It won a first place in the ACT and took second in the national Young ICT Explorers competition.

Created by 17-year-old Aidan Sawer, the information and communication technology project is a software synthesiser that allows the user to upload songs and sounds that can be mixed by pressing the buttons and playing the device like a keyboard.

“It makes it easy to remix songs and it also has lights so you can design lighting for each performance as well,” says Aidan.

He was inspired to design “Musaco” when he felt limited by a similar product on the market.

“It didn’t have enough functions, so I created my own to make it easier to do what I wanted to do and have full control,” he says.  

Aidan teamed up with James Callaway and Tomasz Stowowczyck, working in their own time and during their media-projects class under the guidance of IT teacher Sanjay Deo Sharma.

“Our teacher pushed us to go into the Young ICT Explorers competition, he felt we had a really good chance,” says Aidan.

“I think the combination of software and hardware enabled us to win. Plus we branded it and had put thought into the business side so the judges could get a good idea of what it would be like as a product on the market.”

The boys say they were anxious hauling their equipment to the 7th floor of the SAP building in Sydney for the national competition.
“We walked past the other projects, some cool, others amazing and found our assigned table and we could see all of Sydney Harbour from there,” says James.
“To our surprise, we placed second in the year 11/12 division, winning $150 each and the respect of our peers,” he says.
Aidan hopes to study IT at ANU next year and create new IT projects with a scientific or medical side to them. He plans to continue refining and updating “Musaco” and make a real prototype of it in the future.