Lanka wins ‘Genius Awards’ at Inventions Show in Geneva

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 in Switzerland recently.

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. Secretary to the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission S. Janaka Sri Chandraguptha told The Sunday Times FT in line with 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, W.D. Wijithapala (Teacher and School Inspector) of Melsiripura, A.S. Dissanayake (Entrepreneur) of Kalagedihena and 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 W.D. Wijithapala was awarded a Gold medal for his Multi-Purpose Visual Presenter under the category “Optics, Photography, Cinematography ”, A.S. Dissanayake and 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 on April 4 commenced with the presentation of this special prize to Isuru Godage.

Janaka Sri Chandraguptha noted that “at this special moment, the name of Sri Lanka caught the attention of the entire audience and in spite of the country’s 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.”

Meanwhile three Sri Lankan student inventors D. Yasith Kanchana Lokuge of Ananda College, Colombo, Praveej Malinda Jayasinghe of St. Anthony's College, Katugastota and Sajeewa Dinesh Hendurugoda, of Nugawela Central College will leave the island for Atlanta USA to represent the country at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta, USA in May.

These students were selected by the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka. This annual fair will be held with the participation of more than 1,500 students from over 50 countries to compete for nearly 900 prizes.