The Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize has today (11 June) announced the launch of its People’s Choice Awards, inviting the British public to vote on their favourite tech-for-good invention designed by young people aged 11-16 years.
Delivered by Nesta Challenges, the competition has been open since November 2020, encouraging hundreds of young creatives and inventors to develop and submit their technology solutions to some of the biggest societal issues of our time.
“These ideas have the potential to make a huge difference to our world and inspire additional future technologists” – Lauren Kisser, Longitude Explorer Prize judge
A total of 40 finalist teams have been shortlisted by expert judges, with the young innovators now working alongside industry mentors to turn their ideas into real-life prototypes. Competitors were tasked with developing solutions based around one of four prize themes:
- Living longer – tech to support an ageing population
- Living healthier – solutions that empower happier, healthier lives
- Living greener –tech that tackles pollution and climate change
- Living together – solutions that help people stay better connected in an easy, safe and environmentally-friendly manner, as well as tech that delivers more sustainable transport
Among the final creations chosen are:
- A contraption that generates energy every time a door opens
- Robotic medicine dispensers for elderly people
- Plastic-consuming worm farms
- Rainforest-monitoring stations
- An app to help young women tackle period poverty
Lauren Kisser, director of Amazon’s development centre in Cambridge and Longitude Explorer Prize judge commented: “Selecting the final 40 teams for the Amazon Longitude Explorer was challenging enough for the judges. Now people have an even tougher choice voting for their favourite. There has been some serious ingenuity and creativity on show – from ocean-cleaning robots, to an app that makes recycling easy, micro-turbines that generate electricity from your drainpipes and a phone case that sanitises your hands. These ideas have the potential to make a huge difference to our world and inspire additional future technologists.”
From the archive: Finalists for this year’s Longitude Explorer Prize unveiled
On top of the People’s Choice Award vote, the teams will be presenting their final ideas and business plan to the judging panel in July, with the overall grand prize winners earning £20,000 for their school or youth group, and three runner-up teams landing £5,000 each.
“The 40 teams of talented entrepreneurs have worked extraordinarily hard to create and develop their outstanding ideas in the fact of very difficult circumstances this last year,” said Tris Dyson, founder and managing director of Nesta Challenges.
“The People Choice Award vote is an opportunity for the public to show its support for these inspiring tech-for-good innovations and the young people who have worked so hard to build them,” added Dyson.
The online vote will remain open until Friday 2 July. Click here to find out more about the finalist innovations and cast your vote via the online poll.
