Saturday, February 20, 2016

DOST-SEI, Intel, FIT-ED announces ‘innovation prize‘ for the youth




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The Department of Science and Technology – Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) recently partnered with Intel Technologies Philippines and the Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development (FIT-ED)—a non-profit organization advocating ICT learning among communities—to launch a project that will bank on creativity and innovativeness among teenagers.

Dubbed as “imake.wemake”, the project seeks to unleash the creativity of young Filipinos in innovation using accessible technologies that can address a certain community issue or social problem. The competition, which is launched this February, is open to teams with 15-18 year-old members who can propose an innovation or a product that can “solve a problem” using the Intel Galileo platform.

The Intel Galileo is a microcontroller board that can be used as a development tool in building simple to complex projects such as LED lights, robots, automation features in appliances, and many others.

“The technology empowers people, most especially the young tech savvy ones, to imagine and create something out of that imagination,” said SEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo. “Through this initiative, we want to make them think and be creative in utilizing the technology in making their innovations or products in mind become reality.”

Biyo added the imake.wemake project also intends to hone the students’ skills in communication, critical and analytical thinking, engineering and technical proficiencies, as well as the value of risk and failure analysis.

Submissions will come in the form of a project proposal stating the rationale, problem statement, objectives, methodology, and plan for the development of the innovation. A team from DOST-SEI, Intel, and FIT-ED will lead the assessment of the proposals.

Ten team-projects will be selected and will receive technical assistance and a unit of the Intel Galileo board from DOST-SEI. They will also undergo training, to be led by Intel Technical Consultants, before the build-phase, which can be up to three (3) months.

After the build period, teams will have to present their products and demonstrate their functionality through Poster and Project Presentations to the Jury.

Three prize awardees will emerge among the 10 and shall be conferred with the Youth Innovation Prize by DOST Secretary Mario Montejo including a P50,000 cash prize.

“As we aim to produce more scientists and engineers it is important that we let our students make something out of their imaginative minds. This competition will certainly be a good platform for creativity and we hope that they find their niche in innovation and become great ones in the future,” Biyo remarked.


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