Becomes First Lankan to Win a Grand Award at ISEF

SRI LANKA, Colombo, June 2009 - Sri Lankan talent received international recognition at the recently concluded Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2009, when E. Chandula Padmasiri became the first local student to win a Grand Award.  Padmasiri was adjudged third in the Electrical and Mechanical category at the world’s largest pre-college science fair for his portable microscope invention and received US$1000 in prize money.  

Indika de Zoysa, Country Business Manager, Intel EM Limited, Sri Lanka Liaison office said, “I would like to congratulate Chandula on his stunning achievement - he has brought great pride to his country. Intel ISEF provides students from Sri Lanka and around the world the opportunity to share ideas, showcase cutting-edge technology and compete with the best young talent.  Excellence at this level drives innovative thinking and acts as an impetus for acquiring greater scientific knowledge and understanding. Thus, Intel’s commitment to education is focused on building student capacity for success in a knowledge-driven economy in collaboration with governments and educators.”     

Chandula was selected from 1,563 young scientists from 56 countries, regions and territories for their commitment to innovation and science. A student of Ananda College in Colombo, Chandula’s invention, a mobile phone based microscope, provides researchers with the ability to examine their specimens on-site when attached to mobile phone cameras. Using this device one could view magnified images of the specimen inserted into the device directly through the camera mode of the phone. Images and videos thus taken could be stored on the phone memory and could be shared with others over MMS and e-mails too. The device is small and portable, is cheap, has a magnification of more than 600x and could be used to capture images and videos of the specimen being viewed.

Expressing absolute delight at his victory, Chandula said, “I am so proud to have competed and won, representing my country at the highest level of student competition.  This achievement would not have been possible without the contributions of Eng. J. Meegoda and Eng. Samarasiri of Institute Of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL), Mr. Priyantha Weerabahu of Intel Education, Sri Lanka, Mr. Dulip Gunasekara of Educomp, my teachers - Mr. Amith Dharmapala and Mrs. Nirosha Thilakewardena and my parents. I would like to thank Intel and the Society for Science and the Public for providing us with a stage of the magnitude of the Intel ISEF to showcase our talents and interact with our counterparts and assisting us in taking part in the same” 

As the world’s largest pre-college science fair, and the only global science competition for students in grades 9-12, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a program of Society for Science and the Public, encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions and solve the problems of tomorrow. Finalists are selected from more than 550 International Science and Engineering Fair-affiliated fairs around the world which includes the Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair (SLSEF). Their projects are then evaluated onsite by 900 judges from nearly every scientific discipline, each judge typically with a Ph.D. or the equivalent of 6 years of related professional experience in one of the scientific disciplines.

The SLSEF strives to provide young science students with the impetus to discover their scientific genius and a platform to win public recognition at the national and international level. Chandula’s invention was one of the top ten projects of the IESL Junior Inventor of the Year 2008 competition featured at the SLSEF 2008.

 Picture 1: Chandula with his invention, a mobile phone based microscope, at his exhibition booth at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2009 in Reno, Nevada, USA.

Picture 2: Chandula’s device attached to a mobile phone.