Utah teen's artwork in the running for Google's Doodle

A Salt Lake County student is in the running to have her art replace Google's famous homepage logo this summer.

On Tuesday, Olympus High School announced that 10th-grader Bronte Mock is Utah's contestant in the seventh annual Doodle 4 Google nationwide competition. The contestants are made up of one grade-school student from each state, who redesign the Google logo in keeping with the theme of "if I could invent one thing to make the world a better place."

For the first time in the contests' history, the winning student will work with Google's team to animate his or her logo. The animated doodle will be displayed on the homepage on June 9.

Mock's doodle "30-Day Plastic," is made up of six biodegradable water bottles, one letter per bottle. She describes her doodle as depicting "a product to replace plastic that will biodegrade within a month," according to a statement. "This invention will change the world for better. It will provide the same benefits as plastic without consuming the landfill, emitting hazardous waste, and other environmentally impacting issues."

The 50 finalists' doodles, covering the spectrum of water purification to robotics, were chosen from more than 100,000 submissions nationwide.

Web users can now vote for their favorite among the 50 entries, now through May 9, at google.com/doodle4google/vote.html.

Their votes will determine the five finalists, who will be announced May 21 at an awards ceremony in California that all 50 state winners are invited to attend. The winner among those five will take home a $30,000 scholarship and his or her school will receive a $50,000 grant toward the establishment or improvement of a computer lab or technology program.

Mock was far from the only Utah student to vie for the honor. More than 110 other students submitted redesigns from her school alone, said Olympus High School art teacher Jeremy Peterson. He turned the contest into an assignment for his students, and Mock had worked with him directly.

Peterson was not surprised when "30-Day Plastic" took the top state honor. He described Mock as a gifted student who expresses herself creatively through her artwork.

mmcfall@sltrib.com

Twitter: @mikeypanda