Junior Inventor of the Year (JIY) Competition
Pioneered by the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka in 1980, the Junior Inventor of the Year (JIY) competition promotes creativity and ingenuity among school children.
Children in the age group 12 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.
Since the first batch of students selected through the JIY competitions participated in the Intel ISEF- 2008, eight JIY Winners have succeeded in winning awards at the Intel ISEF and done their respective schools, the IESL and Sri Lanka proud.
Topping it all, one of them had the rare distinction of an extra solar planet being named after him in recognition.
Applications for participation in the JIY competitions are usually called around April of each year and preliminary rounds worked out in the provinces during May, June and July. Awareness creation sessions conducted by the IESL precede the competitions. Those selected at the preliminary competitions get to participate in the final competition held in August.
JIY finalists are facilitated to display their inventions at the JIY Stall at the annual flagship event of the IESL, the Techno, Sri Lanka Exhibition held in October.
Gold, Silver and Bronze medals together with certificates and cash rewards to those placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the completion are awarded at the Inauguration of the Annual Sessions of the IESL in October.
JIY 2020 - Applications & Regulations
Undergraduate Inventor of the Year (UIY) Competition
It’s said that necessity is the mother of all inventions. To fulfill those necessities, scientists try to understand how nature works, to manipulate it. Engineers create or invent things that could do it.
The Under Graduate Inventor of the Year (UIY) competition was established by the IESL to encourage and stimulate creativity and interest in inventions among engineering undergraduates in the country and provide opportunities for engineering undergraduates to organize and present their original inventions. It’s also a forum for networking within Sri Lanka engineering undergraduate students as well as members of industry and academia.
The competition tries to inculcate basic principles for success in innovations such as having a stated goal, develop design criteria, background research, prepare preliminary designs and materials list, consider costs, manufacturing and user requirement, building and testing prototypes, consider reliability, repair and servicing, final product testing, presentation of results etc.
Applications to take part in the competition are called usually in May / June and preliminary selections made in the respective universities before the final competition is held at the IESL on a date in consultation with the Deans of Faculties of Engineering of universities before October. Top inventions gets to be displayed at the Techno Sri Lanka exhibition and awards presented for the best inventions at the inauguration ceremony of the Annual Sessions / Techno Sri Lanka Awards Ceremony.