We’re delighted to start this week’s blog with the news that last Thursday Pixalytics won the Pixalytics won the Future Tech Award category of the Tech South West Awards!

It was an amazing night for us for many reasons! Firstly, we got dressed up and went out at night, which is the first time we’ve done that in around eighteen months! Secondly, although we’ve met family and friends this year, this was the first time we’d been in a room with lots of other people in real life! Finally, we won! We’ve been to a number of award ceremonies over the years and we’ve been a finalist on a number of occasions, we’re even got the odd Highly Commended. But this is this is the first time we’ve actually won, and we’re delighted!

The Future Tech Award was sponsored by Plymouth Science Park and Exeter Science Park and celebrated organisations working in cutting-edge tech such as AI, robotics, space or, of course, Earth Observation.

The Tech South West Awards are an annual event that aims to recognise and celebrate the South West tech sector, covering the whole region from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset to Bristol, Bath, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.  This was the third year of the Awards and there were 27 categories in all, including 9 regional Cluster Awards.

Tech South West is a member organisation dedicated to supporting and working with the whole of the technology sector across the South West of England. It’s free to join, and there are various events and opportunities to get involved with. It’s run by tech companies and clusters including Digital Plymouth, TechSPARK, Digital Northern Devon, Software Cornwall, Digital Taunton, Tech Exeter, Engine Shed and Silicon South.

We love being part of Tech South West, and it was great to see some old friends at the ceremony, but most of all we are extremely grateful for the company to be recognised with the award.

Moving away from awards that have been won, to opportunities for others to win! The UK Space Agency have recently launched a competition for Primary School children, aged between 4 and 11 years, to design the logo that will be on a rocket taking the first small satellites to be launched from the UK into space. This is expected to happen next year!

The aim is to develop a logo that showcases how data from small satellites help protect and monitor the world from climate change. As there is satellite data collected about what is happening on land, in the oceans and up in the atmosphere, there is plenty of possibilities for children to use their creativity and design a new logo. There is time to think as the deadline for the competition is 11^th March 2022, and logos can be designed individually or in teams of up to three. The website for the competition can be found here. There is also a video to watch about the competition.

In addition, to help everyone better understand what data is collected by satellites there are a set of fun activities on the website and more coming.

This is an opportunity for your logo design to go into space!!! So why not have a go!