Young Inventors Club – best quiz program of the year

Tuesday, 8 July 2014 00:27 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Young Inventors Club (YIC) organised by the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission telecast on ITN was adjudged as the Best Quiz Program of the year 2013 at the recently concluded Raigam Tele Awards. The program was a production of ITN and the Director Priyal Weerasinghe received the award. Sampath Bank was the co-sponsor of the program. This is the first ever reality program on local TV done for School Inventors. It was telecast over 30 weeks with 48 schools taking part from all parts of the country. Young inventors from school level inventors clubs were given a problem that needed a technological solution. Within a limited time period the kids had to conceptualise a solution and present same to an eminent panel of inventors and academics who had tough questions about the viability of the solution. The winners on the first round entered the semi finals and the finalists fought it out at a live audience. The finalists were challenged to design a workable all terrain wheel chair. Winners were Mawanella Mayurapada Maha Vidyalaya team while the runners up were from the Sri Koneshwara Hindu Vidyalaya in Trincomalee. This was indeed a program in partnership with the Ministry of Education lead by its committed Director (Technical Education), A.D. Nandasena. Based on the viewers SMS votes the most popular team award presented by the ITN was won by Dedigama Parakumba Maha Vidyalaya. Tracing the history of the program, SLIC Commissioner Deepal Sooriyaarachchi said; “One of our objectives is to promote young inventors clubs in schools. We wanted to leverage the power of TV to popularise the inventors clubs since we do not have enough resources to visit all the schools and do that. First we thought we could have a magazine type program on TV where young inventors would showcase their products. Somehow there was a reluctance by students and teachers in the fear of loosing the ideas. This drawback made us also to innovate. “Instead of we adults thinking for kids we had two brainstorming sessions with young inventors from near by schools asking them to give ideas. Building on some of the ideas that kids came up we developed this team based solution approach. We sought the professional support of Bates Strategic Alliance as well to enhance the quality aspect. From the initial we had a very positive support from the ITN to make this event a success. They really went out of the way since they saw the national significance. “Mr. Vipula Ratnasiri – DGM Programs, Mr. Upali Ranjith – DGM Marketing, Mr. Priyal Weerasinghe and the production team all worked with our team as one and it was a rewarding experience. The special support extended by the chairman was really encouraging and it saw the grand finale to the series. We are also thankful to Sampath Bank who came as co sponsor. They made a special contribution by way of training all the school participants in presentation skills by running workshops lead by the members of the Toast Masters Club of the bank. This intervention really enhanced the quality of communication skills of the students. “We were lucky to have got a very eminent panel of judges who were inventors, engineers and top academics who while appreciating the psychology of students challenged them to the maximum. Some of the solutions they came up were simply brilliant considering that they had to do so under strict time targets. We are humbled by the recognition we have got for this program. It is a result of true labour of love by many who sweated a lot. We are looking forward to launching the second series this year as well.” The past episodes of the program can be viewed on the web site of the commission www.slic.gov.lk.