A YOUNG entrepreneur from Solihull was part of a Dragons’ Den style event in which young people pitched an idea on how satellites can improve life on earth to a Space Agency panel.
Kari Lawler, aged 15, pitched her proposals to a panel of leading space experts and even discussed a future job in the industry.
The pupil from Castle Bromwich entered the agency’s SatelLife Challenge in April and won £5,000 to develop her idea.
Her idea involved using technology which detects changes and patterns across the globe which could be used to identify the causes of natural disasters to help prevent them in the future.
The experts offered the young entrants a range of support to improve their pitches.
This included funding, patent advice and invitations to discuss job opportunities as well as introductions to the other relevant experts for further help.
The youngsters who participated were between the ages 13 to 21.
Emily Gravestock, head of applications Strategy UK Space Agency, said: “The standard of presentations provided by the students was exceptional, even better than some companies who pitch to us.
“We’ve seen the future of satellite applications from these young people, and I’m excited to see what they could achieve over the coming years.”
The Dragons’ Den style event was held at the Satellite Applications Catapult at Harwell Space Cluster in Oxfordshire.
Adam Brocklehurst, patent attorney at K2 IP Limited – an intellectual property network- who was one of the judges, said: “I’m really impressed with the innovative ideas coming out of people so young.
“The presentations and the ideas were all fantastic and you could see they had worked really hard on them.
“It was great to see so many girls involved and that reflects well on work the UK Space Agency and other bodies are doing to encourage girls to study STEM subjects.”
Another judge, Adina Gillespie, institutional strategist at global space company Earth i, added: “The young talent that we have in the UK is second to none. I’m so pleased to see these young adults engaging with the space sector as it will be a major economy of the future.”
Now in its second year, SatelLife Challenge supports the development of science, data handling and technological skills, complementing the government’s Year of Engineering campaign which is championing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to the next generation.
