(Trinidad Guardian) Science and Technology Minister Dr Rupert Griffith says a permanent home for showcasing local innovation will be established in T&T.
Griffith was addressing the Prime Minister’s Awards for Scientific Ingenuity 2015 at Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, on Monday night.
Griffith said the Science City would be similar to the Smithsonian Institution in the United States.
The minister said the project was being undertaken by Niherst and would be located close to the recently opened Children’s Hospital in Couva.
He said it was envisioned to be “a high-tech hub with advanced state-of-the-art R&D (research and development) facilities for product development and commercialisation and a centre for technology.” He said Arquitonicia GEO was partnering with Niherst in the venture as design consultant, landscape architect and design architect.
Griffith said his ministry had engaged in the right partnerships to facilitate the adoption of new technology through technology transfer.
He said a key component of that was T&T’s involvement in a European Union-Community of Latin America and the Caribbean (EU-CELAC) Bilateral Arrangement.
He said T&T was also coordinating inter-ministerial collaboration in policy development, planning and implementation. The winner in the junior category in the Scientific Creative Solutions Competition was Shamiya Charles with her entries titled The Ultimate Fruit and Vegetable Vendor Stand and The Ultimate Portion Controller.
The winner in the senior category of the Scientific Creative Solutions Competition was Dr Natasha Ramroop Singh with her entry Novel Biosensor for Thyroid Disorders.
The winner of the Scientific Innovation and Invention Award was Dr Eesa Wahid with his presentation Constant Voltage High Rate Lithium Battery.
That innovation was “a battery with specialised circuitry that has been adapted to a lithium battery to create a power supply that does not experience voltage drops typical of car batteries.”
The competition was aimed at “stroking the innovative spirit and capacity of our people to advance government’s goal of a highly-diversified, sustainable and globally-competitive economy,” Niherst said.
