The Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize final shortlist has been announced and 40 inspirational projects from teams aged 11-16 are in the running to win a top prize of £20,000.
The Amazon Longitude Explorer Prize competition aims to bring more recognition and diversity to STEM industries by providing children of all backgrounds with an introduction to the possibilities of entrepreneurship in STEM. This year, more than half of all entrants to the 2021 Longitude Explorer Prize are young women. Following the 2020 prize, 93% of the finalists said they would like to pursue a career in STEM.
The finalists
The finalists include a sea-cleaning robot sphere that detects and removes microplastics with infrared sensors; a hand sanitiser-dispensing and infrared thermometer phone case that reminds the user to wash their hands and take their temperature regularly, and an app that tackles period poverty by linking female participation in sport and exercise with free monthly hygiene packs, alongside motivational, fitness and mental health tips.
Some of the other finalists include Devices that harvest kinetic energy every time a door is opened and closed to feed into the electricity grid, a carbon footprint-measuring app to help people make sustainable shopping decisions easily and a platform that uses AI to teach people sign language.
The finalists will be connected to an expert mentor from Amazon and other industry-leading organisations. They will receive mentoring on topics such as data analytics, software engineering, robotics, and app development to create prototypes of their concepts to help determine the winner this July.
Finalists will also be invited to participate in the Amazon Longitude Explorer Prizes’ Enterprise Academy business day workshops and will also receive one-to-one technology support from FireTech UK – the UK’s leading technology course provider for children aged 8-17.
