Grant Reilly
25th October 2021
Back
This year saw our #DigiInventorsChallenge go global to support Scotland’s contribution to Expo 2020 Dubai, which takes place between 31 January – 01 February 2022.
We owe a lot of thanks to our partners who have and continue to provide support to this innovative and exciting competition including Glasgow Warriors, dressCode, Heriot-Watt University Dubai, Scottish Edge, Scottish Tech Army, Orcha, Scottish Development International and Okadoc.
We received a record number of 150 applications, from 600 students across Scotland and the United Arab Emirates, all trying to secure their opportunity to showcase their idea at Expo 2020 Dubai.
After much debate and deliberation, we have shortlisted 8 teams to join our virtual bootcamp (3/4 November) and then our virtual final on the 29 November, where our panel of judges will pick their Scottish and UAE winners.
This invite-only event is part of DigiFest 2021 and challenges our young people to identify daily health challenges they face and to develop ideas that could be transformed into a digital health and care solution.
Introducing our finalists (in no particular order) …
From Scotland we have:
From UAE we have:
Good luck to all our finalists as they compete to become our Scottish and UAE #DigiInventorsChallenge Champions 2021 in association with Glasgow Warriors.
Winners will be working with our partners (the Scottish Tech Army and Okadoc) to develop wireframe/ prototypes to showcase at Expo 2020 Dubai!
Deputy Chief Executive of the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, Moira Mackenzie, said:
“I am delighted to see the huge enthusiasm and growing momentum for our DigiInventors Challenge. We have deliberately reached out this year through our global networks to create international opportunities for learning and sharing. Exponential growth in digital health and care services and solutions present excellent and exciting career pathways for Scotland’s future workforce, and we are keen to highlight and support our young pioneers to explore these.
Through our new partnership with dressCode we were able to extend the competition, and although we could only have four Scottish teams in our final, we also picked a winner from each Council area in Scotland to recognise the quality of the submissions and the hard work of our students.
Our Council area winners are:
We also received one application that deserves exceptional recognition. This was from a Primary School that was keen to take part and submitted an entry. The students and idea from Ardeer Primary School showed great initiative and promise and we look forward to welcoming you into DigiInventors in the coming years as you progress into secondary school!
We will be in touch with all our winners and finalists in the coming weeks to show our recognition for your efforts!
Toni Scullion, Founder of dressCode; said:
“dressCode aims to inspire pupils into Computing Science with a particular focus on closing the gender gap. It has been wonderful working in partnership with the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre on the Digi Inventors Challenge to help highlight the digital health sector as an area pupils could work in the tech! It has been really exciting to see so many pupils across the country taking part in the competition and great to see the Digi Inventors Challenge being delivered by other subjects such as PE.
Technology is embedded in all sectors and Scotland has a booming tech sector but we know that Computing Science is not delivered in all secondary schools in Scotland. The Digi Inventors Challenge is a fantastic activity that can be delivered by teachers from varied curricular areas, enabling pupils from any school to take part, regardless of the Computing Science provision within their school.
Well done to everyone who took part, there is so much talent in schools and it is exciting to see the innovative ideas coming from such young talent! Congratulations to all finalists and a special thanks to all the teachers who supported and encouraged them. A special mention to Ardeer Primary School for their outstanding entry! “
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. For more information read our Privacy Notice and Cookies Policy.
Click Continue if you consent to use all non-essential cookies or choose your own cookie settings.