A student from St Wilfrid’s Catholic
Comprehensive School has been named winner in the Senior category of the Youth
Industrial Strategy Competition, a national science, technology, engineering
and maths (STEM) initiative, supported by UK Research and Innovation, aimed at
finding solutions to the greatest challenges facing modern society.
Claiming first prize, year 13 student,
Rushil Patel, presented a project that uses offline artificial intelligence to
accurately process a specific object or event in the world around the user,
conveying limitless information in the most discrete way possible. Addressing
the Grand Challenge of Artificial Intelligence and Data, the young inventor
hopes it can help people with Autism not only identify, but also respond to
perceived emotions.
Judged
remotely by a panel of STEM experts, including representatives from Network
Rail; AI architects, Arm; and Manchester Metropolitan University, Rushil was
awarded first place thanks to his creativity
and innovative way of addressing the Industrial Strategy’s Grand Challenge of
Artificial Intelligence and Data.
Rushil, student at
St Wilfrid’s Catholic Comprehensive School
said:
“I am thrilled to have won
the Senior category at the Youth Industrial Strategy competition. I really
enjoyed working on our project and it was great to have the judges recognise
the hard work and creativity that went into it.
“This competition has
provided me with a great opportunity to get creative with my learning and it
was incredibly rewarding to work on a project that could help solve one of the
most pressing social issues today.”
With the
live finals event cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak, the competition
organisers, the British Science Association and UK Research and Innovation
(UKRI) asked schools to create videos of students presenting their finished
projects and the information they’d been planning to share with judges.
Rushil and
his teachers have worked incredibly hard to help enable the remote judging,
especially at such a challenging time for schools and families across the UK
and deserve special credit for their efforts.
Tom Saunders, Head of Public Engagement
at UKRI, said:
“As this AI
communications device shows, today’s students have an important part to play in
addressing society’s biggest challenges. I would like to congratulate Rushil on
his fantastic winning project and wish all the finalists every continued success in
the future.”
Caitlin Brown, Project
Manager for the Youth Industrial Strategy Competition, said:
“The judges commended Rushil for his hard
work, dedication and commitment to STEM. He thoroughly deserves to be crowned our Youth Industrial
Strategy Competition Senior winner.
“We are thrilled with the level of
engagement and interest we have received around the Youth Industrial Strategy
Competition, and are excited to see all these students, and more, continue to
develop their love of STEM.”
The winners and runners up were selected
from thousands of students, aged between 11-19 years, from across the UK, who
designed projects responding to the Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy’s four Grand Challenges: the Future of Mobility, Ageing
Society, Clean Growth and Artificial Intelligence and Data.