Local tech geniuses shine at GovHack

Techie geniuses and creative masterminds all over Australia participated in last month’s GovHack, with three Sunshine Coast teams taking out major awards at the recent State Awards ceremony in Brisbane.
From leveraging ocean currents, to powering Noosa or how trash makes us sick, 17 Sunshine Coast teams created real-world solutions to real problems, making use of new open data from a range Queensland and Local Government agencies.
The winning Sunshine Coast teams were:
•Youth team, The RoboRoyals, with their idea Trash Talk, took out the Sunshine Coast Community Challenge and the Most Commercially Viable Product Challenge for identifying the health and clean-up costs associated with litter and providing a smart-tech litter unit solution, which builds on existing infrastructure.
•Noosa Hydro team with their idea Noosa Hydro, won the Sunshine Coast Sustainability Challenge for its ocean current electricity generator proposal to power all of Noosa.
•The I’m Learning team, with their idea Academic Connect, won the Sunshine Coast Commercialisation Challenge for its solution of linking industry with academia to stimulate more real-world relevant honours projects.
Proudly supported by Advance Queensland and #SCRIPT, the event saw an increase in youth participants on the Sunshine Coast with participants from previous years’ attending alongside new competitors including the RoboGems and RoboKings from Chancellor State College and a competitor who was just 11-years-old taking part.
University of the Sunshine Coast had 50 students participate (pictured). For more information, visit https://buff.ly/2SdV1wb.