Strathmore Trophy won by Bathgate Academy

Published On Mon 24 Jun 2019 by Grant Hill

Pupils from Bathgate Academy have won the 2019 Strathmore Trophy computing competition.

The Bathgate team beat competition from 15 other schools with their plan to use the artificial intelligence technology used by the likes of Alexa and Siri to help people with the most complex disabilities.

S2 pupils from across the East of Scotland were challenged to design a new digital assistant for users who are unable to speak. Researchers at the University have for many years been designing applications for people with complex communication impairments, who have poor or no speech and difficulties in using a conventional keyboard. This was the inspiration for this year’s competition.

Arbroath High School and Carnoustie High School finished in 2nd and 3rd place respectively while Dundee’s St Paul’s Academy received the People’s Choice award, voted for by other pupils.

Researcher Rolf Black, one of the competition organisers, said, “I would like to congratulate the Bathgate team for their win and all participants for making it such a great competition and a difficult decision for us to make.”

The Strathmore Trophy competition is held annually by the University’s Computing department to get local school pupils thinking about applications of computer technology to help people. The Trophy was donated by Mary, Dowager Countess of Strathmore in 1996. The competition is now sponsored by the British Computer Society (BCS).

The schools who took part this year were:

  • Arbroath Academy
  • Arbroath High School
  • Baldragon Academy            
  • Balwearie High School
  • Bathgate Academy
  • Beath High School
  • Brechin High School
  • Carnoustie High School
  • Craigie High School
  • Dollar Academy
  • Dunblane High
  • Grove Academy
  • Lochgelly High School
  • Perth High School
  • St. Pauls RC Academy
  • Stirling High School

More information about the Strathmore Trophy challenge is available at https://strathmoretrophy.computing.dundee.ac.uk/.


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