Students create digital tools to solve problems

The Apps for Good Awards 2018

It has been a scorching summer here at Apps for Good!

June saw us kick off our 7th annual Apps for Good Awards. This year we were hosted by Rich Mix cinema in East London giving a vibrant backdrop to an inspiring day.
These awards allowed budding young tech entrepreneurs a chance to celebrate their work and to showcase it to our corporate partners and the general public. The select few finalists were picked from over 28,000 students all of whom designed products and creations that work toward tackling an issue that is important to them.

There were many exciting finalists selected for the awards this year from schools across the UK, with students aiming to tackle issues related to:

• Increasing religious understanding
• Reducing carbon emissions, and recycling unwanted personal items
• Connecting with nature and getting outside as a family
• Collaborating on school work and reducing learning-based anxiety
• Finding support for children with additional needs
  
  

We even saw a team from our cohort Portugal visit to showcase their idea during a session with all of our key stakeholders! 


Award winners were selected by our category sponsors (Lego, SAP, Spotify, Virgin Red, Salesforce, Thomson Reuters & GoDaddy) the finalists pitched their work and were given feedback by  'Dragons' in dedicated sessions. Prior to these sessions each of the finalists got to spend some time in the offices of their category partner so they could practice their presentations and ask any burning questions they may have had. After the pitches, the dragons met and decided who they think had come up with the most innovative solution.

The students also had the opportunity to showcase their work in the awards marketplace and the AfG online platform, where their goal was to win votes in our People’s Choice Award. Almost 10,000 people voted globally this year (a new AfG record) but only one team could take the prestigious award.

Pictures of the winning teams and their innovative ideas can be seen throughout the article.

The diversity of the issues and students really shows what Apps for Good is trying to promote by opening the doors to technical courses to students who may never have previously considered them. Going forward we aim to encourage as many young people as possible get involved in Apps for Good in the hope that it will not only open educational and career pathways to all those involved. But also leave all participants with a great sense of achievement and self-confidence tackling tasks they may have had no previous experience in.

Looking ahead to the new academic year.

Everyone at Apps for Good is getting excited about what the 2018/19 has in store.

We are forecasting increased reach for our programme within communities where young people are experiencing barriers to their success, looking at the North West of England, the South West and Midlands as key areas for growth in challenging economic environments where students are less likely to have access to basic digital skills.

In addition, we are launching a  brand new course centred around creating Machine Learning models that solve social problems, adding to our existing library of content including courses on App Development and the Internet of Things, keeping our content cutting edge and relevant to trends within the fast-moving technology sector.

We are also planning to run several sessions with our corporate partners in 2018/19 using our new “Design an App in a Day” content, This short course takes the best parts of our programme and boils them down into a day-long session, where students ideate basic digital products to solve a problem, supported by industry experts. They can then take these ideas further using the free software Apps for Good provides and develop a working digital prototype.

There is so much to look forward to for the year ahead, with new content and a bigger impact at the core of our plans. We can’t wait to see our students, teachers and experts in action from September!