well-researched ‘Sort it Out’ recycling app earning them the top spot. Co-op Academy New Islington were announced as the runner-ups with their water purifying device idea.
Keela Walsh, Academies Business Partner for Community & Member Participation, was on the judging panel, she said:
“The use of AI throughout all of the concepts was very well thought out and a lot of detail and consideration had clearly been put into the research for each project.
“The two winners were chosen because their ideas not only met the brief but there was a real community advantage to both ideas which made them very impressive concepts.”
Jo Sykes, Director of CEIAG for Co-op Academies Trust, organised the project in partnership with TCS. She said:
“We were blown away by the pupils’ concepts this year as they did a fantastic job at recognising the advantages of AI and how this can be harnessed to address sustainability. Having such a range of colleagues from TCS, Co-op and the Trust enabled our pupils to learn about key jobs in different sectors and opened their eyes to future opportunities.”
“Seeing how much research and thought has been put into their ideas and how confidently these young people presented in front of peers was truly inspiring.”
GoIT is dedicated to teaching students the skills they need to be successful in Tech. With technology being a key part of STEM, as a Trust, we are always keen to upskill pupils, so they have a broader understanding and knowledge of a significant growth sector.
The winning teams from both finals will now be shortlisted and entered into the Global Innovator of the Year event - goIT’s largest competition that highlights the top digital innovators from across 42 participating countries.
