The world’s largest high school science & engineering competition, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2016, a program of Society for Science & the Public, announced its top winners in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

IESL/JIY finalists won Grand award & two special awards respectively at the Grand Award ceremony & Special Award Ceremony which was held in USA at 8th appearance (2016).

Abishek S Gomes from Belvoir College International won the Grand award 3rd Place in category of “Embedded Systems” & Top Award of $2,000 from Synaptics, Inc and First Award of $500 from Patent and Trademark Office Society for his novel invention “Wearable Device to Translate American Sign Language (ASL) into English”

Chamindu Jayasanka from Rajasinghe Central College, Hanwella won the Top Award of $1,000, and an American flag and a framed copy of the first patent granted in the USA from Patent and Trademark Office Society for his unique project titled ‘‘Modified and Adjustable Crutches’’

The opportunity to participate in the international competition arose when they won the Gold & Silver awards at the ‘Junior Inventor of the Year-2015’ (JIY-2015) competition, conducted by the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL). The Junior Inventor of the Year (JIY) competition promotes creativity and ingenuity among school children from schools all over Sri Lanka participate, initially in awareness programmes & preliminary competitions held at the provincial level with the IESL provincial Chapters, and proceed to the final JIY competition held at the IESL Headquarters in Colombo. Their projects are evaluated by engineers who have experience more than 15 years of engineering & research.

The Intel ISEF provides a forum for over 1750 high school students from over 77 countries, to showcase their inventions. It is the premier science competition in the globe, exclusively for students in grades 9 to 12.

Eng J Meegoda, President Elect, IESL said, “I am proud to say that JIY winners are capable of competing and winning at any world stage. IESL has been organizing the Junior Inventor of the Year (JIY) competition for the last three decades, mentoring many students to win at an international level. IESL is very happy to be a part in this cultural change that drives the next generation of Sri Lankan students to be innovative”. This is the 13th occasion JIY winners have won recognition at an international level during last 09 years.

Every year winners of the Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair (SLSEF), a partnership between the Ministry of Education, the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, the National Science Foundation and Intel are sent to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair which honors some of the world’s most promising, rising student, innovators and scientists. ISEF finalists are selected annually from hundreds of affiliated fairs. Their projects are then evaluated onsite by more than 1,200 judges from nearly every scientific discipline, each with a Ph.D or the equivalent of six years of related professional experience in one of the scientific disciplines.

You can also participate in the Intel ISEF competition and bring honour to mother Sri Lanka by becoming a JIY winner. JIY 2016 preliminary competitions will be held in the months of July, August at the provincial level. Register today your inventions by visiting the website here.

For more details, Please contact organizing committee of Junior Inventor of the Year Competition. (Mr Maduranga – 071 353 5329)