{"id":25393,"date":"2019-12-13T18:54:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T23:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25393"},"modified":"2019-12-13T18:54:17","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T23:54:17","slug":"young-innovators-share-their-ideas-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/young-innovators-share-their-ideas-for-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Young innovators share their ideas for the future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Shane Lajeunesse is fed up with the amount of greenhouse\ngasses being pumped into our air \u2013 as well as the lack of concrete action being\ntaken to make it a thing of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the Grade 7 student from Northern Lights Public\nSchool has stepped up to do his part to get more people to turn off their\nmotors and lace up their walking shoes to get to where they need to go through\nthe power of an app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lajeunesse presented his app, Walk It, at the recent\nYouth Innovation Fair presented by the Town of Aurora. Now in its third year,\nit is a chance for young people at local elementary and secondary schools to\nbring their big ideas to an even bigger audience and share their own concepts\nwith their peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWalk It is designed to get people to walk instead of\ndrive because people are taking their cars on such short trips,\u201d Lajeunesse\nexplained. \u201cThe app analyses over a dozen factors to determine if you should\nwalk instead of drive, like distance, weather, traffic, current steps, the\nnumber of bags or heavy items you would have to carry, time constraints \u2013 and\nthe points you would earn from this trip.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The points system is an essential component of the app.\nNot only can you collect points for making the smart travel decision, you can\nalso earn through reporting various factors along your journey, including\npedestrian issues and invasive weeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome sample tasks include how tall the grass is at the\npark, burnt-out lights, taking pictures of storefronts and more,\u201d he said. \u201cThe\ngoal is to make people healthier, help save the environment and provide\ncustomers to partners and make sure Aurora is aware of what\u2019s going on. This\nidea appealed to me because I don\u2019t like the amount of CO2 that is going into\nthe air. I am not saying people don\u2019t do stuff about it, but there are a lot\nmore people who aren\u2019t taking action. This is a way to help reduce the amount\nof CO2 that is going into the air.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If part of Lajeunesse\u2019s goal was to increase awareness,\nit was mission accomplished at the Youth Innovation Fair where his innovation\nreceived recognition in the Intermediate Category (Grades 7 \u2013 9), nabbing the\nEco Friendly Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His innovation, and the innovations from nearly 30 other\nparticipants, were judged and evaluated by a host of dignitaries and industry\nprofessionals, including Mayor Tom Mrakas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining Lajuenesse among the intermediate winners were\nFarah Baig and Kayla Titherington who were recognized with the Community\nLeadership Award for their innovation \u201cNeuroglasses\u201d and Jacob Leiher who was\nrecognized with \u201cMost Innovative\u201d for his RC Mower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking home top honours in the Senior category (Grades 10\n\u2013 12) was Matthew Mellery with his Robotic Arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior Winners (Grades 4 \u2013 6) included Suzanne Northrup,\nDanielle Northrup, Amelie Heng, Claire McWhinnie, Kaiash-Marie Sanderson and\nThomas Patterson with \u201cA Centre for Us All\u201d, which nabbed the \u201cMost Innovative\u201d\nprize; Riley Hickling, Morhan Hine, Chloe Bell and Alannah Surgnor with their\nEco Sort Recycling concept (Community Leadership); and Maddy Louhlin, Cait Uus\nand Jordan Fox with Save Our Oceans (Eco Friendly).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTonight, we saw a great demonstration of the innovative\nthinking and creative skills of youth through the ideas and inventions they\nshowcased,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas. \u201cI think we can all agree our future is looking\ngreat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Mallery said his idea for a robotic arm came to him\nwhen his sister broke her arm and understandably encountered challenges\nperforming some basic tasks as she healed. His 3D robotic arm concept uses\nmachine learning and computer vision to recognize a hand, follow it and move\nthe arm in concert to the movements of the hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe end goal of this is to add a virtual presence device\nor a robot that can be controlled remotely through the internet,\u201d he explained.\n\u201cThe arm is able to be controlled by a user to do simple tasks anonymously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While an issue at home inspires Matt\u2019s innovation, the\nneeds of the community as a whole inspired the students at Ecole St. Jean to\ndevelop their \u201cA Centre for Us All\u201d concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA Centre for Us All\u201d is a plan for a completely\ninclusive recreation centre that addresses population growth in Aurora\u2019s\nnortheast quadrant, current needs among sports groups, and environmental\ninnovations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team initially developed the concept as part of the\nFIRST LEGO League, but their ideas snowballed to the point where they took\ntheir initiative to individuals who can make their vision a reality \u2013 including\nMayor Mrakas, who has highlighted their efforts in his weekly column in The\nAuroran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe read the whole Master Plan and it was a big document,\nbut we read it,\u201d said Amelie of their research process, which also included\ninterviewing stakeholders, such as the Master Ducks swim club, to see where\ncurrent recreation facilities were falling short, and how their A Centre for Us\nAll concept could help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results include a proposal for a 50-metre swimming pool and an additional dog park to serve the rapidly growing community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shane Lajeunesse is fed up with the amount of greenhouse gasses being pumped into our air \u2013 as well as the lack of concrete action being taken to make it a thing of the past. So, the Grade 7 student from Northern Lights Public School has stepped up to do his part to get more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2019-12-12-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Bz","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 06:03:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}