LIVE PITCH SHOWCASE

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT on Show

ST MARY’S FLAGSHIP ENTREPRENEURIAL PROGRAM, I3 – INTERDISCIPLINARY, INTELLIGENCE AND INNOVATION, CONTINUES TO GROW AT AN EXPONENTIAL RATE. THIS YEAR SAW 190 YEAR 10 GIRLS PARTICIPATE IN 39 TEAMS AT THE FINAL SHOWCASE, ALONG WITH INCREASED INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT AND SPONSORSHIP.

Launched in 2018, the compulsory Year 10 program aims to integrate STEM subjects across multiple discipline areas in collaboration with technology, enterprise, science and mathematics teaching, while also developing the students’ so-called ‘soft skills’ of critical thinking, ideation, creativity, communication, teamwork and presentation ability. The program requires students to work together across the year to come up with a solution to a real-world, United Nations goal, by the development of an app to help manage the problem. The course culminates in the annual ‘i3 Live Pitch Showcase’ in which the teams of students pitch to a panel of expert industry judges.

The girls all did incredibly well as they were pushed outside of their comfort zone to successfully sell their ideas. Several teams were even offered contact details from judges and mentors to take their ideas further, while some students have accepted work experience placements over the school holidays with their industry mentors. The overall winning team was Sustainabuy, made up of team members Juliet Crabb, Grace Hailes, Alexandria Moncrieff, Ella Smith and Jade Wallwork, with their app which is designed to use AI (artificial intelligence) recognition technology to help customers improve the sustainability of their product choices while shopping. Other successful teams were DONaid with their app to connect the 3.4 million Australians who are under the $2.70 per day poverty line, with donations of clothes and other items, and Eco-Diary with their tracker-based app, to enable users to input their daily activities to receive an overall rating of how sustainable they have been on that day, to aid climate change. The real-world nature of the program is in a huge part thanks to the enthusiastic contribution across the year of our judges, mentors and their organisations. We thank them for their vital part in making the program and the Showcase such a success: BHP | BAE Systems | Bankwest | City of Stirling | Commonwealth Bank | Dell Technologies | Edith Cowan University (ECU) | Fortescue Metals | Microsoft | Ninja Software | PwC | St Catherine's College, UWA | The University of Western Australia | Vince Connelly MP | Water Corporation | Wood PLC | Woodside Energy Special thanks also to Scitech and Amazon Web Services for donating prizes for the winning teams, and to Ninja Software, who assisted with the new-in-2020 judging app, 'JudgeFest'. We also thank our guest speakers - Zara Fisher, General Manager of Utilities and Operational Readiness of Fortescue Metals Group, Alex Dunmow, CEO of Ninja Software, and Theresa Needham, 2021 St Mary’s Technology Captain. We are very proud of all our girls for embracing the opportunity to create new technologies and to develop their entrepreneurial and presentation skills. We look forward to seeing what ‘startups’ they develop in the future.

Michelle Fitzpatrick Head of Technology and Enterprise