The Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair (SLSEF), the national level competition that select student projects for participation at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) was held on Tuesday, 19th January, 2016 at the Wimalasurendra Auditorium of the IESL. Top ten student projects respectively from the Junior Inventor of the Year (JIY) Competition conducted by the IESL and the Science Research Project Competition conducted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) participated in this event.

The ISEF is the global science and engineering competition for pre-college students, grades 9 – 12, where more than 1500 high school students from more than 60 countries, meet each year in the United States to showcase their independent research and win prizes and accolades. The Intel ISEF 2016 will be held in Phoenix, Arizona from May 8-13, 2016.

The Junior Inventor of the Year (JIY) competition was pioneered by the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka in 1985 and held annually ever since to promote creativity and ingenuity among school children. Children in the age group 14 to 19 years from schools all over Sri Lanka participate, initially in preliminary competitions held at the provincial level, and proceed to the final JIY competition held at the IESL Headquarters in Colombo. The top ten inventions at this competition together with the ten finalists of the Science Research Project Competition of the NSF then compete at the Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair (SLSEF), held under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, and Sri Lanka branch of the Intel Corporation, USA. Winners at the SLSEF have the opportunity to be selected to proceed to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held in US in May of each year.

Welcoming the participants to this year’s SLSEF the President Elect of the IESL, Eng. Jayavilal Meegoda pointed out the significant contributions JIY programme is making to the students and the country providing motivation to be creative and innovative. Also Eng. Jayavilal Meegoda said that the SLSEF is being held for the 8th time and that the country has to be proud of the way its school children have performed in the face of international competition. He pointed out the exhaustive preliminary selection process undertaken by the IESL in selecting 50 finalists from the nearly 1000 school children projects demonstrated to panel of judges at Colombo and all the provinces. He said that 20 of the finalists were given the opportunity to exhibit their inventions to the industry and the public at the National Engineering Exhibition (TECHNO) in October 2015 at the BMICH. The top 10 of these finalists have been nominated to the SLSEF 2016 he concluded.