London’s calling for Paisley whizz kids
A group of young people from Paisley are heading to London after their project to develop an urban micro farm was shortlisted for a prestigious award.
The teenagers from Paisley YMCA Makers Space have come up with an idea to use artificial intelligence to look after small urban farms.
Their idea has impressed judges at the Longitude Prize, which is run by Nesta Challenges and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, who named the project as one of its 60 semi-finalists.
The group has headed to London to get expert help to develop its idea and then pitch it to judges to be in with a chance of winning the £25,000 top prize. P a i s l e y YMCA manager Darran
Gillan, said: “We’re a digital youth organisation. All our young people are about designing things with a low tech impact.
“We were thinking about how to encourage people to grow their own veg and think about where your food comes from.
“It’s a bit of a dry subject, so, to make it more interesting, we started looking at farmbots. These are robots controlled by a raspberry pi computer.
“The young people can write coding to tell the robot to water plants, open covers, close covers, monitor the temperature and strength of the soil and generally look after the microfarm while the owner isn’t there.
“All things which we, as humans who are growing veg, need to keep an eye on.”
He added: “We’ve got a scrap of ground behind our makers space and that’s what got us thinking. Soil in urban areas usually isn’t very good which is why there are often raised beds in allotments.
“We’re dealing with the food produce of the future.”
The young people – Isla McCulloch, 15; Erin Black, 15; Caitlyn Johnston, 14; Harris Provan, 13 and Joshua Donnelly, who’s 13, are heading to London with Claire McGinley, the YMCA Paisley youth coordinator.
Three of the group have never been to London before and it’s allexpenses paid, so no one misses out.
Darran said: “They’re excited and also nervous. It’s quite a high level pitch, which will develop a lot of their skills.
“It’s a great opportunity for their personal development.
“They’re excited to meet their mentors and all the information they’re going to be exposed to.
“It would be great if we won the programme, but all the information and support we’ll get there is really valuable.”
The Longitude Explorer Prize supports young people to learn creatively about STEM – science, technology, engineering and maths – while honing important entrepreneurial life skills.
After the London workshop, there will be 40 finalists selected who will receive resources, mentoring and support to develop their concepts into detailed ideas and finally a product in the hope of winning the grand prize of £25,000 in July. Three runners-up will also receive £10,000.
For more information on the prize, go to longitudeexplorer. challenges.org