Matís and Verkmenntaskóli Austurland recently organized the Innovation Competition of the primary schools in Fjarðabyggð, and this is the second time that such a competition has been held. Junior high school students took part in the Innovation Competition and had six weeks to come up with ideas for the possible use of seaweed and kelp from the area.
This year, the award ceremony took place on the family's Technology Day, which was held in Neskaupstaður on October 1st. The purpose of the Technology Day is to promote the technical and scientific work carried out in the East, as well as to promote the work of the Vocational School of the East, and it was therefore appropriate to announce the winner of the competition on the Technology Day.
The teachers in Fjarðabyggðar's primary schools did an excellent job in helping the students implement the ideas, and in addition to them, two "mentors" were recruited to help with the project, they were Dr. Hildur Inga Sveinsdóttir (Matís) and Dr. Guðrún Svana Hilmarsdóttir.
In order to decide the winner of the competition, judges from the local community who have a lot of experience from different fields were brought in. This year's judges were Arnfríður Eide Hafþórsdóttir, human resources and safety manager of Fur Processing, Hjördís Helga Seljan Þóroddsdóttir, president of the town council in Fjarðabyggð and Guðmundur Rafnkell Gíslason, manager of the Shipowners' Cooperative in Neskaupstað. The task of the judges was great as about 30 solutions were received from the elementary schools.
The President of Iceland, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson was hired to present the award and he did so at a ceremony on Technology Day. Suffice it to say that the project Seaweed plastic won and it was the students Júlíus Sigurðarson and Svanur Hafthórsson from Nesskóli who were responsible for the project. The jury had this to say about the project: "In the opinion of the jury, there is a lot of innovation in the project and the authors have a great vision of how the project can change the world."
Second place went to the project Beach salt but they were Þór Theódorsson and Stefanía Guðrún Birgisdóttir from Nesskóli. The jury had the following to say about the project: "the idea is ambitious for the use of mountain and sea, and it would be exciting to see it come to market."
The project won third place Seaweed paint and they were Anna Ragnarsdóttir, Ólafía Danuta Bergsdóttir and Kolka Dögg Ómarsdóttir from Eskifjarðar School, and the jury described the project in the following way: "extremely original idea and great innovation present."
Stefán Þór Eysteinsson was project manager on behalf of Matís. Matís would like to express special thanks to Birgis Jónsson, the project manager from the Vocational School of East Iceland, the jury, teachers, school administrators, "mentors", the President of Iceland and all those involved in the project.
Below you can see a video from the winning project: