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It has never been more apparent that some of the world’s brightest minds are also some of the youngest, with Mastercard announcing 12-year-old Celia from Western Australia as the winner of its innovation challenge.

The innovation challenge rallied together the smartest young minds from across Australia, inviting them to come up with a new invention or idea that uses technology to make the world a better place. Three finalists took to the stage in Mastercard’s Innovation Hub at the Australian Open today to present their ideas to Mastercard representatives and tennis coach Darren Cahill.

The ideas were judged on their creativity, innovation and how well the idea uses technology for good with Celia crowned the winner. The budding scientist inspired the panel with her positive attitude and imaginative use of technology to help others.

Commenting on the children’s inventions, Darren Cahill said: “Much of my work as a coach is about empowering aspirational people to change the game, so it’s been really inspiring to come together with Mastercard to help these passionate young children share their ideas to change the world. While there was only one winner, all three of the finalists are game changers in their own right, and I wish them luck for the future.”

On accepting the prize – a STEM learning package for her and her entire class, Celia said: “I’ve had the best time taking on this innovation challenge. I’ve used my love for technology to come up with an idea that would give children everywhere the chance to have a good education. For children in remote areas, it can be hard to access the right learning and education tools. Holo-Teach hopes to change that. I’ve enjoyed coming up with the invention so much.”

“The Mastercard Innovation Challenge has been designed to encourage curiosity in STEM, and ultimately interest young people to explore these types of careers. It’s something Mastercard is incredibly passionate about as we believe it’s where the next generation of innovators and thinkers will come from. Mastercard would like to say a huge thank you to all of the amazing young entrants who took part and shared their brilliant ideas with us,” said Rich Wormald, Division President, Australasia, Mastercard.

The challenge was designed by Mastercard in light of new research which showed  80 percent of Australian children worry about the future with “money”, “education”, “not getting job”, “not having many friends” and “bushfires” as some of the serious issues identified. Despite these concerns, 83 percent of children believed technology and innovation has the power to make the world a better place.

Mastercard encouraged children to use technology to solve problems where they believe it could have the biggest positive impact. As identified by the research, these were:

  1. Education
  2. Bringing different cultures together
  3. Helping others in need
  4. Making friends
  5. The environment

As the Official Payment Partner of Australian Open 2020, Mastercard is using its sponsorship platform to inspire young people to explore careers and their curiosity in STEM. This is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion. The success of Mastercard’s Girls4Tech program, an educational platform for girls aged 8 to 12 that has already reached more than 415,000 girls across 25 countries. Mastercard recently expanded its commitment toreach one million girls globally.

Methodology

On behalf of Mastercard, PureProfile commissioned an online survey of more than 500 Australian children between the ages of 8 and 15 nationwide. The research explored the common worries Australian children have about the future and the extent to which they believe technology has the power to solve these problems. The survey also explored the positive impact technology plays in different areas of children’s lives.