Meet the do your :bit judges
The do your :bit challenge is an annual competition that encourages children to find technological solutions to the issues their communities face. The challenge brings together the BBC micro:bit and the UN’s Global Goals and invites students aged 8- 18 years old from around the world to participate. This year, a panel of people with backgrounds in education and technology will judge the competition.
The do your :bit challenge closed on Friday 15 July and winners will be announced in early October 2022
The judges will be looking through the top rated submissions in each category and in each region. Winners will score highly on:
- originality and creativity in problem solving
- good implementation of their idea and clear instructions
- high potential impact
Amrita Naik
Amrita is the Head of Partnerships & Programs at Infosys Foundation USA, the private foundation of Infosys Ltd, whose mission is to expand access to computer science and maker education in K-12 public schools across the United States, with a particular focus on those communities most underrepresented and under resourced. Prior to her work with the Infosys Foundation, Amrita has over 10 years of professional experience managing HR, recruiting and CRM functions at several technology firms based in both Silicon Valley, California and Bengaluru, India.
Alison Bellwood
Alison Bellwood is the creator and director of the World’s Largest Lesson. The World's Largest Lesson is a UN supported initiative to encourage children and young people to support the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Working in partnership with UN agencies, governments, NGOs and the private sector, they aim to reach children in every school in the world.
Dr Ambily Banerjee
Ambily is a Senior Director, Clinical Research Equity, at Johnson and Johnson Innovative Medicine. She joined the Foundation board in 2021. Following her PhD in Molecular Biology, Ambily worked in academia before moving to the pharmaceutical industry in 2007. She is an active advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, and is also a board member for Slough Council for Voluntary Services.
Kjetil Holstad
Mr. Holstad is the Executive Vice President of Product Management at Nordic and has a B.Sc degree in Electronics from Sør-Trøndelag University College (HiST). After working 15 years in various technical and marketing positions related to MCUs and wireless technologies in Atmel Corporation and Texas Instruments, he joined Nordic in 2015 as a Product Manager for the short-range wireless business. Kjetil is based in Oslo, Norway.
Dr Winnie Lam
Dr Winnie Lam is the Associate Head and Senior Lecturer of the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology at The Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests are data analytics, robotics, bioinformatics and personalized learning. She is a dedicated IT educator and data scientist.
Katja Anger-Delimi
Katja works for UNESCO’s Associated Schools Network (ASPnet) leading global projects on Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education. Prior to her work for UNESCO, Katja worked on education innovation at OECD headquarters as well as for NGOs and government agencies in Haiti, Rwanda and Mali. She is a passionate advocate of the transformative power of education towards more just, peaceful, inclusive and sustainable societies.
Richard Curtin
Richard has been involved in the global electronics industry for over 25 years, initially supporting automotive design and manufacturing before moving into the technology distribution and IoT (Internet of Things) sectors. Richard has worked with some of the world’s most disruptive technology companies to deliver innovative market strategies and product solutions. Richard is the co-founder of OKdo, a global technology company.
Yolanda Payne
Yolanda Payne is a research associate with Georgia Institute of Technology, working within the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing. In this role, Ms. Payne gets to interact with students, teachers and technology. A classroom teacher for over twenty years, Yolanda has always integrated technology into her classroom and credits physical computing devices as a major source of joy and inspiration for both herself and her students. As a Microbit Champion Community lead, you will often find Yolanda teaching others useful ways to engage students with the content and curricula that is enhanced by using the microbit.
Laura Barragan
Laura is Director of Education and Society at the British Council Colombia. For the past 4 years she has led the Coding for Kids programme that, in partnership with the Colombian Ministries of Education and ICT, has trained over 18,000 teachers, reached 1 million students, and distributed more than 85,000 micro:bits in Colombia. Some of her previous posts include Education Advisor for the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace and, within the Colombian Ministry of National Education, Director of Quality Assurance for Preschool, Elementary and Secondary Education.
Gareth Stockdale
Gareth has been a board director since 2016 and was appointed CEO at the Micro:bit Educational Foundation in January 2018. As Head of Operations for BBC Education, Gareth was the joint project lead for the micro:bit project and led the process which culminated in the formation of the Micro:bit Educational Foundation. Prior to this, Gareth worked for Twofour, using digital media to enhance education and training.
Magda Wood
Magda joined the Micro:bit Educational Foundation as Chief of Learning in 2018. She has twenty years' experience working in education technology, devising, and creating award-winning digital products for teachers and students. Previously at the Times Educational Supplement (TES) Magda led the growth of the world's largest digital library of teacher-created lesson resources across more than twenty curriculum subjects. At micro:bit Magda works with teachers and education systems across the world to embed foundational computing into the school curriculum.
We are extremely grateful to over 25 people from the Micro:bit Educational Foundation, the Worlds Largest Lesson and worldwide micro:bit champions that have helped with the initial sifting through and judging of thousands of do your :bit entries.
