Brigidine College Year 12 graduates Ella Howard and Annabelle Mansour have created innovative HSC Design and Technology major projects that meet community needs.
Here they share how the sector-blind entrepreneurial education initiative UpRising helped solidify their ideas for positive change.
Seed for change
Anabelle and Ella’s projects were among three in NSW to receive seed funding through UpRising, which offers Year 12 Design and Technology students the opportunity to develop their HSC major projects for the subject outside the classroom.
The seed funding is awarded each year to the top three UpRising projects as voted by an independent panel of industry professionals and entrepreneurs, and helps students to pay for materials to test and develop their project prototypes.
UpRising was founded by former Brigidine College TAS teacher Richard Hainsworth, who said the sector-blind education initiative allowed students to gain support for their ambitions and helped to build the innovation ecosystem.
The projects
Annabelle Mansour designed aesthetically-pleasing waterproof swimwear to discourage the bacterial infections that can come from wet material’s prolonged contact with skin.
She tested about 20 fabrics, weighing them while wet and dry with a precision scale to assess their waterproof ability, before finding a 100 per cent recycled waterproof fabric for her women’s and children’s swimwear designs.
“When you come out of the water you are completely dry, the water just beads off the fabric,” Annabelle said.
“I prioritised durability and the ability to be waterproof but aesthetics played a major role because I wanted people to enjoy being able to wear nice swimwear without being worried about the risk of health issues.”
Annabelle plans to study commerce or business information systems at university. She said that Design and Technology provided a nice balance to her HSC study load which included Mathematics Extension 2.
“I really enjoy the creativity aspect [of Design and Technology],” – Annabelle Mansour
“It felt like a nice time where I could just relax and sew,” she said.
Anabelle said she appreciated the $300 funding toward her project and the mentoring, contacts and ideas she received through UpRising as she hopes to start a pop-up or business.
“It was very useful when choosing prototype fabrics. They were very helpful,” she said. “I’m excited to see where it can go.”
Surfer Ella Howard plans to pursue product design and commerce at university after successfully designing a compact water-rescue device for emergency services’ use.
Her Hydrolife Line is a flotation device that can be thrown from land to rescue people in distress in the water. A detachable rope ensures they can be safely towed from the water by a jet ski. Ella received $200 seed funding to support the idea.
“I was wanting to make a product that met a genuine need in society so I went to the lifeguards and said ‘what are the main issues you are facing?’,” Ella said.
“I discovered that emergency services are not trained to go in the water for rescue and they don’t have a product to save someone from land that is suitable for their use. The biggest issue was that they didn’t have a product small enough to fit into their vehicles.”
Ella said it was important her design be affordable, all-weather and waterproof and could be used quickly in a range of scenarios.
“Drowning happens within 30 seconds to a minute, and swallowing so much water can cause long-term damage,” – Ella Howard
“It is very important that they are rescued and their head is above water as soon as possible so there is less harm or injury.”
Ella said she loved the design process and was keen to pursue product design at university.
“I love the creativity within it,’ Ella said.
“It opens your mind because to get to a sophisticated design you have to think about so many different factors.” – Ella Howard
“In Year 12 we put in all this effort to create these products. For them to end up in storerooms is really a shame because there are a lot of ideas that are trying to meet a genuine need in society.”
“It would be amazing to get them on the market.”