The team "LIGGA has won the main prize for the Millennium Innovation Award, a participation at NASA Space Center University Summer Camp in the USA, for their project: Radiation research, monitoring and safety system. The project enables to monitor the level of radiation in rooms and buildings and to determine the area and speed of its spread. With the funding from the US Embassy in Georgia, the members of the winning team will travel to the USA and participate in the NASA Space Center University summer program.
The second-place winning team, "Firelink" will participate at the iD Tech camp at Stanford University, USA with the funding from the Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA). The third-place winning team, "Mad Scientists" will visit the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland with the funding from Liberty Bank.
The team Atemporal has been chosen by the project partner, EPAM and its five members will attend EPAM Garage Innovation Center in Poland.
"With the help of our loyal partners and new sponsors, four different teams are awarded with the participation at various international STEM camps this year. The teams will attend one of the best STEM programs in the USA and Europe. We are very grateful to our partners, and we hope this competition will help to increase interest of Georgian youth in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines" , - said Magda Magradze, the CEO of Millennium Foundation.
The second place winning team, consisting of students from Givi Zaldastanishvili American Academy, created a network of low-budget stations based on microtechnology and sensors for early monitoring of forest fires.
The third-place winning team "Mad Scientists", consisting of students from Tbilisi and Gori schools, developed a project, called "Universal, friendly house". One of their team members is a student with special educational needs. Based on his real experience, the team created a project, which enables its users to control home appliances with voice commands and voice messages, monitor the consumption of electricity and manage the light intensity as needed, while being at home or remotely.
"The Millennium Innovations Award plays a major role in the advancement of the next generation. It significantly increases the motivation of hundreds of school students to strive for new discoveries. We believe that the prize established by Liberty - a study tour to the European Center for Nuclear Research for the team "Mad Scientist" will encourage them with new ideas. Education is a strategic direction for Liberty, and we will continue to focus our efforts on promoting education for the next generation. On behalf of team Liberty, I congratulate and wish success to all participants of the competition," - commented Beka Gogichaishvili, CEO of Liberty Bank.
The Millennium Innovation Award is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia. "The development of innovations and technologies in Georgia brings us closer to the modern world and helps to bring up new generation of inventors, engineers, and start-ups. The development of STEM education is one of the priorities of our government and the Ministry," - said Mikheil Chkhenkeli, the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia.
The Millennium Innovation Award was organized for the eighth time this year, with the support of the US Embassy in Georgia. "The US Embassy in Georgia has been supporting Millennium Innovation Award since 2014, which promotes STEM education and innovations among the Georgian youth. I am very proud of this initiative, and we are happy that every year, we are receiving almost equal number of applications from Tbilisi and regional schools of Georgia", - declared H.E. Kelly Degnan, U.S. Ambassador to Georgia.
Besides the main prizes, the special prizes were also awarded to the finalists' teams by the partner organizations: Kutaisi International University, San Diego State University Georgia, the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia - Sakpatenti, Geolab, Academy Letterato and allmarket.ge.
Twelve finalist teams from Tbilisi, Akhaltsikhe, Kutaisi, Senaki, Batumi and Gori schools, presented their projects in the following categories: Space and Aviation, Robotics, Mobile Technologies and Applications, Environment, Healthcare, Energy and Transportation. The competition aims to promote innovation and STEM education among Georgian youth. More than 2,500 students have participated in the competition so far.
