Kindly robot gives Montgomery High a byte at national prize

Montgomery High School's Charie robot is in the running for a national award

A team of cyber whizz-kids from Montgomery High have been making the most of lockdown to hone their technical skills.

Enterprising youngsters from the academy, called All Star Intelligence, have been working on their entry for the prestigious Longitude Explorer Prize People’s Choice Award.

Since September, hundreds of teams of 11 to 16 year olds across the country have been creating and developing technological solutions to some of the greatest challenges we face.

Headteacher Stephen Careless, his staff and pupils are hoping for success with Charie the Robot

Entries range from robots that clean the ocean and devices to help young people take part in lessons remotely, to tech that helps isolated people connect with others and apps to help people lead healthier lives.

Since March, the Blackpool trio has worked remotely with each other and experts to perfect Project Charie, (Care Home Automatic Robotic Intelligent Environment) which is a robot designed to help people to remember things, stay safe, reduce energy, and access information which they will find useful.

The team, three year eights, Matthew Corsbie,Joshua Mahon and Mason Whitworth, have made it through to the finals and now, for the first time ever, the public will have a say on who wins the People’s Choice Award and £5,000 for their school or youth group by voting online.

Their headteacher Stephen Careless said: " The idea of a robot with artificial intelligence that helps around the house, monitors your health and even cooks your dinner would have helped many of the elderly over the recent lockdown. "

He added that the boys developed a business plan that laid out how they would design, produce and further develop their idea. after they had consulted remotely with national industry experts on manufacturing, product development market research.

The prize money could even be used to help test out some of the features need to bring Charie to life.

Philip Morris who is leading the proejct at school added that the lads were very optimistic that their design, if created, could be used to help many people in their daily lives.

To vote in the Longitude Explorer Prize People’s Choice Awards, search ‘Longitude Explorer’ or visit longitudeexplorer.challenges.org.