Winners announced at Apps for Good

Winners of the Apps for Good Awards were announced at a ceremony in London, celebrating the achievements of young digital entrepreneurs

Joe Lawson-West

The national Apps for Good Awards, held at the Barbican, London, celebrated the next generation of problem solvers and digital creators: students who have created an app that tackles an everyday problem or issue they are passionate about.

The teams of students aged 10 to 18 pitched in front of a panel of judges comprised of industry leaders to be crowned the winner. This year, six winners for six theme-based categories were chosen from 18 finalist teams.

The winning app teams are:

Category	Winning Team	App
Information Sponsored by Thomson Reuters	Stratford Girls’ Grammar School	I’m Okay Provides support for young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people
My Planet Sponsored by Thomson Reuters	Budehaven Community School	ShoreCast Identifies the best nearby surf spots with the most favourable conditions
Connected Communities Sponsored by TalkTalk	Shireland Collegiate Academy	Crime Time Brings awareness to crime hotspots to increase neighbourhood safety
Productivity	Wick High School	Chore Attack Helps divide housework between families and housemates to get everyone doing their fair-share of the chores
Learning Sponsored by Samsung	Hymers College	Crypto Connex Game that teaches the art of codebreaking
Saving, Spending and Giving Sponsored by Barclaycard	The Wroxham School	Pocket Money Pig Pocket money manager for parents so they can manage what’s been lent and spent

The winner of the People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Tech London Advocates, has also been revealed as ‘Occasion Location’, developed by students from Sutton Grammar School for Boys, which allows users to find, rate and promote venues. This app was voted the overall fan-favourite out of all the shortlisted app entries.

This year’s Awards also recognises the coding whizzes on the Apps for Good course, with Coding Ninja prizes for the students who have created the best working prototypes. The winners were:

Tech Ninja, sponsored by the Nominet Trust – Altrincham Grammar School for Boys: ‘School Advisor’.
Social Ninja, sponsored by Facebook – Dr Challoner’s Grammar School: ‘Battle Tables’.

The winning teams in the six thematic categories and the People’s Choice Award winner will now work with development agencies to launch their apps on to the market in January 2015, with the support of Apps for Good and their sponsors.

Debbie Forster, UK managing director of Apps for Good commented: “We’d like to offer our congratulations to all the winners this year! The Apps for Good Awards are our chance to celebrate the innovation and hard work of all of the students in Apps for Good courses across the country, demonstrating the potential of technology to support learning.

“The Apps for Good course teaches not only the fundamentals of coding, but also skills such as problem solving, creativity and communication that are essential to success in the 21^st century. The winning student teams have demonstrated all of these skills and more, and we can’t wait to see the final apps launched on to the market in January.”