A place for innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship

Each year, Haileybury’s Year 8 students work on a business idea they have created from scratch as part of the School’s popular StartUp program. At the end of the year, the best business idea from each campus, chosen by students, competes in the StartUp Pitch Showcase.

This is a highly anticipated event and each year the panel of judges and Damien Meunier, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, are bowled over by the ingenuity and innovation on display from the Haileybury students.

The StartUp Program encourages students to work together to formulate a business idea, to test and research their idea, and then present their business plan to a panel who award the winning teams with seed funding and mentorship from industry experts.

From dust mist to kinetic energy

Harnessing their STEM knowledge is a key part of the program and pitches from this year’s Start Up finalists included a dust mist to reduce the amount of dust that gathers after cleaning and an app that curates a user’s personal shopping sites and preferences in one place. Another enterprising team created a device that uses kinetic energy generated by walking to charge power banks.

This year’s StartUp Pitch Showcase winner was Foodie – an app created using AI that helps tackle the challenges of reducing food waste in the home.

“A couple of months ago, our local council introduced waste bins and it gave us the chance to see how much food we wasted. We were really disappointed, especially thinking of the underprivileged who don’t get enough food on their plate every night. So we decided to make an app that stopped the problem,” say the young brains behind Foodie - Leo, Nate and Alexander.

“The goal of our app is to reduce food waste around the world by making it so that people can eat more and waste less.”

Real-world accreditations

The StartUp initiative is part of Haileybury’s extensive and constantly expanding Curious Minds Program. Recently, a new Bar & Barista program has been added as an option for Senior School students who can earn recognised hospitality certifications.

Meanwhile, a new Societies initiative allows students to delve into interests such as Tech Ventures, where students work on real-life tech projects alongside Haileybury’s Digital team.

Celebrating STEM

Fostering an appreciation of STEM is an important element of Curious Minds. The Australian Government has flagged it will need to fill around 650,000 STEM jobs by 2030, so initiatives like Curious Minds that engage young people in STEM subjects is vital.

Junior School students at Haileybury explore STEM opportunities through a multitude of lunchtime and after-school clubs such as Animation, Electronics and Robotics. They can also showcase their skills in competitions such as the annual Science Talent Search.

Busy bees

In Middle School, students get a buzz out of joining the Haileybury Hive program. The School has beehives where students learn about bees and their crucial role in our ecosystem and discover the art of beekeeping.

The Haileybury beehive inspired a group of Senior School boys to create a ‘smarthive’ project which took top honours in the Victorian stage of the BioTech Futures Challenge competition. The team went on to win ‘Best Prototype’ in the national competition in Sydney in October.

The Digitech Explorers Program is another branch of Curious Minds with tech-savvy teams developing solutions to solve real-world problems using technology and ingenuity. Teams enter the Young ICT Explorers competition and, this year, Haileybury won the top three spots in the state final in the Years 7 and 8 Division. Haileybury also won the Sustainability Prize. Since the School’s involvement with Young ICT Explorers, Haileybury students have won 35 state awards and five national awards. 

Underwater drones and AI glasses

 The first-place team in the Victorian Young ICT Explorers competition this year designed a drone to protect seaweed which is capable of absorbing significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Sea urchins destroy this natural resource and the underwater drone will detect where seaweed is under attack and needs protection.

Other winning Haileybury projects featured AI glasses that use a camera to recognise Auslan sign language and translate it, and a game that helps girls manage emotions and stress. 

Giving lithium a second life

The Sustainability Prize was awarded to two Haileybury students who aim to create an AI system that scans discarded technology items at recycling plants for lithium components that can be salvaged and recycled.    

“The world is struggling to produce enough lithium to keep up with the increasing demand for electric-powered energy as we move towards a greener future. Today, less than 1% of lithium is recycled. Our project will improve lithium-ion battery recycling, extend battery lifespan, and promote sustainable practices,” say creators Advait and Seyon.

Aiming for the moon

In Senior School, STEM underpins the SHINE Program – a space initiative delivered in partnership with Swinburne University where students send experiments to the International Space Station. The program has seen enterprising students send experiments into outer space involving everything from yoghurt and fungi to teeth.

“STEM education begins early at Haileybury – our Preps learn foundational coding and computational thinking and during their journey through our school they learn about robotics, AI and web and app design,” says Damien.