2025 Competition Winners

Hundreds of students from across Australia shared their ideas for a more sustainable future by designing innovations to help reduce energy emissions. From these entries, 20 were shortlisted across two age categories. Each entry was eligible for two awards: The Judges’ Choice Award and the Community Choice Award.

We are thrilled to share the talented winners and runners-up of these awards.

Judges’ Choice Award

A panel of four judges evaluated the shortlisted entries and scored them for their innovation, insightfulness and creativity. They also considered how clearly students explained the problem, how their idea tackles emissions, and how it works in practice.

Junior Category Winners

Ziheng (Henry) Huang

Age 11 | Strathfield, NSW

Kinetic roads

Watch Ziheng’s explanatio n
See Ziheng’s idea

Molly Nurthen

Age 8 | Tumbarumba, NSW

Toilet Flush Hydropower

Watch Molly’s idea
Read Molly’s explanation

Senior Category Winners

Harrison Wood

Age 14 | Myrtleford, VIC

Black Hole energy

See Harrison’s idea and expl a nation

Janamitra Sureshkumar

Age 15 | Paramatta, NSW

Community Energy Bus Stop

See Janamitra’s idea and exp la nation

Thank you to our judging panel

Zoe Kwak
(she/her)

Nikolaas Kostraby
(he/him)

Lauren McKnight
(she/her)

Isabelle Walsh
(they/them)

Carbon Manager
Snowy Hydro.
Zoe is the subject matter expert on carbon emissions and is responsible for developing targets and strategies to manage them for Snowy Hydro.

Digital Lead
Snowy Hydro
Nikolaas leverages digital technologies across geospatial science, digital engineering, and surveying to deliver the Snowy 2.0 Project and contribute to a sustainable future for Australia.

Evidence Implementation Specialist, Impact & Evaluation
CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency
Through the STEM-INSIGHTS Network, CSIRO and members including Snowy Hydro are working together to strengthen understanding of what drives impact in STEM education.

Elevate Program Manager
the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (ATSE).
Snowy Hydro currently supports two scholars in the Elevate: Boosting diversity in STEM program, completing engineering degrees in their chosen STEM discipline.