Inventing the Future.
Each year, school students from around New Zealand enter their inventions in the Bright Sparks Awards. Sara Goessi talked to some of 2006's Bright Sparks winners.
Growing up on a farm in Taranaki, Justin Dodunski decided there had to be an easier way to get cows through the milking shed. Traditionally, the gates have to be constantly lifted by hand to let the cows out.

 

Justin came up with an automatic gate opener, powered by a Picaxe chip. This detects when the last set of milking cups are removed and activates a motor, which lifts the gates. Justin (13), from St Joseph's School in Opunake, won fi rst place in Best Adaptation of an Electronics Kitset - Junior.

 

What does his father think of his invention? "He thinks it's cool," says Justin. One day, Justin hopes to sell the gate opener in New Zealand and overseas.

 

A fascination with dolphins led to Kate- Lynn Caetano's project, Dolphins Give Visually Impaired Swimmers New Hope.

 

Kate-Lynn (15), from KingsWay School in Orewa, went on a trip with her mother to the South Island where she saw dolphins in their natural habitat.

 

"The water was really murky, but they could see for miles and miles," she says. She imitated the highly sensitive sonar system that dolphins use to help them navigate through water to create her device, which is based on an ultrasonic proximity sensor.

 

She also had in mind the idea of helping a visually impaired friend to swim. Her science teacher helped her waterproof it, and her electronics teacher helped her with the soldering and circuit board. Kate-Lynn won first place in Best Adaptation of an Electronics Kitset - Senior for her invention.

 

Since then, she's had interest from HumanWare and the Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind, she says. When she finishes school, Kate-Lynn wants to be a marine biologist. "I really have had my heart set on it for about fi ve years. This just confirmed it," she says.

 

Ben Coombs (17), from Macleans College in Auckland, won fi rst place for Best Original Circuit - Senior for his Combat Tag.

 

Ben had worked on some electronics projects at school but this military-inspired invention was his fi rst Bright Sparks entry. It's a combat simulator and target shooter, which incorporates a helmet, jacket, spare magazines and light and sound effects as indicators of charge and hits.

 

This year, Ben is starting an engineering degree at Auckland University, where his study will probably include mechatronics. From there, he hopes to work in Britain, possibly for British Aerospace. He says one of the best things about entering Bright Sparks was meeting other students with similar interests.

 

"There were a couple at school but when I went to the awards you meet a whole bunch of other people."

 

Martin Spencer's Soccer Playing Robots took him around a year-and-a-half to build. That's a serious commitment for a fi rst-time inventor. And it was worth the effort, winning him second place Best Original Circuit - Senior. Each of the two robots (you could add more, but Martin says it would get a bit crowded) has an elaborate array of sensors.

 

They're tricky to describe so, to quote the inventor, they're made up of "a fl yeye which contains seven infrared sensors to give a 180- degree fi eld of view; two ultra sonic sensors to detect the walls; an electronic compass; a laser and LDR pair so that the robot knows when it has the ball; and a sensor which detects the position on the field".

 

Martin (17), from Kings College, will study mechatronics at Auckland University this year.

 

"For about a year now I've enjoyed electronics," says Alex Crossan, of Francis Douglas Memorial College, New Plymouth. "And I've always been amazed by solar panels and getting energy from the sun. I've always wanted to make cool stuff with that, so that's what I did."

 

What Alex did was invent a solar- powered car, using the knowledge he'd picked up over the past year as a member of Bright Sparks. His Trundholm - Solar Powered Car, won fi rst place in Best Modifi cation Of A Published Circuit - Senior. Alex (16) dates his interest in electronics back to when a friend dragged him along to a robotics club at New Plymouth Polytechnic. "I wasn't very interested," says Alex. "Then someone told me to go on the website [brightsparks.org.nz]. I had pretty much no knowledge of electronics but I went on the website, looked at a few things, learned from other kids on there and just started building stuff."

 

Alex plans to combine his interest in electronics and fascination with solar power by studying electrical engineering at Auckland University. In the meantime, he's at work on another project based on solar panels, which he hopes to commercialise.

 

Sam Vennell (13), from Balmacewen Intermediate in Dunedin, designed his Sycamore Simulator in Game Maker, a program he says is similar to Visual Basic but is designed for more graphical things.

 

He taught himself Visual Basic a few years ago from a book and it took him two months to write the program, which won first place, Best Original Computer Program - Junior. "It really just came about at my school, when we did a science fair project, then from there it went on to the Otago Science Fair, the Bright Sparks and Realise the Dream," Sam says.

 

Sam's invention is designed to help prevent the spread of sycamores into native bush by predicting their growth. Using the simulator, you can track tree growth and multiplication, taking into account wind speed and direction. "I'm considering taking it to the Dunedin City Council, because they've got a bio diversity offi cer there," Sam says. One day, he says, he'll work in a role that combines his love of the environment and programming.

 

Alexander Gee and Anton van der Busse came up with the idea for their UIC during an electronics lesson at Burnside High in Christchurch. Their teacher suggested they work on a remote control light switching device.

 

"I thought, why not make it a whole software package that people can use, because it's much more functional than an electronic light switch," says Alexander.

 

The UIC lets you switch power between different socket terminals, using software commands - so you can do it all without getting out of your seat. "It's more of a learning tool than a marketable product," says Alexander. "The idea behind it is you can develop an interface for a piece of electronic hardware very quickly.

 

So it could be used as training for kids in secondary school; in electronics classes you could use it to help them develop interfaces so that they don't have to sit there and make very basic pieces of equipment."

 

He and Anton won second place in the Best Original Computer Program - Senior category. Alexander wrote the code in Java, which he'd been using for just over a year, while Anton concentrates more on the hardware development side of things. Their collaboration is unlikely to end with this invention: they're off to Canterbury University this year to study computer science, and, says Alexander, "We've got another three or four different things we thought of about two weeks ago. We thought they'd be perfect for third-year uni projects."

 

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