Secondary school girls want to save the world's oceans from missing containers

Eight secondary school girls believe they have the solution to containers falling overboard from cargo ships. Cegal help them on the way to realizing their plans.

In 2020, 3.112 containers fell overboard from cargo ships that ensure goods from manufacturers will reach the various markets. The containers destroy coral reefs, which store 18 times more CO2 than corresponding rainforest areas. The containers represent a danger to ship traffic as they floats at the sea surface, and the contents of the containers pollute the oceans. On top comes the financial loss linked to containers and lost goods. 

The eight girls at Norway's Realfagsgymnas Ungdomsskole (NRGU) believe they have found a solution to this.

Our proposal is to equip the containers with an inflatable "life jacket" which is attached to the bottom of the containers

Lovise Foss Linnestad, secondary school student

– When a container falls overboard, the vest is inflated using gas cartridges. Since all the containers are the same, they can all be equipped with the same solution. It has been named FloatCon 3.14 - i.e. pi, says Lovise Foss Linnestad. She is one of the eight girls and is in the 10 grade at NRGU.

The eight students from 9 and 10 grade at NRGU call themselves Strawberry Pi. On Monday 14 February 2022, the girls presented their research project in the Scandinavian Innovation Award (SIA), as one of ten hand-picked finalists from over 800 Scandinavian participants. SIA is an extension of FIRST LEGO League (FLL) – the world's largest research and technology competition for children and young people.

Sara-Emilia Cieśla Shahdadfar, Alexandra Jakobsen and Ingeborg Hamnes Myrdal show off a 3D-printed model of the container.

The aim is to reach the global final in Florida, USA. On the way to the goal, Strawberry Pi has won the regional final for Eastern Norway. In March 2022, the Scandinavian final awaits in Ålesund. Then Strawberry Pi must be among the best in Europe. With almost 700,000 participants from over 110 countries, the competition is tough. The road to the final is long. Cegal supports the girls on the road.

Want more women in the tech industry

Dagfinn Ringås, CEO of Cegal explains why Cegal has chosen to support Strawberry Pi.

We want more girls into the tech industry, and we need more girls into our industry

Dagfinn Ringås, CEO of Cegal 

– There are three main reasons for this. The companies that have a better balance between women and men deliver better results in most areas. Since the technology industry is male dominated, we need to get more women in. Second, technology is the answer to many challenges today, such as the environment, poverty, health and so on.

Hence, we need more female brains who can come up with valuable solutions to these problems. And third, it is much more fun to work in a place where there is diversity among the employees. Cegal fight for the best people, and we must be able to provide them with a workplace where they want to work.

CEO Dagfinn Ringås meets Strawberry Pi. From left: Nora Andrea Wergeland, Ingeborg Hamnes Myrdal, Sara-Emilia Cieśla Shahdadfar, Alexandra Jakobsen, Lovise Foss Linnestad, Mille Korsgaard and Victoria Dale-Melleby.

Strawberry Pi presented the FloatCon 3.14 solution to the CEO at Cegal, who was visibly impressed.

–- Believe me, I see a lot of presentations. Theirs was one of the better ones I've seen, but how did you come up with the solution to the container-over-board problem, he asks.

– It was accidental. One of us came up with the idea on board a plane. Perhaps an inflatable life jacket could be mounted on the containers, answers Sara-Emilie Cieśla Shahdadfar.

Until the Scandinavian final in Ålesund on 12 March 2022, the Strawberry Pi girls will concentrate on programming the robot. This part of the FLL competition consists of getting a robot to do various tasks on a fixed route pattern, which is common to all the participating teams.

There are many reasons why thousands of containers end up in the world's oceans. Increasingly rough weather, more cargo, and higher stacks of containers on the ships, combined with less crew on board, are some of them.

Watch a TV broadcast with a conversation from when the girls visited Cegal and NRK Nyhetsmorgen >

Facts

• FIRST LEGO League is the world's largest knowledge and technology competition for children and young people aged 4-16.

• The competition is organized by FIRSTScandinavia and supported by the talent development program Equinor Tomorrow's Heroes.

• The purpose of the competition is to increase young people's interest in technology and science, and to stimulate today's youth to become tomorrow's engineers and scientists.

• Around 350 Norwegian teams participate in this year's competition.

• This year's mission is Cargo Connect and is about finding solutions that will improve the transport of products.

• The Scandinavian final will be held in Ålesund on 12 March 2022.