Young designers create apps that tackles substance abuse and air pollution

Two budding innovators have gained a nationwide competitors by designing purposes for voice-controlled gadgets to assist sort out substance abuse and plastic air pollution.

Eleora Ajanaku, 16, from Cambridge, and Isi Holdom, 13, from Peckham, noticed their concepts picked by a judging panel, which included Carol Vorderman, to win a nationwide competitors.

After beginning to code on the age of 9, Eleora proposed an Alexa talent known as ‘Sober Tracker’ to assist these scuffling with alcohol habit and substance abuse after being impressed by her grandfather’s personal battle.

Her design would see customers inform Alexa issues equivalent to ‘help’, ‘I need some support’ or ‘I can’t do that anymore’ to immediate the digital assistant to ask additional questions.

These will embody asking how they’re feeling on a scale of 1-10, in the event that they want emergency help, or in the event that they want to chat, take part in respiratory workout routines or play a recreation.

Alexa would then facilitate these requests with the purpose of supporting these on their sobriety journey.

Eleora mentioned: “The issue of addiction is rarely openly discussed, so I saw the Alexa Young Innovator Challenge as an opportunity to support this community, and help people feel seen while still allowing them to tackle their issues in private.

“I realised through my research that many people see Alexa as a companion, so I think it is perfectly placed to provide this support, with the skill I’ve coded intended to provide information and guidance in moments addicts need it the most.”

Isi Holdom got here up with the thought of ‘Waste Wizard’, an Alexa utility designed to advertise a greater understanding of recycling by giving steerage on what plastics could be recycled in several UK areas, and the way.

By asking Alexa questions equivalent to ‘how do I recycle this?’, ‘is this recyclable?’ or ‘check my recycling?’, the digital assistant would then ask what kind of plastic it’s and to search for the quantity in a triangle image.

When a person provides a quantity or description of the merchandise, the digital assistant will advise on whether or not it may be recycled or not, in addition to reminders equivalent to washing and squashing plastic bottles.

Isi mentioned: “It is really confusing to know how to recycle different plastics properly.

“I know some councils provide a lot of information and I just wanted to help people on a bigger scale with understanding how to get it right.

“Alexa is a really accessible way to do this, and I hope one day to see my skill in practice.”

The pair had been winners of Amazon’s inaugural Alexa Young Innovator Challenge, an AI coding contest, which was judged by a judging panel together with STEM advocate Carol Vorderman, computing prodigy Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon, YouTuber and laptop science graduate Tobi Brown, and Lauren Kisser, Amazon Technology Director.

Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon mentioned: “Supporting women in accessing resources and information to help them consider careers in STEM has always been my number one priority.

“The tech revolution never stops and we know that AI is going to be a vital part of the future of the industry so it’s great to see the Alexa Young Innovator Challenge identifying some amazing young women who are taking the first steps on this journey to be our future scientists and technologists.”

Lauren Kisser, expertise director at Amazon, mentioned: “We were blown away by the innovation and imaginative thinking that was evident in many of the entries we received for the Alexa Young Innovator Challenge.

“The challenge forms part of our Amazon Future Engineer programme [https://www.amazonfutureengineer.co.uk/], designed to upskill young people in Artificial Intelligence and computer science, and inspire them to consider a career in STEM.

“If more young people like Eleora and Isi play an active part imagining ways AI can be used to tackle social issues in their communities, just think of the good that technology could achieve in the future.”