Throughout the 2023-2024 academic year, our inaugural Student Challenge saw students design innovative projects in the categories of Digital Innovation and Making a Difference, key components of our focus on holistic education. Cognita students of all ages were able to engage with the student challenge, regardless of location, curricula, or school type, showcasing the very best of their creativity and ingenuity.

We are pleased to announce the six winning schools of our global competition. The winning students were from Brazil, Chile, Spain and the United Kingdom, and were chosen after regional and global judging by Cognita educators.

Dr Simon Camby, our Chief Education Officer, said:

“Congratulations to all the winners and participants in the Student Challenge 2024 competition. The entries were remarkable, which made it very difficult to decide the winners. It was fantastic to see students from different countries take part in the Challenge, and a reminder that no matter where they are in the world, our schools and pupils are linked by our core values and commitment to holistic education.

All the entries show the way in which our students can use their learning to solve real-life, complex problems. Through this Challenge, students were able to build their agency, adaptability and positive attitudes, creating a strong foundation to support their future endeavours.”

Three schools won for their digital innovation projects.

  1. Students at Brazil’s Instituto GayLussac worked towards creating computer vision glasses for the visually impaired. After extensive research and leveraging machine learning techniques, they developed and implemented a Computer Vision Model combined with a Raspberry Pi-based system to create a robust model that can recognise objects, people, animals, and text.
  2. Students at Colegio Manquecura Ciudad del Este, also in Chile, designed and built a radio telescope using recycled materials and low-cost technology, in an effort to democratise access to astronomy among high school students. The students shared the knowledge they gained from the project at the school’s science fair.
  3. In the UK, a student at North Bridge House Canonbury created a programme to help distinguish foxes and cats from other objects caught on camera, to help efforts to conduct research on the behaviour and population of these animals in an urban environment. The programme uses deep machine learning and principles of machine vision to collect data and plots a graph of the number of foxes and cats seen on different days.

A further three projects were recognised for their commitment to making a difference in the students’ local communities.

  1. Students at Colegio Dunalastair Valle Norte, in Chile, ran digital campaigns to raise awareness of the needs of residents at a local rural homeless camp, which is without drinking water and a functioning sewage system, and has precarious housing. Students collected aid received as a result of these campaigns to give to the camp residents.
  2. Students from El Limonar International School Murcia in Spain met with a local supermarket manager, food bank director, foodbank volunteers and the district mayor before organising a food collection for a nearby foodbank. To raise awareness, students created and distributed posters in their local town and online and kept a record of the food collected. The project also highlighted the importance of ensuring more sustainable practices to avoid food waste.
  3. Elsewhere in Spain, students at Mirasur School created a documentary raising awareness of the delay in starting construction of a new bus stop in a local neighbourhood, which was due to start in 2000. The documentary aimed to highlight the importance of public transport institutions being accountable and committed to providing equitable services to the local population, including those from vulnerable backgrounds.

Congratulations again to our outstanding students for their dedication and hard work during this year’s challenge.