This year’s staging of Katalyxt’s Youth Innovators’ Competition saw students from third to sixth form across the country, and across the science and business disciplines, submitting innovative product or service ideas and vying for prizes.

In the Big Idea Award category: Vere Technical High School was awarded first place for their fertilisation and irrigation system; Steer Town Academy was awarded second place for their Agricultural Carbon Trapping System (A.C.T.S) and the team from Jamaica College was awarded third place for their Vision Lunettes.

In the Sustainability Award category: Steer Town Academy’s A.C.T.S innovation received first place, Cornwall College’s water potability tester received second place, and Guy’s Hill High School’s programmable greenhouse innovation received the third place prize.

Edith Dalton James High’s presentation of their Stinking Toe Cupcakes helped them cop the Team Leader’s Award, and Spot Valley High School’s face soap and cleansers were the Businessman’s Pick.

Though many student-teams from schools across the nation entered, only a few teams had the honour of leaving the competition as champions.

After presenting their innovations to a panel of judges at the Jamaica Conference Centre in April, the teams from the various schools reassembled on May 9

at the Knutsford Court Hotel for the announcement and awarding of the winners.

Of note was the performance in presentation and the originality of the innovations from the following schools in the competition:

Ardenne High School

Roger Clarke High School

Steer Town Academy

Cornwall College

Edith Dalton James High School

Spot Valley High School

Vere Technical High School

Immaculate Conception High School

Hampton School

Jamaica College

William Knibb Memorial High School 

Guy’s Hill High School

Set apart by their different ideas and innovations, but unified by a mandate to create, each student would have left the competition with a newfound sense of self and value for their own skill and potential as an entrepreneur and nation-builder. Congratulations to the awardees and very well done to all the competitors!

–Charlene Buchanan