On Tuesday 18th October, the five winners of HotTopics’ TechGirl 2022 competition received their awards and attended the exclusive Studio event at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium, where they met their mentors in person for the first time, as part of their prizes.
Girls between the ages of 16 and 18 at schools up and down the country were asked to submit a creative idea on how technology can be used to improve schools and education, and we received applications from over 30 schools across the country.
After careful consideration, the judges chose their top five.
Gabriele Strimaityte, Precious Boateng, Poppy Skinner, Imogen Cooper and Poppy Lenaghan each took home their very own TechGirl trophy.
Prior to receiving their awards, the five winners were given a special confidence session by the award-winning TV presenter, Bridgid Nzekwu, to prepare them for their panel discussion and life after graduation.
TechGirl 2022 Mentors
- Belinda Finch, CIO, Three UK
- Jacqui Lipinski, CIO, Royal College of Art
- Christina Scott, CPO & CTO, OVO Energy
- Charlotte Baldwin, Global CIO, Costa Coffee
- Deborah Haworth, CISO, Penguin Random House UK
The mentors and mentees discussed the girls’ ideas with the former providing them with valuable career advice. They also had an opportunity to discuss future apprenticeships, internships and other forms of work experience at their organizations, to be completed at a later date.
These girls came up with a series of ideas that would improve their schools and education as a whole, using technology. Their project ideas ranged from educational apps to prototypes of hearing aids, and from sexual misconduct apps to green-energy-powered classrooms and facilities.
The winning ideas
Poppy Lenaghan’s winning project idea was to create a digital language software that would help students around the world learn different foreign languages in a more interactive setting. Poppy’s goal is to help more students expand their knowledge of foreign languages and “make it easier” to do so.
Poppy Skinner created a pain-free prototype model of hearing aids for teenagers after she noticed that hearing aids were predominantly marketed at older audiences. She ended up creating a fully-functional and environmentally-friendly model of hearing aids designed for younger people.
“I’d like to see this rolled out to the NHS, and particularly aimed at young people, who often don’t use assisted technology as much”, she said.
Imogen Cooper came up with the idea of a safeguarding app that could be used to report sexual misconduct to an administrator or committee in schools.
She stated: “I wanted to make a safe space for people to talk”.
This platform would allow students to talk anonymously about their experiences of sexual misconduct within schools.
In an attempt to tackle the paper-waste issue and empower more students in education, Precious Boateng devised a student digital pad with an interactive software that would encourage a more sustainable teaching-style.
“I wanted to do away with the need to carry around lots of notebooks and textbooks,” she explained.
Also with sustainability in mind and becoming more “eco”, Gabriele Strimaityte’s winning ideas involved solutions to help solve the cost of living crisis using green energy produced by solar panels and wind power to power classrooms and reduce CO2 emissions overall.
The Tech Girls were given the opportunity to explain their ideas and their views on girls in technology in a group interview. All of the winners expressed their passion for the winning projects and ideas. They also debated how the education system and companies can help encourage more girls to engage in technology.
After a busy day of learning, interviewing, trophy-holding and debating, our very first Tech Girls went home feeling victorious.
Our next TechGirl competition will launch in early 2023 with the winner being selected in April 2023.
Want to find out more? Read more about TechGirl here.
