Clancy Catholic College student Jorja Suga wins trip to NASA with goggle design
A young western Sydney inventor has designed smart goggles which will save lives in our pools. See how they work.
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A West Hoxton student has won the trip of a lifetime to NASA headquarters after her innovative design for swim safety goggles was chosen as the winning entry in a national competition for young inventors.
Having impressed judges in the littleBIGidea competition run by Origin Energy, 12-year-old Jorja Suga will now rub shoulders with some of the most brilliant minds in the world.
The Clancy Catholic College student said she was inspired to come up with her design after learning about drowning statistics.
Her device features a smart chip in the bridge of a pair of children’s goggles, which uses Bluetooth technology to alert a supervisor when a child wearing the device has been underwater for too long.
“I learned alarming facts about the drowning rates here in Australia and in particular in NSW,” Jorja said.
“I decided to research it further and found even more terrible statistics. I knew the drowning rate was a number I wanted to decrease”
According to Royal Life Saving Australia statistics, 128 children aged under five years drowned in NSW between 2002 and 2015.
Jorja’s design was among 1000 entries in the competition and was the winning entry in the Years 7-8 category, earning her a trip to America to visit NASA headquarters as well as $1000 to go towards developing her invention.
Clancy Catholic College principal David Fetterplace praised her achievement.
“Science careers tend to be dominated by men and so it’s wonderful to see Jorja come through and make a difference in this field,” he said.
Jorja’s year co-ordinator Tiana Romeo said her win was exciting news.
“There’s such a need for this device, she was able to recognise that there was a need and research that,” Ms Romeo said.