Indonesian boy wins award at international event for inventors

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Wira Dibya Ratno Pama of Surabaya's Al-Hikmah high school was named favorite inventor Friday at the 4th International Exhibition for Young Inventors (IEYI).

Wira won the medal after his invention -- a remote control device capable of operating at large distances -- received the most attention from visitors during the three-day exhibition at Yogyakarta science center Taman Pintar.

His invention enables users to turn on and off electronic devices using either a fixed home telephone or a cellular phone.

"I am very proud, of course, as this is an international event with many inventors from other countries participating. I hope this will further motivate me to create other useful inventions in the future," Wira told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Jointly organized by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Yogyakarta provincial administration, the exhibition featured 78 inventions of more than 100 young inventors from Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Host Indonesia presented 17 inventions, including mosquito repellent soap, an electric canting (batik painting device), an earthquake detector, an automatic egg cleaner and a volcanic earthquake detector.

The earthquake detector, invented by Azhar Wicaksana, a SMPN 15 Yogyakarta junior high school student, was also selected as one of the 10 best inventions by the International Forum for Intellectual Property.

"We selected the 10 best inventions based on the inventors' motivation and creativity as well as the uniqueness, applicability and patent potentiality of the inventions," said Neni Sintawardani of LIPI.

Of the 10 best inventions, eight came from the top invention presented by each participating country. The other two, from Taiwan and Thailand, were selected by the exhibition's team of jurors.

A special award was also presented by the Japan Institute for Invention and Innovation to the exhibition's youngest participant, Lin Yan Han, from Taiwan, who invented a multifunction safety compass.

LIPI senior secretary Rochadi Abdulhadi said the exhibition was aimed at encouraging young inventors to keep their spirits high so they would be able to develop better, environmentally friendlier inventions in the future.

"We also call on all stakeholders, including the private sector, to nurture young inventors and support their activities," Rochadi said.

IEYI was held in Japan in 2004, in Malaysia in 2005 and in India in 2007. The next IEYI will be in Taiwan in 2008, followed by Nigeria (2009), Vietnam (2010) and Thailand (2011).