THE power of the next generation to solve some of the world’s climate change issues was demonstrated at Sony Europe’s Research and Development headquarters in Basingstoke.

Home-educated youngsters from northern California, who call themselves the Forest Guards, were invited to the company’s Viables offices after beating over 140,000 entrants in a global innovation competition on climate change at the 2009 Children’s Climate Call event in Copenhagen.

Impressed with their idea of utilising CCTV and Internet technology as an early warning system to battle against forest fires, the team had the opportunity to work with Sony engineers in Basingstoke to produce a working prototype.

Among the six students was 13-year-old Faith Oakes, who explained that last summer’s wild fires in northern California inspired the team to take action.

Faith said: “We decided that wild fires are a big issue where we live, so we started brainstorming ideas for different solutions to the problem.

“One of the first things we came up with was an eye-in-the-sky that could keep a watch, and we furthered that idea to turn it into a surveillance camera and connected it with a computer screen saver.

“Forest watch towers with cameras and Ethernet radios could broadcast to a hub computer and then to the Internet so that anyone on their computers can download it in the form of a free software interface.

“This allows you to keep an eye on the fires in your area, and if you see smoke or a fire you can report it to the firefighters.”

Alejandro Vega, 13, said he has enjoyed his time at Sony working on the Forest Guard system, looking at hardware and software specifications.

Sony’s R&D divisional director Morgan David, who met the team in Copenhagen, was impressed with the Forest Guards and their idea.

He said: “They have come here with huge amounts of enthusiasm, and engaged with everything that we have shown them and talked to them about.

“A lot of my colleagues have been incredibly impressed by their energy and their talent for presentation.

“I could see them working almost anywhere, certainly for Sony. The talents they have would be a real asset to Sony.”