maddison-king

[Music plays and images of award participants flash by on screen. Text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Image changes to show Maddison King running two dogs around an oval]

[Image changes to show Maddison King smiling at the camera]

Madison King: Hi I’m Maddy, and I’m in Year 12 at Meridan. And my project is called the Clever GIRL,

[Image changes to show Maddison King seated talking to the camera]

 and GIRL stands for Global Intelligent Rip Locator.

[Image changes to show Maddy standing next to her project]

My project consists of a buoy with a turbine attached underneath so when a rip current goes through the turbine spins and then this turbine is attached to a generator,

[Image changes back to show Maddy seated talking to the camera]

and the generator makes a light go off on top so it warns swimmers not to swim there.

[Image continues to show Maddy seated talking to the camera]

I’m a lifeguard at my local pool and this really inspired me to build this project.

[Image changes to show Maddy working on her project]

So I had to do a whole heap of research first to check that what I was doing was worthwhile and innovative.

[Image changes back to show Maddy seated and talking to the camera]

And after that I had to do a whole lot more research about what sort of materials to use, how it would work and all the scientific principles behind it.

[Image changes to show Maddy working on her project]

One of the biggest challenges I faced was making it all waterproof because the turbine’s spinning and it’s attached to a generator, but then while it’s spinning it also has to be waterproof, and so that took me a couple of months to figure out how to actually make it waterproof and I eventually used a ball bearing.

[Image changes back to show Maddy seated and talking to the camera]

When I was a child I was always really creative and I loved making new things that no one had thought of and so this is sort of just branching off from that, so I identify a need and then I think what sort of ways can this be solved.

[Images changes back to show Maddy running around an oval with two dogs]

I absolutely love animals; animals are my favourite thing in the entire world. I have two dogs and they are literally my life and I love them so much.

[Image changes to show Maddy entering a yellow vehicle]

Another thing that fills up a lot of my free time is learning how to drive, I’m currently on my L’s but I’m hoping to go for my P’s next week so fingers crossed.

[Image returns to show Maddy seated and talking to the camera, she is smiling and has her fingers on both her hands crossed tightly]

[Image changes to show Maddy throwing a javelin]

I really like doing javelin, I’ve been doing javelin for the past three years and I’ve made so many friends doing this sport and I absolutely love it.  In the future I think that science and engineering is going to be an absolutely huge industry and so I think any job that I do will definitely include science because science will just be a part of life for everyone.

[Image changes to show Maddy running her two dogs]

[Image changes to show Maddy standing next to her device and then changes back to show Maddy seated and talking to the camera]  

I love science and engineering because there’s no wrong answer and I can do whatever I want and be completely innovative without doing anything wrong. I will make a lot of mistakes but that’s part of the process to being a creative person.

Being a finalist has showed me that my ideas are worthwhile and that I should continue down this path because they are being valued.

[Music plays and text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Sponsors logos appear on screen]