ABOVE:Global’s Nicole Bogart spoke to Cindy Tang, the 17-year-old winner of Google’s doodle contest
TORONTO – A 17-year-old Toronto-area student will see her very own doodle featured on the Google Canada homepage Wednesday, after taking home the top prize in the Doodle 4 Google contest.
Cindy Tang was named the winner of the contest Tuesday during an event at the Royal Ontario Museum. Her doodle featured an underwater telescope that would help scientists discover more of the ocean.
The Doodle 4 Google contest, which kicked off in October 2013, invited students from across Canada to submit a doodle for Google’s homepage with the theme, “If I could invent anything, I would invent…”
In an interview with Global News, Tang said that she decided on the theme of underwater discovery because she was inspired by how little we know about the ocean.
In her submission Tang wrote, “I would invent a telescope that would show us the depth of the sea (all of it). I’ve heard we’ve discovered less than 5 per cent of the ocean – 95 per cent still left unseen by human eyes.”
Four other national finalists were also chosen, including a doodle from Edmonton-area student Xusheng Yu, whose doodle featured an imaginative tree that could produce electricity.
The winners were selected by judges Chris Hadfield, ROM chief executive Janet Harding, actress Karine Vanasse and Ann Makosinski, a winner in last year’s Google Science Fair.
Harding said she was very impressed with Tang’s winning submission, especially because it fits with the ROM’s idea of discovery.
“The idea of exploring the oceans is a personal favourite of mine. I was really struck by that idea – that we’ve sent someone to the moon, but that we haven’t seen all of the oceans here on earth,” said Harding.
“I think that is something which people feel the mystery; the fact that there are things here on earth that we don’t fully understand yet and if we could only know more that it could actually help us in the way that we live our lives.”
WATCH: Kathleen Wynne asks 17-year-old Google doodle winner what inspired her drawing
Tang will receive a $10,000 education scholarship, an HP Chromebook, and a $10,000 grant for her school for winning the contest. Tang said she is most nervous about seeing her doodle on the Google homepage for all to see.
“Seeing my idea on Google is kind of terrifying in my opinion, because everyone is going to be able to look at it, but I feel that if it does help us learn something then I’ve done a good job,” Tang told Global News after winning.
The winning doodle, along with 72 other submissions, will be on display at the ROM until April 27.
GALLERY: National Finalists in the Doodle 4 Google contest
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