MOUNT Gambier teenage trio Lilli Fulwood and Elly and Dale Bachmann received top honours at the GovHack Open Data Competition National Awards at the weekend.
The teens won the coveted best national youth team award at the red carpet event held in Sydney on Saturday.
The GovHack Open Data Competition was held at the Mount Gambier Library in September and during 46 hours of competition time, 45 youth and adults competed simultaneously with other teams across Australia.
Competitors delivered a concept to make open data more accessible to the public and the concepts were judged on a three minute video promoting the working model of each idea.
Lilli, Elly and Dale’s team Bachmanns and Fulwoods created the project Backwards and Forwards, an interactive history board game based on South Australian figures.
The project was judged as the best youth entry in Australia.
“This is an exceptional achievement and shows what the youth of Mount Gambier are capable of,” library youth services coordinator Terasa Nearmy said.
“The fact their concept stems from a board game and they only had three team members proves anyone can take part in the GovHack Open Data Competition with the only limitation being their imagination.”
In addition to the national win, the teens also took out the local youth award and were runners up at state level in the category City of Adelaide – The Place to Live, Work and Play.
Lilli received a golden ticket and was flown to Sydney for the national awards event to accept the award on behalf of her team.
“The competition was an awesome opportunity to work as a team with the assets and time limits given to create one goal,” Lilli said.
“The outcome was so much more than a board game, it left us with memories, stronger friendships and a desire to use the tools around us to invent new ways of using old things.”
Mount Gambier teams also received honourable mentions in two prize categories.
Team Just We Three was recognised for its project in the prize category Protecting Our Carers.
Their concept Connected – Councils Connecting Community is an interactive, self-serve kiosk that links residents and new arrivals with community groups, clubs and support services in their local area.
Team Opt1c N3t received an honourable mention in the prize category On Your Marks, Get Set, Start Up for the project New Age Business, an app-based concept that will help people create or grow their small business.
