Winners Jakob Strohmeier, Adrian Sinagra and Mackenzie Matthews with judges and sponsors. Photo: Trinity College.
By Theresia Titus
The Trinity College had last month hosted their annual Innovation Expo on the evening of Wednesday 16 May.
The event showcased ideas and creations of the Trinity College Year 10 Accounting students, who were encouraged to incorporate financial literacy content into actual plans.
This year’s judges include 2015 Australian of the Year and Science Ambassador Ms Lyn Beazley, Co-owner of The Fish Boss Mr Josh Catalano, Representative of Chamber of Commerce & Industry Western Australia Ms Linda Winter and Partner at AHMR Accounting Mr Keegan Cameron.
The winning students were Jakob Strohmeier, Mackenzie Matthews and Adrian Sinagra for their idea of a solar-powered golf ball retrieving buggy and received a winning prize of $500.
People’s Choice winner Thomas Robertson. Photo: Trinity College.
Thomas Robertson won the People’s Choice Award for his idea “Helping Hands”, a mobile application for disadvantaged people to have access to certain services.
“The application comes with links to these services such as healthcare, transport and leisure,” Thomas said.
“There is also another part of the application which is a community services program in which people can put up tasks they need to be completed and others can opt to help them.
Thomas told The eRecord his inspiration came from his passion for helping people and giving back to the community.
“In the process of picking an idea to present at the expo, I thought about how I can help people and give back and over many weeks and hours of working on it, this is the idea I came up with,” he said.
From left to right: Jakob Strohmeier, Mackenzie Matthews, Adrian Sinagra and Headmaster Mr Ivan Banks. Photo: Trinity College.
With months of hard work and preparation, Thomas said his experience was personally rewarding for him.
“It was amazing as everyone who came and listened took lots of interest in my idea,” he said.
“I was lucky enough to meet amazing people and discuss my idea with them including Trinity parents, staff and former Australian of the Year and Science Ambassador Lyn Beazley, who passed my idea on to Brightwater.
“I am so glad that I won’t as it elevated my idea from a dream into a possible business.”
Trinity College Teacher Mr Phil Jurjevich said the Expo has made it possible to apply what they have learned in class.
“This a practical engagement of the theory that we are passing on and the students love the competition and real feedback.
The fact that one idea is moving to actual implementation has seen the whole class engaged and committed,” Mr Jurjevich said.