School children rise to the challenge to ‘make life better’ in nationwide invention competition
Aardman and IPO have announced the winner of the Cracking Ideas competition. The competition challenged Britain’s brightest young inventors aged 5 to 11 to design to ‘make life better’. More than 1,500 youngsters took part. The competition aim is to inspire the inventors of the future and realise the potential of their ideas.
The winner was Dominic Marday, 9, of Greenwich, London. The winning entry, ‘Litteration’, a robotic figure complete with antennae, stretchy arms and wheels. The conscientious robot roams the streets, eating, sorting and recycling litter to help clean up the environment.
Dominic is in for a ‘cracking’ treat to reward him for his win: his invention is to feature in Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up.
Dominic said:
I felt very surprised when I heard that I had won. I knew there were so many pictures entered by other young inventors. I think the prize is wonderful!
Two other winning entries will see Aardman animator Jim Parkyn visit their school for a model-making workshop. They are the 3-Brie Printer invented by Cohen Stewart, 7 of Wigtown, Scotland and the Dunk n’ Go, designed by Finn Alcoe, 9 of St Albans, Hertfordshire. One is a machine that prints cheese; the other is a robotic arm that dips biscuits into an automatic biscuit dunker. A dial selects the degree of sogginess.
Felix Thomas, 6, from East Midlands was a worthy runner up with his design for The Bootomatic, which automatically cleans your muddy boots.
The Big Fix Up is a new Wallace & Gromit augmented reality story. Created in partnership with Fictioneers – a team of creative technology story tellers. It will bring Wallace & Gromit alive in an entirely new way. The cutting-edge new platform for storytelling planned for later this year.
Fans will can download a free app and play along at home. For the first time ever, they will be able to step directly into the world of Wallace & Gromit.
Tim Moss, CEO of the IPO, said:
The UK is great place for innovation and creativity. We know that young people have the gift of imagination without limits.
The wealth of clever creations we have received from young designers across the country show how true this is. It is inventions like these that make our world a better, safer, easier and more enjoyable place in which to live.
Aardman’s Merlin Crossingham, Wallace & Gromit Creative Director said:
We have loved seeing designs from young people from all over the UK. It’s great how they have put on their thinking caps to design some ingenious out-of-this-world inventions that would make even Wallace and Gromit proud!
All the ‘Cracking Ideas’ entries are available on the Cracking Ideas Competition gallery. There are also plenty of fun things to do and learning resources for young people from primary school age through to higher education.