James Hancock

The Longitude Explorer Prize is an innovation competition, where innovation entries are based around the use of satellite data. I entered the competition shortly after it was announced in November 2014.

Since then, I have attended an induction day for the event at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham, competed in the semi-finals at Techno-pop in Bristol, and finalized after a close round of judging, held at a Teen Tech event in Stratford, London. Needless to say, it has been quite a journey, and I think my concept design that I entered into the competition reflects that. My original concept was based on e-ink technology, but this was scrapped for an improved solution involving the Raspberry Pi (a small, educational computer) and an online website.

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In December, the Robotics Club competed in the finals of the First Lego League tournament at W5, SSE Arena. This is an international competition; in which teams from around the globe research a real-world problem such as food safety, recycling, energy, etc., and are challenged to develop a solution. They also must design; build and program a robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS^® technology, then compete on a table-top playing field.

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On Tuesday 2nd December, Dalriada Robotics Club travelled to W5 in Belfast for the First Lego League (FLL) annual robotics tournament.  Here they competed against other schools in the country in a range of contests covering a robotic challenge, a project presentation and core values.

It was an exciting day as many of our club’s members were new to the experience although they were ably supported by senior members who had been mentoring them over the weeks.

Picture above: Competition Judge, David Linton and Claire Mulholland)

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“Please do NOT share any of what is said to you today, as we don’t want others to know what goes on at Google”.  [Google Tour Contact]

Imagine walking into a huge state-of-the-art building, being taken into a small room and given this instruction. Excited? We were- for this just happened to be our experience on the morning of Friday 20th June at Google’s European headquarters, Dublin.

As a result of winning the ‘Google Creative Technology Prize’ at the National Science & Engineering Awards in Birmingham (March 2014), Dalriada’s Robotics club was invited for this unforgettable and unique experience.  The team consisted of Oliver Warke, Claire Mulholland, James Hancock and Finlay Roulston, along with Mrs McShane and Mr Gamble.

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…all the Way!

Over two exhausting days, our Robotics team exhibited an innovative solution and made presentations to judges from various industries. One particular set of judges from Google took a special interest in the club’s project and eventually awarded them the prize for ‘Creative Technology’ and £500! Needless to say, the team were ecstatic and, to top it off, Google gave them a special invitation to visit either of their headquarters in London or Dublin. Well done to Oliver Warke, Finlay Roulston, Claire Mulholland and James Hancock.

*Just off the press: These four pupils are visiting Google’s European headquarters on Friday 20^th June and have been asked to give a presentation once more on their innovative solution. We believe Eric Schmidt is in the country and is looking for new talent for Google+.

To sum it all, the Robotics club have done Dalriada proud once more and have proven that there is a real pool of talent in this corner of Northern Ireland.

Oliver Warke and David Clinton lead the team from Dalriada School to victory in the special “Consistent Performance” category in the 2013 Northern Ireland FIRST® LEGO® League challenge which took place this week at W5 in Belfast. Also pictured are sponsors W5’s Aideen Johnson and Keith Chambers from IET Dalriada School are saving the world – one LEGO® block at a time… Student innovation took centre stage this week when W5 and the IET welcomed over 150 pupils from schools across Northern Ireland to the sixth annual Northern Ireland FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge in the inspiring surroundings of Northern Ireland’s award-winning science and discovery centre.

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It has been another great year of success for Dalriada’s Robotics club. Coming off the back from what felt like a UK tour of competition finals in 2013, it seemed that this year couldn’t get any better.

In December, the team competed in the annual First Lego League tournament at the Odyssey arena, Belfast.

FLL Tournament @ Odyssey Arena, Belfast

The First Lego League tournament is an annual robotics tournament held world-wide. It comprises of several challenges; the two main ones being competing against other schools with your own robotic creation and presenting an innovative solution to a real world problem. This was the third year Dalriada entered the competition, which was ably captained by Oliver Warke.

Well, once again, our Robotics team couldn’t fail to disappoint and they walked away with the special merit (best overall performance) prize for points accumulated in all aspects of the tournament. A word of thanks must go to our mentors Andrew Mulholland and Claire Crawford for all their hard work and assistance in getting the team ready for the competition.

Special thanks also to our sponsors Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) for providing the equipment necessary for the competition and also the registration fee.

On the 12^th-14^th March, the Dalriada Robotics club travelled again but this time, back over to the mainland to compete against other schools from the UK in the National Science & Engineering Competition in Birmingham. To date, this was the most prestigious competition yet, and certainly the most nerve-wracking.

Photo shows left to right, starting at back row: Ian Walker (Dalriada VP), Stephen Barr (ALMAC), Tim Gamble (Teacher), Thelma Wallace (Teacher), John Finlay (DUP)
Photo shows left to right, front show: Oliver Warke, Finlay Roulston, Andrew Mulholland, John Hope.

Dalriada robotics team were selected from over 350 schools across the UK for the TeenTech competition held at the Royal Society, London on 24^th June. The event was open to those schools who could provide innovative technological solutions for the future and present to a panel of judges from several companies including Google and Airbus.

The two main sponsors were ALMAC and DUP and financial support was also received from Waterside Sports Coleraine, Gordon’s chemist and Mathewson’s chemist.

Although they were just beaten at the final post, the team were highly commended for their creations and ideas by many including James May (Top Gear) and Dallas Campbell (Bang goes the Theory). Prof Brian Cox was also a spectator and the pupils enjoyed having the limelight once again.

Included in the photograph is James May with Dalriada Robotics Team. Special thanks to all the sponsors for making this trip possible and supporting the pupils all the way.

Also worth mentioning was the clubs recent success at the Young Innovators exhibition at the Odyssey Arena Belfast this month. Dalriada Robotics scooped up four awards at the event run by Sentinus. They received awards for best use of Electronics, best use of ICT, most innovative concept and the ‘big bang’ prize granting entry into the UK final at NEC Birmingham next year.

Dalriada receiving prizes from Mr Jim Stewart President of Sentinus.

Take a Raspberry Pi (which is a tiny computer the size of a credit card costing around £25) and give it to a small group of Dalriada pupils. Tell them to create something that could make the world a better place and what do you get? An ingenious invention that could improve the lives of the elderly- indeed, millions of people!

On Wednesday 20^th March, Dalriada Robotics club successfully reached the finals of the UK wide Raspberry Pi competition run by software innovators, PA Consulting. Their idea was to use a Raspberry Pi connected to a Doctor’s computer (via the internet) to dispense pills at specific times on specific dates. In fact, the online pill dispenser could be set up to handle a variety of drugs and can be monitored remotely by any doctor, anywhere in the world. Furthermore, Dalriada’s Robotic team managed to come up with a simple method to detect if the patient had been following their prescription or not.

So impressed were the organisers of the competition that they used their project as a ‘poster-child’ for the event. With Dalriada Robotics club versus the rest of the UK, this indeed was a challenge of the highest standard.

Thanks to Northern Ireland Electricity, who sponsored the team all the way and paid all their expenses, the Robotics team made their final pitch to a panel of judges from the BBC, Cambridge University, Google and Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Well, it’s suffice to say that our Dalriads beat the competition and beat them well. All judges commented on the enthusiasm of each of the pupils and commended their creativity in designing a bespoke software and hardware solution.

Take a Raspberry Pi (which is a small credit-sized computer costing around £25) and give it to a small group of Dalriada pupils. Tell them to create something that could make the world a better place and what do you get? An ingenious invention that could improve the lives of the elderly- indeed, millions of people!

On Wednesday 20^th March, Dalriada Robotics club successfully reached the finals of the UK wide Raspberry Pi competition. So impressed were the organisers, PA Consulting, that they used their project as a ‘poster-child’ for the event. With Dalriada Robotics club versus the rest of the UK, this indeed was a challenge of the highest standard.

Thanks to Northern Ireland Electricity, who sponsored the team all the way and paid all their expenses, the Robotics team made their final pitch to a panel of judges. This was fairly nerve-racking when they realised who the judges were!