An inspiring picture of a world vivified by clean water for everyone garnered a fifth-grader top honors in the 7th annual Doodle 4 Google Contest. It also earned her a spot on the search engine's homepage for 24 hours on June 9.
Audrey Zhang's entry into Google's K-12 art contest won her a $30,000 scholarship, a $50,000 Google for Education technology grant for her middle school and a $20,000 donation on the fifth-grader's behalf to a charity supporting clean water.
Zhang's entry stood alone after moving through a field of more than 100,000 submissions, 250 state finalists, 50 state winners and five national age groups, according to CNET. "We were also so inspired by her doodle invention that google.org donated $20,000 in her name to charity:water toward providing clean water to schools in Bangladesh," Google says on its web site.
As portions of the Gulf of Mexico still reel from the devastation of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Zhang's "Back to Mother Nature" features a timely message as it depicts a water-purification machine that wipes away some of the dirty footprints the industries of the human race have left on the planet.
"To make the world a better place, I invented a transformative water purifier," stated Zhang. "It takes in dirty and polluted water from rivers, lakes, and even oceans, then massively transforms the water into clean, safe and sanitary water. When humans and animals drink this water, they will live a healthier life."
The image Google featured on its homepage was an animated version of Zhang's original work. In a first for the contest, Zhang was asked to stay a day after the finals ceremony at Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters to provide guidance in the animation of her winning entry.
"[Zhang's entry is] so lush and so rich and so full and so complete," Ryan Germick, leader of the Team Google Doodle artists, said. From animated fireflies to dragons, the team never imaged the winning entry would have 150 moving parts, stated Germick.
Zhang's 2014 entry wasn't her first submission to the contest. Her latest entry was her third in as many years, advancing a bit further each year until she won top honors.
Submissions to the Doodle 4 Google contest were judged on creativity, theme communication and airtisitc merit, according to the contest's homepage. The four national finalists were each awarded a $5,000 scholarship to the school of their choice.
To view a gallery of the art submitted by the 50 state winners, visit Google.com/doodle4google/winners.html
