Plant care app wins student tech competition

Friday 15 July 2022

An educational plant care app has scooped first place in the Digital Innovators Programme.

Team Smart Plant from the Grammar School and Sixth Form Centre were judged to have demonstrated “excellent problem solving, idea generation and creative thinking skills”.

The programme, sponsored by First Central, invited students aged between 16 and 18 to tackle a problem statement using technology-based solutions. The challenge this year was to create a solution to improve biodiversity in Guernsey. 

James Sines, Will Holmes, Anastacia Inder and Chloe Peel formed the winning team. It was noted that their presentation was “very professional, and their well-rounded concept would be extremely useful for educating islanders on how to help wildlife thrive”.

Pictured: The Digital Innovators Programme winner was announced at an event hosted by Digital Greenhouse. 

The five teams which made it to the final were from the College of Further Education and the Grammar School and Sixth Form Centre. Their ideas included an app to gamify the collection of data by allowing the public to log wildlife across the island and a glass bottle milk delivery service that aims to reduce waste.

Other ideas included a drone that spreads seeds around the island, an app to look after and identify local plants, and a tree-planting service to commemorate a special moment that can then be easily located via GPS in an app.  

Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure, Deputy Lindsay De Sausmarez joined Renew Guernsey Co-Founder, Jack Fletcher and First Central’s Dan Edmunds and John Davidson on the judging panel. The winner was announced at an event hosted by Digital Greenhouse. 

First Central Chief Information Officer, John Davidson, said it was “difficult to pick a winner” amongst “all the fantastic ideas”. 

“Each team tackled the problem statement from a different perspective, addressing the issue with a variety of solutions that all have great potential. Our students are the island’s future,” he said. 

“It was great to listen to each team present their take on this year’s problem statement. Congratulations to everyone who took part, and to the winning team.”  

Pictured L-R: Jack Fletcher, Dan Edmunds, Anastacia Inder, James Sines, Will Holmes, John Davison and Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez.

Digital Greenhouse Development Officer, Jenny De La Mare added: “Despite the challenges of Covid, which postponed some of the workshops, the teams demonstrated excellent teamwork and generated fantastic ideas.

“The entries have been developed to such a high standard and we’ve been amazed with how creative and innovative this year’s entries have been. 

“The programme provides the unique opportunity for students to enhance their digital skills and present in front of an audience and to industry professionals. What they’ve learnt will be very useful for entering the world of work and we congratulate all of the teams for their efforts.”