Students Have I.T.
Twelve teams of students from across the region proved they’ve got what I.T. takes after successfully pitching their software and ICT ideas to a group of the North East’s top business brains.
The short list included teams from Blaydon, Walbottle, North Tyneside, Hartlepool, Bishop Auckland, Willington, and Sunderland were chosen from a possible 450 youngsters to go forward to represent their schools in the Big Ideas Youth Challenge; a competition designed to encourage young people aged between 11 and 19 to develop innovative ideas.
With the opportunity to win top prizes including visits to the UK headquarters of BT and Microsoft, the Big Ideas Youth Challenge attracted the attention over 450 youngsters aged between 11 and 19.
With such huge interest in the competition, the shortlisted finalists worked particularly hard to impress the panel of six judges at the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC), in Sunderland.
The judging panel was chaired by Paul McEldon, Chief Executive at the BIC, an organisation dedicated to supporting business development and nurturing innovation.
Paul said: “As judges we were looking for imaginative and innovative designs that have market potential and the shortlisted teams they have it abundance.
“We also took into account that the pitching task can be quite daunting – especially as they only had three minutes to present their idea, however the ideas and characters of the individual teams shone through.”
Joining him on the judging panel were Bernie Callaghan, Chief Executive Officer at Sunderland Software City, Lynsey Robinson, Service Sector Manager at One North East, Ray Rutter, General Manager at Design Right Solutions, and Afnan Ullah Khan, Security Researcher at BT.
Bernie Callaghan said: “Sunderland Software City was set up to help encourage the growth of the regions burgeoning software sector, so I am delighted see so many young people coming forward with new and innovative ideas.
“Interest in the competition has been phenomenal, not only in terms of the numbers but also in the quality of applications. I have no doubt that as a result of this programme we will see some budding software entrepreneurs coming through.”
From the twelve, five teams will be selected to attend the Youth Challenge Hothouse – a week long residential course in July, taking them one step closer to turning their ideas into a commercial reality.
Developed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the challenge is sponsored by Sunderland Software City, One North East, Microsoft, BT, Design Right Solutions and the BIC.
