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Thursday, 29 August 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre in Colombo. Organised by professional event, conference and exhibition managers and organiser PICO Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission, it will be held on the sidelines of the Education and Career Fair 2013 and the Inter-School Quiz Competition to be held concurrently.
Supported by the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission along with its Commissioner Deepal Sooriyarachchi, the competition is only open for entries from the age group of 14 to 18 and will consist of eight categories being judged by an expert panel to determine the best entries as well as an award for the most popular entry, which will be determined based on votes by the public in attendance.
Speaking at the briefing, Sooriyarachchi stated that encouraging innovation in schools benefits students in more ways that meet the eye and that through participation in competitions such as this, children receive a broader education than what is offered in exam-oriented school systems. He added that children have an advantage over adults in being better observers of their surroundings as well as being more sensitive to the environment they live in. This gives them the opportunity to use those skills to gain ideas from the environment and create solutions for everyday problems.
“By taking part in this competition, students learn important life skills such as facing failure which is the most important skill in life. They also learn to communicate confidently in expressing their ideas and learn to research alternative methods and apply all this successfully in life. In addition, they learn to apply the scientific principles that they learn in class, they start to think creatively and the advantage that children have over adults is that they often see more than one solution to a problem.”
He also stated that innovation alone is not enough to make an idea a success and requires an equal measure of entrepreneurial support to make an invention commercially viable and hence a success.
PICO Sri Lanka Executive Director Shanti Outschoorn revealed that a lot of enthusiasm has been shown by schools for both the competitions with 60 schools participating in the quiz competition and 100 entries for the inventor competition so far. The quiz competition will consist of two segments for both national and international schools.
Speaking about the quiz competition, Outschoorn said: “Students between the ages of 14 to 18 will battle it out in two segments in English and Sinhala mediums. The competition is focused towards showcasing the young talent of Sri Lanka and to not only share knowledge, but to reinforce teamwork and boost their confidence. All participants are eagerly anticipating an opportunity to show off their talents and abilities in this highly competitive era.”
PICO Sri Lanka General Manager Emile Gunesekera said: “Our approach to the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission was on the decision of conducting a competition based on our corporate theme for 2013, ‘Innovation’. The support received from the commission has been quite rewarding; from organising to the execution of the competition as it is our first effort. The response received has been quite phenomenal, thus indicating that need for a platform to showcase the enormous new talent among the youth of Sri Lanka.”
The award categories for the inventor competition will focus on inventions that address issues such as aiding the disabled to be independent, food technology, environment, energy conservation, human safety, teaching aids, import substitution and a general category. Entries will be judged on how an idea is inspired and the young inventor’s ability to conceptualise an innovative design and transform it into a practical product, be it scientific, mechanical, electronic or even a day-to-day utility item.
