Post Syndicated from Sophie Ashford original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/a-day-of-big-ideas-at-coolest-projects-usa-minnesota-2026/

Coolest Projects USA Minnesota returned for its second year in the state on 11 April, with the celebration of creativity and coding coming to the Science Museum of Minnesota once again.

At its heart, Coolest Projects is about giving young tech creators the opportunity to be seen and heard, and to share something they’ve made and be celebrated for it, regardless of their experience level. With some joining in for the first time and others returning to showcase their latest build, every participant played a part in making the day special.

The event welcomed 65 participants and over 150 showcase visitors, with creators talking through their ideas, the challenges they had faced, and what they had learned along the way. Visitors explored the showcase, tried out hands-on activities, and connected with a community brought together by a want to celebrate the incredible things young people can do when given the opportunity.

Coding for a social purpose

A key moment in the day was the presentation of the Broadcom Foundation Coding with Commitment^® award, celebrating a project that uses technology to make a positive difference.

This year’s recognition went to Rikita for her project ‘Smart Electronic Fruit Sorter — An affordable assistive technology for visually impaired people’.

The project is a fruit sorter designed to help visually impaired people identify fresh produce. Using a microcontroller and a gas sensor, the Fruit Sorter detects whether fruit is good or spoiled, triggering lights, sounds, and a servomechanism to either keep or discard the fruit.

Rikita overcame many challenges when building her project. She told us more about her experiences:

“First, I started out with a sorter made out of foam. However, when testing, I realised that the sorter would not bear the weight of the fruit. Then, I pivoted to 3D printing the sorter parts.
I also faced trouble with the electronics not working. I constantly played around with the connections and got it working. YouTube videos were of great help in guiding me!”

The award highlights how young people are not just learning to code, but using those skills to explore real-world challenges and ideas that matter to them. Rikita shared how she felt about receiving the award:

“I felt very happy and it has motivated me to continue my journey of inventions further. I did not expect the award, and so it was a very pleasant surprise.”

Celebrating ideas big and small

With entries spanning multiple categories, the event featured a wide variety of creative and technical work. Here are a few highlights.

ZaLayaa | FIND ME ASAP, AI

FIND ME ASAP is an emergency resource platform designed to help parents and guardians act quickly and effectively in the critical first moments after a child goes missing. Built by ZaLayaa in just 15 days, it goes beyond static guides by offering real-time, tailored support that people can use in high-stress situations. The platform is intentionally inclusive, recognising groups that can often be overlooked in emergencies, with features that consider children with invisible disabilities, complex medical needs, and rare health conditions, for example. Inspired by her own experiences navigating the world with multiple invisible conditions, ZaLayaa created FIND ME ASAP to fill a vital gap.

ZaLayaa shared what she found most challenging in building her project:

“My biggest challenge was making sure everything was actually real, correct, and useful, not just something that looks good.

This isn’t just information. It has to work when someone is stressed, scared, and trying to make fast decisions.”

ZaLayaa also explained what she enjoyed most about taking part in Coolest Projects:

“My favorite thing was the experience and all the lovely people there. It was really cool seeing all the different projects and what other kids built, and being in a room where it was all kids creating and sharing their ideas.”

You can find out more about ZaLayaa’s project at findmeasap.com.

Lawrence | Find the Chomiks, Scratch

Lawrence’s project is a fun exploration game he built using Scratch. You control a character, roam around the map, and hunt for hidden chomiks, each one with its own quirky look. It’s all about exploring, discovering, and collecting them all.

Lawrence shared some of the challenges he faced along the way:

“It was really hard switching between settings. I overcame [the challenges] by looking for bugs within my code, but when I figured that out, I was able to complete my game.”

Karin | Princess Maze, Scratch

Karin created Princess Maze, a Scratch game where players navigate four maze levels and battle a witch to win, or risk being trapped. During development, a bug allowed players to win even after being hit, which she fixed by using a ‘forever’ block to properly detect collisions.

Karin shared why she wanted to take part in Coolest Projects:

“I found out about it through The Bakken Museum and I thought, ‘Why not? I love coding.’ My favorite thing about the day was seeing all the different projects.”

Caroline | Terrapod, AI

Caroline created Terrapod to make plant care more accessible, especially for people who are too busy or physically unable to tend to their plants. It aims to provide a solution that allows plants to be cared for even when their owners can’t, making plant growing easier for everyone. She told us:

“I think our biggest problem was the wire management. We numbered them to be organised into numbered groups, but I’ve seen others do symbols like stars, which I think is really cool!”

Adelle, Nessa, and Matilda | Fashion Show Drama, Scratch

Adelle, Nessa, and Matilda created a Scratch project that tells the story of two performers, Charlie and Emma. Charlie struggles with stage fright that Emma only discovers just before their performance. With Emma’s support, Charlie overcomes her fear and is able to go on stage.

Nessa shared a challenge the team tackled during their build:

“One challenge was learning how to convert images from a JPEG to a PNG for the sprites to have a dress costume change. We wanted to show a difference between before the show and then preparing to go on stage. We found dress pictures on the internet and then we had to figure out how to make it look like they were actually wearing the dresses so it wasn’t just a copied picture with a white square background. We overcame it by our mentor helping us remove the background in Canva.”

Matilda also told us how the girls found working as a part of a team:

“We each had a part so each of our voices could be heard. We all had a say in what was going on. Nessa was the fashion designer. Adelle was the coder. I was the visionary! It was easier to work on this project in a group than alone.”

Thank you

We’d like to say a big thank you to all the young people who shared their projects, the families and mentors who supported them, and the volunteers and partners who made the event possible.

We would also like to thank Broadcom Foundation and Best Buy Co., Inc. for their continued support of Coolest Projects.

There’s still time to get involved in Coolest Projects 2026

If you would like to take part in Coolest Projects this year, there are still ways to get involved:

• Young creators anywhere in the world can take part in the Coolest Projects 2026 online showcase. Entries close on 27 May.
• Young people in several countries can participate in local events taking place around the world over the rest of the year, including Coolest Projects UK in Bradford on 16 May and Coolest Projects Canada in Vancouver on 30 May.

You can find out more at coolestprojects.org.

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