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Home / Tech  / And the winners of IDEAStarter are…

And the winners of IDEAStarter are…

Six IDEAStarter winners were selected out of 137 entries and announced at an awards ceremony held at Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) last night, part of Techweek AKL.

The winning ideas includes an app which helps young people share their feelings through colours, a water meter that fits in your pocket and an idea to attract more girls at school into science, technology, engineering and maths.

IDEAStarter is part of Youth Connections, and aims to support young entrepreneurs aged 15-24 years in turning their business ideas into action.

IDEAStarter judge Ken Brophy, chief enabler and co-founder of Joy Business Academy was impressed by the quality of thinking of young award winners.

“Some of the up-front strategic positioning work was very impressive and more robust that some actual businesses I have worked with during my consulting past,” he says. “The technology focused ideas presented could not only solve problems identified in New Zealand but also really pressing problems in countries globally, especially third world,” Ken Brophy says.

Patrick McVeigh, ATEED’s general manager of business, innovation & skills, says IDEAStarter enables a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship by nurturing talent and helping young people into sustainable career paths: “Our IDEAStarter award winners have come up with compelling ideas which have been well presented and I look forward to following the progress of these young Auckland entrepreneurs.”

IDEAStarter business mentors will work with award winners to help them develop their ideas further with a view to bringing them to market if feasible on further investigation.

The winners are…

Isaac  Mercer for SafeDriver, a mobile application that provides audio alerts to drivers about what they need to look out for while driving as well a audio messages about upcoming hazards and high-risk areas.

Zach Preston for Sentinel, a self sustaining system that allows rainwater tank owners to view the water level of their tank from their smartphone.

Alexia Hilbertidou, Kayla Turner and Sayurie Naicker (pictured above) for GirlBossNZ, a ‘for youth by youth’ organisation with a mission to inspure, empower and equip New Zealand girls to develop their science, technology, engineering and maths leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

Vivek Kumar for Fulcrum, an online platform aiming to solve the disconnect between textbooks, classroom learning, homework and tutorials utilising an optimised memory curve.

Caitlin Smart for GreenLightGo, an app that allows people to share their feelings with their support network through a customisable traffic light spectrum.

Mildred Wong and Sam Yoon for NoBS Ratings, an all encompassing social and ethical impact system for businesses.

One of the talented Idealog Team Content Producers made this post happen.

Review overview