The Coolest Projects celebration finished with a bang! The live virtual event hosted by Maddie Moate and Greg Foot was filled with excitement as our young tech makers narrated their experiences and showcased their awesome new creations. As the judges unveiled their picks and favorites for the Coolest Projects of 2021, they also shared insights and encouraged all participants to keep on innovating.

Hailing from 47 different countries, 1385 young tech enthusiasts participated in Coolest Projects 2021, submitted a whopping 1168 projects aimed at improving the future. For the celebration event, our global community assembled to witness and award novelty, cleverness, and passion with the hope of revolutionizing the world.

Colin Furze’s Choices

Our first judge was Colin Furze, a British YouTuber, producer, and (hold your breath!)  five-time Guinness World Record holder. The following were his top picks:

1) Vivien from the USA with her useful tech project that provides early warnings of earthquakes utilizing smartphones and wearables.

2) Yusuf, and Omer Faruk from Turkey and their Unity-based fighting game with science-infused gameplay.

3) Clara, Hannah, and Alondra of the USA and their timely new and improved version of Zoom Chat.

4) Mundatar of Iraq with his project “Math Race,” a fun game that that also develops mental skills.

5) Dillon from Ireland and his mobile app called “Safe Circle.”

6) Nathaniel from the USA with a project that utilizes the power of advanced programming to telekinetically control a flamethrower.

Melissa Pickering’s Picks

Our second distinguished judge was Melissa, an executive from LEGO Education who leads the development of play-based learning opportunities for children all around the globe. Her selection of favorite project makers included:

1) Lavie from the USA with her engineered Steinway Piano-inspired Lego project.

2) Niamh of Ireland with the VR game “Escape the Maze” that promotes skill-building.

3) Theo from the UK named who developed a web project called “Bookwriggle.”

4) Patrick Elliot from Indonesia with his Scratch-based project “Rocket Game”.

5) Yuvati from India who created a response to the hospital crisis with an app called “Hospito.”

6) Arvin from the USA who combined statistics and data science for his backyard squirrel detection system.

Fig O’ Reilly’s Favorites 

Fionnghuala O’Reilly joined in and brought both beauty and brains to the judges panel as she is a model, pageant titleholder, and NASA engineer. Cool project creators that piqued her interest included:

1) Sonali, Linan, and Samiksha from India with a COVID-19 face covering that doesn’t require touching.

2) Colvin from the USA who created a fun, detail-intense project called “Coolest Minecraft Mod”.

3) Anna and Harry from the UK with their mind-bending pen and paper puzzle developed for the Web.

4) Althafazrais from India who created a space-inspired Scratch project called “Mars Rover Simulator”.

5) Kayleigh and Kaitlyn from Ireland with their community collaboration app called “Give Me That ENERGY!”

6) Pradnyan from India with his innovative gaze controlled keyboard.

James Whelton’s Options

Our final judge of the day was coder, businessman, and co-founder of CoderDojo James Whelton, who is also widely known for his hack discovery involving iPod Nano. These were his winners:

1) Jayanth from UAE with a hardware project called “MediBuddy.”

2) Agustín, Joaquín, Lucero, Lucía, and Luis Salvador from Peru with a Python-based game they call “Think Twice”

3) Xiomara from Mexico who demonstrated skills with her web project “Accenture Dojo VideoLife.”

4) Bhavishyaa from Mexico with a sophisticated scratch project: Earth OS.

5) Shunsuke from Japan who combined a personal story and a great idea to create a mobile app: Birds AI Peep-chan.

6) Artur from Poland who combined multiple technologies for his advanced programming project, “Friction experiments made easy.”

Onwards We March

Let’s give a round of applause for all the young innovators, the judges, the community, and the sponsors who contributed to make Coolest Project 2021 a huge success. 

Here at Vilros, we’ve always believed there is no obstacle too big to stop the bright minds of the future. Did you know anyone who participated in Coolest Projects this year (maybe even you yourself)? Check out the recording of the event livestream and let us know which projects excited you the most!

And to find out more news and updates from both Raspberry Pi and Arduino, don’t forget you can always check out more articles here on our Vilros blog!