{"id":38187,"date":"2026-05-21T13:25:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=38187"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:28:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:28:42","slug":"local-youth-wow-with-solutions-for-future-at-innovation-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/local-youth-wow-with-solutions-for-future-at-innovation-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"Local youth wow with solutions for future at Innovation Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As someone who lives with a physical disability, John Perry is attuned to the needs of those on similar paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perry, who lives with cerebral palsy, has seen his friends excluded from certain groups and activities because of their ability to speak. But rather than just sit on the sidelines, the Grade 11 student from East Gwillimbury set out to help break down barriers in front of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result of his work is the Second Voice Project, an augmented communication application that helps those with voice challenges fully communicate with those around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perry\u2019s software, which has garnered significant interest from Google, took home top honours in the Senior category at last week at Aurora\u2019s annual Youth Innovation Fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Held at Aurora Town Square, the Youth Innovation Fair brings together youth of all ages from across York Region to showcase solutions they have come up with to address the challenges of today to help foster a better tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eager to evaluate this year\u2019s submissions were judges Wendy Browne of the Rotary Club, Aurora Citizen of the Year Sandy Bundy, Anthony Garramone of the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre\u2019s Men\u2019s Shed, Aurora Public Library Board Chair Lauren Hanna, past Youth Innovation Fair participants and members of Aurora\u2019s Youth Engagement Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat stood out wasn\u2019t just your creativity, it was your compassion,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas, speaking to participants and their families in the Aurora Town Square Performance Hall. \u201cYou tackled real challenges, imagined better futures, and worked to improve the lives of others. That combination is both powerful and rare. It shows that you don\u2019t have to grow up, wait your turn, or get more experience for ideas to matter. The problems you see today are real and your perspectives matter because they are fresh, honest and bold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improving the lives of others was certainly the mission for Perry and his Second Voice Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI myself have a physical disability and one of the biggest things is I have several friends with voice needs and I wanted to give back to this community and it\u2019s been really nice to be able to,\u201d he shared. \u201cA good friend of mine that I played hockey with was kind of excluded from group activities because of his lack of ability to speak in that regard. When he started using [this tool], he\u2019s now going to college, and there are all kinds of great things that are coming out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last summer, Perry decided to take Second Voice to the next level and submitted it to Google for Startups on what he said was a \u201cHail Mary\u201d thinking it would \u201cnever go anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was braced for rejection when he saw he had a response from the tech giant, but it was anything but.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s now powered by one of Google\u2019s speech models, so there\u2019s a lot of stuff that we\u2019ve been able to do with their help,\u201d says Perry. \u201cIt\u2019s about helping people and helping kids. We are a business now, so obviously there are other factors at play, but my biggest thing was I didn\u2019t build this for money. This was never about making money. What\u2019s been really nice is seeing that I\u2019m able to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving a helping hand to the environment was just one factor that secured Grade 8 students Arwin Ghahremanian and Dylan Jiang with their Self-Sorting Garbage Bin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Self-Sorting Garbage Bin concept uses an AI-powered camera, programmed by more than 5,000 individual photographs taken by the students of various examples of garbage, to create a sensor that can sort waste into different compartments as it gets tossed in the bin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe noticed a lot of our classmates are lazy. We have three bins \u2013 compost, recycling, and waste \u2013 and we\u2019d see a classmate do a back-handed toss to whatever bin and with whatever garbage they had and thought, \u2018Why don\u2019t we just solve that problem for them?\u2019 If you\u2019re going to be lazy, at least do it in a smart way. The greatest mathematicians are the laziest, always trying to find a shortcut, so we created this machine that sorts the trash for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The duo\u2019s concept involves bins equipped with their own modem, connected to a network, that is sustainable, \u201cself-reliable\u201d and doesn\u2019t rely on external sources of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They see many more applications for their product beyond the school environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn large malls, people can be very careless, especially in food courts. They would just dump everything on their tray into the garbage and wouldn\u2019t take the time to pick out each thing,\u201d says Arwin. \u201cHere, they could just throw the garbage into one chute and out of that chute it would sort all the garbage into different areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THIS YEAR\u2019S WINNERS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JUNIOR CATEGORY<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WINNER: Eyal Jorchatov \u2013 Ice Build Up Machine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HONOURABLE MENTION: Kelly Guo, Chloe Huan, Ivy Wang \u2013 Green Energy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HONOURABLE MENTION: Yejoon Kim, Olivia Park, Eric Shivdky, Brian Zhang \u2013 Boney Jr Robot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INTERMEDIATE CATEGORY<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WINNER: Arwin Ghahremanian, Dylan Jiang \u2013 Garbage Sorter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HONOURABLE MENTION: Kristi Brkic, Maelle Hamilton, Zoey Rabinovich \u2013 Comfy Curls<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HONOURABLE MENTION: Ayden Arabi, Allegra Buchanan, Amaya Gajadhar, Ethan Gadadhar, Madeline Northrup, Patrick Northrup, Chase Sullivan \u2013 Arcaomath<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SENIOR CATEGORY<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WINNER: John Perry \u2013 Second Voice Project<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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