Award winners using technology to make the world a better place

catherine.grinyer@abilitynet.org.uk | 11 Aug 2016

The amazing people who use digital technology to improve the lives of others were recognised recently at the AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards 2016 at BT Centre, London. Now in their sixth year, the awards are organised by AbilityNet and supported by BT and celebrate charities, businesses and volunteers from across the UK.

The panel of judges brings together experts from business, charity and the tech industry. They picked the winners for seven of the award categories and the pubic chose the People's Award winner.

Meet the winners

Nine-year-old Arnav Sharma was one of the big stars of the night.Arnav Sharma, age 9 He won the Tech4Good People’s Award for his AsthmaPi kit, which helps people with asthma to understand, diagnose and medicate for the condition. He was also a finalist in the BT Young Pioneer Award and topped the night by winning the audience vote for the Winner of Winners Award.

Arnav studied the causes, diagnosis and effect of asthma and came up with a unique solution: the AsthmaPi kit. Using hardware including Raspberry Pi and programmed using Python and C++, Arnav’s kit can help parents of children suffering from asthma and those not sure about the diagnosis of asthma.

Arnav said: “I love coding and this was my first attempt at creating something.  So, I am very happy to have won the Tech4 Good awards especially as all other finalists were so amazing. I also hope that winning the awards will help me make the Asthma Pi available for asthma sufferers to use!”

The AbilityNet Accessibility Award was won by Wayfindr, eWATERPay scooped the BT Young Pioneer Award and the BT MyDonate Fundraising Award went to Neighbourly.

SafetyNets/Ugly Mugs picked up the Community Impact Award, the Digital Health Award was claimed by MyWard and the Digital Skills Award went to BBC micro:bit and Maureen Johnston won the IT Volunteer of the Year Award.

AbilityNet’s Head of Digital Inclusion Robin Christopherson was honoured with the Tech4Good Special Award for his extensive experience in inspiring and educating people across the world.