Education Minister Felicitates First Lankan Winner at Intel ISEF 2009

SRI LANKA, Colombo, June 2009 – E. Chandula Padmasiri, the first local student to win a Grand Award at the recently concluded Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2009 was felicitated by the Minister of Education, Hon. Susil Premajayantha at Isurupaya. Chandula, one of five students who represented Sri Lanka at this event, was adjudged third in the Electrical and Mechanical category for his mobile phone based microscope and received US$1,000 in prize money. Chandula was a finalist of Junior Inventor of the Year (JIY) 2008 competition and won the first place at Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair (SLSEF) which is a partnership of Ministry of Education, National Science Foundation, Institute of Engineers and Intel to become eligible to compete internationally.

Lauding Chandula’s accomplishment, Hon. Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Education said, “Chandula's achievement has not only boosted our confidence but further strengthen our commitment to assist our young talents for coming out with new innovations.” Commenting on Intel's support for improvement of ICT Education here in Sri Lanka, Hon Minister noted, “Intel has been one of our trusted partners in bringing the latest technology to our school system and providing our teacher and student community with necessary training to keep themselves abreast with country's development goals. I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to Intel for their assistance extended to Sri Lankan students to showcase their talents at such wide international arenas and for its commitment to such causes”

Picture 1: Minister of Education, Hon. Susil Premajayantha congratulating Chandula Padmasiri on becoming the first Sri Lankan to win a Grand Award at this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)

(Standing from left to right – Mr. Indika de Zoysa, Country Business Manager, Intel EM Ltd, Sri Lanka Liaison Office, Mr. Navin Shenoy, Vice President, Sales and Marketing Group, General Manager, Intel Asia-Pacific, Hon. Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Education, Sri Lanka, Mast. Chandula Padmasiri, Intel ISEF 2009 Grand Award winner from Ananda College, Colombo, and Mr. Anura Dissanayake, Director, SEMP of the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka)

Commending Chandula’s achievement at this year’s event, Indika de Zoysa, Country Business Manager, Intel EM Limited, Sri Lanka Liaison office said, “Chandula has brought great pride to his country through his success at the Intel ISEF competition. We believe that all students, everywhere, deserve to have the tools they need to become the next generation of innovators. Achievements like these motivate us at Intel to renew our commitment to make this a reality.”

The Hon. Minister of Education requested Mr. Navin Shenoy, Vice President, Sales and Marketing Group, General Manager, Intel Asia-Pacific to help developing the teachers in north and east. Mr. Shenoy appreciated the government’s initiatives and wanted Intel to be counted as a partner in this endeavour.

Mr. Anura Dissanayake, Director, SEMP of the Ministry of Education briefed about the public private partnership the Ministry of Education is having with Intel in education initiatives and was happy to announce that very soon the Intel Teach pre-service program would be introduced to National Colleges of Education so that every student teacher in the future would be empowered with 21^st Century skills.

Also present at the event were Mr. R. Sivakumar, Managing Director, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel South Asia, Mr. B. Suryanarayanan, Director Sales and Marketing Group, Intel South Asia, Mr. Priyantha K. Weerabahu, Intel Education Program Manager, Sri Lanka and other officials.

Under its World Ahead initiative, which was launched in Sri Lanka in March 2007, Intel together with the Secondary Education Modernization Project (SEMP) of Ministry of Education strives to make IT more accessible to students and teachers all over the Island.

Intel Education initiative in Sri Lanka has trained over 8,000 teachers across the country on Intel® Teach in-service program since its inception in 2006. Currently ground work has been made to introduce Intel® Teach pre-service to National Colleges of Education.

Skoool.lk, a website with science and math content for students and teachers was launched in November 2007 and Classmate PCs (CMPCs) were introduced in July 2008. Currently a total number of 450 CMPCs are present in the Sri Lankan school system and further 50 CMPCs will be donated in July.