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Sri Lanka wins "Genius Award",
Gold and Silver medals at the International Exhibition of Inventions
in Geneva
The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the
United Nations Office at Geneva
08th April 2008
From left to right: Mrs. Deepika Kahatapitiya (Asst. Programme Officer-SLIC),
Mr. A. S. Dissanayake (Silver medallist), Mr. Isuru Godage (Genius Award
Winner & Silver medallist), Mr. W. D. Wijithapala (Gold medallist) and
Dr. K. Kapila K. C. Perera (Commissioner-SLIC)
Sri Lanka won "Genius Award", Gold and Silver medals at the
36th International Exhibition of Inventions, Techniques and Products of
Geneva which was held at Geneva Palexpo (Hall 7) in Switzerland from 2nd
to 6th April 2008.
This exhibition which was held under the patronage of the Swiss Federal
Government and the State and the City of Geneva is considered to be
the world's largest market place for inventions. It hosts annually about
750 exhibitors from around 45 countries and displays about 1000 new
exhibits. During this event, industrial and commercial companies, inventors,
researchers, associations, private and state agencies and institutes
present their inventions, the result of their research and their new
products.
As is the practice since 1996, this year again, Sri Lanka participated
in this exhibition held in Geneva. Three Sri Lankan inventors presented
their unique inventions: a Multi-Purpose Visual Presenter, a Sensor-Based
Motion Tracking System for Human-Computer Interaction (a Virtual Mouse)
and a High-Current Switch-Mode Battery Charger. Prior to the exhibition,
the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission had selected these three inventions
from among the Presidential Award winning inventions and Incubated Inventions.
The three selected inventors, Mr. W. D. Wijithapala (Teacher and School
Inspector) of Malsiripura, Mr. A. S. Dissanayake (Entrepreneur) of Kalagedihena
and Mr. Isuru Godage (Engineer) of Galle (who represented a student
group of inventors from the Department of electronics and telecommunication
in the University of Moratuwa) attended the event with two officials
of the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission: the Commissioner, Dr. K. Kapila
K. C. Perera and the Assistant Programme Officer, Mrs. Deepika Kahatapitiya.
All three Sri Lankan participants, just like their predecessors at the
last year's 35th exhibition, were honoured for their inventions. While
Mr. W. D. Wijithapala was awarded a Gold medal for his Multi-Purpose
Visual Presenter under the category "Optics, Photography, Cinematography",
Mr. A. S. Dissanayake and Mr. Isuru Godage received Silver medals under
the category of "Computer Sciences, Software, Electronics, Electricity,
Methods of Communication", respectively, for the High-Current Switch-Mode
Battery Charger and the Virtual Mouse. The Sensor-Based Motion Tracking
System for Human-Computer Interaction (the Virtual Mouse) also won the
"Genius Award", a special prize awarded by the Hungarian Inventors
Association. In fact, the award ceremony, which was held at 20:00 hours
on 4th April 2008, commenced with the presentation of this special prize
to Isuru Godage. At this special moment, the name of Sri Lanka caught
the attention of the entire audience and in spite of her limited participation
at the exhibition-as opposed to that of countries such as USA, India,
China, Russia, France who had brought inventors in large numbers, -
the presence of Sri Lanka was felt by all on this special occasion.
The Commissioner, Dr. K. Kapila K. C. Perera and the Program Officer
Mrs. Deepika Kahatapitiya of the SLIC (who accompanied the three inventors
to the event) thanked the Sri Lanka Mission and the Sri Lankan community
in Geneva, for the assistance and encouragement they had given to the
three inventors in achieving success at this prestigious event.
Prior to the start of the exhibition, the Commissioner of the Sri Lanka
Inventors Commission (SLIC), Dr. Kapila Perera talked to the lankamission.org
about the SLIC, the exhibition and the inventors. His observations are
as follows:
"Sri Lanka Inventors Commission functions under the Ministry of
Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion and has been participating
at this International Exhibition of Inventions, New Techniques and Products
of Geneva since 1996. The SLIC had been established under the act number
53 of 1979 but had come into physical operation since 1989. The major
function or the objective of SLIC is to promote and encourage inventiveness,
inventive culture among all Sri Lankan citizens. The SLIC has to make
arrangements to represent Sri Lankan Inventors at international competitions.
As part of this exercise, we have been arranging to send Sri Lankan
inventors who have won at national or international level or people
with patented inventions to the International Exhibition of Inventions,
New Techniques and Products of Geneva. Every year, Sri Lanka sends three
competitors to this exhibition.
Last year, at the 35th version of the exhibition, one of our three
inventors won a Gold medal in one category. He had invented an Artificial
Leg for handicapped people. Two silver medals were won by the other
two participants who had invented a Selective Tea-Plucking Device and
a Low cost Wheel Chair (this is now being further developed by the University
of Moratuwa). Our inventors have been winning medals at this competition
every year. The person who won the Gold medal last year is going to
venture into his own enterprise with a 34 million Rupee investment in
Sri Lanka. He will be producing artificial legs for handicapped people
and people who have lost their legs due to the ongoing conflict. His
factory will start in Kalutara under the patronage of Ministry of industries.
He had been able to get funds for this venture with the intervention
of His Excellency the President. The Sri Lanka Inventors Fund will provide
partial funding for the commercialisation of his invention.
The SLIC is honoured to get an invitation for this 36th version of
the Inventors Exhibition of Inventions, New Techniques and Products
of Geneva. This time again, we have selected three inventors from a
pool of 50 applicants who had applied from all over the island. These
inventors will present three different inventions at this exhibition.
The first inventor, Mr. Wijithapala from Malsiripura of the Viamba
province is a schoolteacher. He has invented a Multi-Purpose Visual
Projector as a teaching aid to be used by school children. You can focus
his device within a one-millimetre distance and project even the blood
stream of a living animal or insect on to a projector or a TV screen.
The second invention is a Virtual Mouse: a student project done at
the Department of electronics and telecommunication in the University
of Moratuwa. Mr. Isuru Godage is here to represent his team at this
exhibition. With this invention you replace the ordinary computer mouse
with a virtual mouse. Unlike the conventional mouse, which is used on
a flat surface, you would use and control the virtual mouse with simple
hand movement in the virtual space. In this invention gyros are replaced
by a series of software. Therefore, it will be less expensive than gyro-controlled
mouse.
The third invention is a High Voltage, High-Current, Switch-Mode Battery
Charger. Here you replace the mechanical version with an electronic
version. This invention has a patent and is already commercialised in
Sri Lanka. A Sri Lankan company called Spectra has introduced it into
the Sri Lankan market. The salient features of this product are: one,
you replace 12-13 kg of copper which are in the conventional battery
charger with less than one or two kg of copper. Two, the charging time
is very much less than the time needed for a conventional battery charger
and this has been proven.
The Sri Lanka Inventors Commission is funded by Treasury funds. So,
if we have more funds, we could send more inventors to this annual exhibition.
The exhibition has more than 42 categories under which you can present
your inventions.
The SLIC wants Sri Lankans to come up with nationally relevant inventions.
By this I mean inventions which have a unique Sri Lankan identity and
which cater to national, social needs. However, in order to be presented
at international exhibitions, these inventions should also be up to
international standards. Therefore, at this exhibition, we are not representing
inventions coming from the school system.
Nevertheless, we have invested a lot in promoting inventive culture
in the school system. I believe it is important to promote inventiveness
at school level. If we change the mindset of school children and help
them bring out their creativity, we could see the results in the future.
In fact, since 1994, the Sri Lanka inventors Commission, with the collaboration
of the Ministry of Education, has created 6000 inventors clubs in the
Sri Lankan school system which has 10,000 schools. From this year, we
have started inter-house inventors meets in schools. Some of these meets
were very successful: for example in one of the very remote schools
(Usgalathissa) in the Viamba district where there is not even a science
stream, the 300 students in the upper school had made 179 exhibits.
Although these may not be real inventions as such, these youngsters
have used their time to create something useful. Later when they grow
up, that would help them to be innovative in their respective professions,
be it as labourers, clerks, engineers or doctors. At the Sri Lanka Inventors
Commission, we want to promote this inventive culture among all the
people of Sri Lanka."
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