Marshall

Maeve

Young Macclesfiled resident Maeve Allen Horvat made her mark on the Royal Adelaide Show this year. The 10-year-old beat high school students to take out Best Exhibit In Innovation, Invention and Enterprise In the Robotics Competition and Best Exhibit In Control Technologies (Robotics Focus Line Following). The Year 4 Scotch College student won the judges over with here project, Collision Avoidance System, which shows two small cars following each other around a track and transmitting infrared pulses, which are reflected to detect each other and avoid a collision. The win means Maeve will heading to Malaysia early next year to compete in an international robotics competition. She said she was inspired to begin the project after seeing robots at the show last year and watching her mother's car hit by other drivers on the road."Computers are much quicker at reacting to a collision because they're programmed to be quicker," she said. Maeve has been involved with design and programming company eLabtronics' workshops, where children learn about robotics, since last year. She said she enjoyed "programming the technology and learning how it all works". Maeve's father Fank Horveat said he and his wife Deidre Allen were proud of their daughter and that the win would encourage her continue. "She's already talking about next year so she's got the bug for it now." He said