OCA Innovation & Collaboration Award 2023

The OCA Innovation and Collaboration Award has been running for five years, and is pleased to announce the fourth winner since its inception. The grand final at the end of the Summer Term never fails to be an event which inspires the judges and reminds us about the breadth of talent and creativity amongst the pupil body.  

An almost entirely new panel, made up of award architect and former OCA president, Clive Furness, current OCA president David Kinnear, former Head Girl, Rhia Patel and our Principal Deputy Head, Mr Gabriele, saw three groups competing for the prize. By the end of the evening there was a definite sense that this had been an extraordinary year for the competition!  

Team ExoSafe made up of Otty, Samuel, Alex, Wayne and Santosh gave a perfectly executed presentation on their electromagnetic door-locking mechanism with smart home integration. The sense of team spirit was what truly excited the judges along with their strong idea and a clear sense of how they might overcome every barrier and obstacle the judges threw at them! 

Seb and Phil gave a thought-provoking and impassioned presentation for their concept – Vapid – a company built around the idea of recycling the lithium found in used, disposable vapes which would otherwise go to landfill. They explained to the judges that this was not only a waste of an important, and finite natural resource, but also an environmental hazard due to the fire risk. The judges were impressed by their energy and the thinking behind the concept, which was an issue they were keen to solve. 

This year’s winners, however, were Izzy and Emma in the First Year. Their idea was a simple, elegant concept called V-Bowl. V-Bowl, short for vacuum bowl, is a fruit bowl which creates a vacuum seal over the bowl’s contents, ensuring that the fruit lasts up to 15 days longer than it ordinarily would, thus solving one of the most prevalent and common food waste issues in the world. They presented their idea with quiet confidence and the judges were impressed by the work they had done, speaking to a local council, to best understand the need for their solution.  

The OCA now looks forward to working with Izzy and Emma to see if they can further develop their idea, but the judges wanted to emphasise how impressed they were with all of this year’s finalists. The future of innovation within our community is certainly in safe hands!