Digital Day saw digital agencies across the UK from the highlands of Scotland down to the sunny shores of Bournemouth head back to school for the day. Amid their school lunches and classroom memories, they were there to embark their digital wisdom on students to get them excited about the possible career opportunities in this exciting industry. With 140 schools taking part, Digital Day 2016 was our biggest and best yet, so a huge thank you to everyone that played their part in making the day a success, yet again!
Throughout the day, the students played games, watched our think+make video, heard about the amazing careers in this thriving industry and tackled the briefs set by our three fabulous sponsors; Cancer Research UK, Standard Life and headline sponsor, TATA Communications which are then entered into our nationwide competition.
Cancer Research UK asked students to think of an innovative digital solution to the obesity crisis. With the prediction that by 2035, 72% of the UK population will be overweight or obese and with many of those unaware that obesity can cause up to 10 types of cancer, students were asked to tackle this problem head first by creating a digital solution to allow young people to make better and smarter choices.
Another important issue facing young people is the importance of saving money, so sponsors Standard Life were looking to students to create a digital game using the tech that they had at home or at school to help young people to learn how to make and save money.
TATA Communications asked students to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Their brief asked students to imagine a large and diverse community that faced one of the following issues; unemployment, poor health, gender inequality, poverty or poor standards of education. But there was a catch – they were only allowed to use smart phones, laptops and light weight drones.
Once the students had got back onto curriculum and agencies back to their projects, it was down the BIMA team to do the first round of judging. With the vast array of ideas and possibilities, we were overwhelmed with the thought and effort that had gone into each brief. We had everything from robots to apps and futuristic inventions and social media plans and that made judging no easy feat. Eventually, we whittled down the entries ready for the second round, which is done by the BIMA executives. After a morning of gruelling judging and lots of to-ing and fro-ing, we had our shortlisted entries that we’re ready to be posted off to our sponsors, all of whom were excited to see what the students had come up with.
Winner of the Cancer Research UK challenge: Bournemouth School for Girls
Isabel Kenny, Emma King, Amy Van Wingerden and Abby McAdie)
With their idea: Maxi-Fit.
Maxi-Fit takes the world of connected devices to a new level with their integrated system that monitors and measures the user’s food intake and activity levels with the Maxi-Plate and Maxi-Sole.
The Maxi-Plate intuitively knows what’s on the plate and uses LED lights to indicate the different types of foods the user should be eating to create a healthy balanced meal. The plate is connected to the Maxi-Fit app that keeps track of what’s been eaten, offer suggestions on how to improve eating habits and monitor any food and vitamin deficiencies to make recommendations for the users next meal.
Whereas, the Maxi-Sole uses innovative sensors that measure the pressure on your foot to record your activity and movements, connects with your playlist to change your music based on your speed, creates a personalised exercise plan and offers you suggestions on how to improve your posture and technique when running or weight-lifting. Furthermore, it also has fitted GPS, so that when the user is eating or drinking out they are reminded to add in their food intake for the meal.
Both the plate and the sole are connected to the smartphone app Maxi-Fit to record and store all the data and offer a more personalised solution to weight loss. In addition to the benefits above, the app also lets the user take a photo every day to monitor their journey and scan receipts to suggest recipes based on their weekly shopping.
Winner of the Standard Life challenge: Corpus Christi High School
Patrick Topham, Bethan Jenkins, Pranjil Pokharel, Sion Evans and David
With their idea: World of Evolution
World of evolution is a strategy game which is linked to the players Standard Life saving account. The game helps young people save by allowing them to unlock more stages only when they have saved a certain amount and if they break into their savings they will be penalised. The player starts off in the stone age with very limited resources and gold, with the aim to evolve their world from the stone age to the current era or possibly even beyond. Throughout the game the player will encounter different challenges and tasks (mini games) that will teach them about saving and investing money. Additional features of the game include tips on how to save money and the ability to form ‘alliances’ with other players and view how they have evolved, learning from their mistakes and successes.
Winners of the TATA Communications challenge: Bournemouth School for Girls
Ellie Hayfield, Wednesday King, Hannah Bennett and Lauren Jones
With their idea: Invigorate
The students decided to tackle the poor health issues in India with a solar powered drone fitted with smart cameras which would be deployed in communities that lack health knowledge and services. With the aim that patients can be treated quicker and more efficiently, the drones are designed to scan patients for signs of sickness whilst they use their smartphones to input their details which will be sent to the nearest hospital or doctor for a full diagnosis of their problem.
So there you have it, our Digital Day 2016 winning students and their ideas! Thank you again to our three sponsors; Cancer Research UK, Standard Life and TATA Communications for setting such great challenges for the students to get their teeth stuck into. To sign up for Digital Day 2017 visit www.bimadday.org.uk
