Ponds High School win first place in the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation’s Hackathon

The ingenuity of students from Sydney’s northwest, tasked with the design of a real-world product to tackle sustainability, has been rewarded with a national prize.

The ingenuity of Sydney school students, tasked with designing a real-world product to tackle sustainability, has been rewarded with a national science prize.

Students from The Ponds High School in north west Sydney were joint winner of the recent STEM “Hackathon”, a sprint-style event for students with science, engineering and maths prowess to collaborate on projects with the goal of creating functioning, real-world products or solutions.

In the most recent competition, led by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), students were challenged to develop a sustainable community and improve quality of life by repurposing glass.

The competition stretched across three days — the first day was dedicated to developing a design and the following days were spent prototyping, testing and refining their pitches.

Students from The Ponds High School managed to earn the top honours for their sustainable eco-dome.

The final design of the eco-dome.

The Ponds High School eco-dome which won the Hackathan in 2022.

Sanjana Chandramohan, aged 15, was part of the winning ten-person team.

“Last year, I was in the competition and we didn’t win, we were finalists,” Sanjana said. “We were happy to be finalists but also kind of disappointed.”

Ponds High School students working on their eco-dome.

This near win spurred Sanjana and her team on, but she said one of the main challenges was refining the task.

“When we got the design brief for glass it was so broad for us and we didn’t know what to do,” she said. “We had a mixture of ideas and eventually we discussed and refined our design into the eco-dome.”

To help, Sanjana’s team took it upon themselves to reach out to and interview a staff member at The Ponds High School who works for a glass recycling centre.

“A lot of research went into the sustainability and glass side of the project … (and) it was a really great experience for us as a team to work together and learn from each other,” she said.

The competition ran for three days.

“The eco-dome is completely run by solar energy and made of recycled or refurbished materials.

“It’s a community hub that includes facilities such as gyms, libraries, cafes and has an entry system that requires users to recycle materials before they can enter.”

ANSTO’s discovery centre team leader, Rod Dowler said the winning teams’ ingenuity and creativity inspired the judges who were impressed by the sophistication of their concept.

“The students … really went above and beyond with their design, with such an incredible outcome made even more impressive by their young age,” Mr Dowler said.

When she discovered she was part of the winning team, Sanjana said she was thrilled but also surprised.

“We were really really excited and we weren’t expecting it at all,” she said.

Sanjana plans to continue competing in the Hackathon and said she’s already learned a lot from the experience.

“It’s a great competition for students that are into innovating and designing because it allows you to work on what you are passionate about with a team,” she said.

“Design thinking is really crucial for students to learn because it can be applied to anything — from designing a room to completing a school assignment — it all helps enhance the end product.”