Netherland Park Secondary School (NPSS) came third in the 2017 edition of the HIP2B² 3M Innovation Challenge last Wednesday with their “navigate your walk” (walking stick) innovation aimed at assisting the blind and elderly.
The Mpumalanga finalists, Phumla Maseko and Nobuhle Nqoteni, Grade 9 learners at NPSS, considered the partially-sighted and blind community members using technology that includes a navigation system, a sensor, a speaker and a tracker built into the handle of a walking stick and navigation that will be set by the user’s voice to enable the tracking of the user, should they get lost.
Phumla and Nobuhle’s device could give great freedom to vision-impaired people who currently require assistance to walk outside their homes.
3M is a science-based company behind a plethora of innovations, which permeate every industry and captures the spark of new ideas and transforms them into thousands of products with the HIP2B² 3M Innovation Challenge an event the company sponsors every year.
“By promoting the study of math, science and technology-related subjects that stimulate innovation and problem-solving skills, we believe the challenge to be an important opportunity for schools and learners,” said Managing Director of 3M South Africa,Steve Hemmings.
Cathryn Payne, Managing Director of HIP2B², added that three finalists had been chosen from the many entries that were received and participants showed great logic and flair in solving day-to-day problems that affect many and truly speak to HIP2B²’s core message of “Think what you can be”.
Educational consultant,Godfrey Nwanekah, who was part of the judging panel, said the learners get a chance to unleash their inner innovator when competitions such as these are run.
He added that it also gives schools and teachers the opportunity to allow young minds to explore these vital subjects and encourages the youth to test their mettle by solving life-issues, based on 3M’s “Science Applied to Life” philosophy.
Cravenby Secondary School from Western Cape took first place as Matthew Andrew and Herchel Pillay devised Matte, a device that could cut the load of power stations while saving consumers up to 50 per cent of their power bills monthly. Holy Cross Education Centre’s Allingile Mto and Lihle Sinyekemba from the Eastern Cape came second by designing the Vapour Plant DROP device as a solution to water scarcity and drought while NPSS took third place.
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