MARGAOChairman of the Goa State InnovationCouncil Jose ManuelNoronha has said that theCouncil’s Virtual InnovationRegister has 320 ideas registeredon its portal, of which43 were from establishedstartups which is suggestiveof VIR’s success in reachingout to innovators and tappingtheir ideas.Releasing its annual report2019-2020, he said the Councilconvened four meetings at itssecretariat at Don Bosco Collegeof Engineering, Fatorda.“Some of the important activitiesconducted by the Councilincluded organiz
ing a hackathonto identify the challengesfaced in solid waste managementand disposal.Solutions for disposal oftube lights, LED lights, sanitarypads etc were proposedat the hackathon. A total of19 ideas were proposed at thishackathon from students ofvarious engineering collegesin the state,” the report said.The report young innovatorsawards drew a great responsefrom schools throughoutthe state where more than200 ideas were submitted andthe winners proposed innovationsin areas of oil spillremoval, aquaculture, digitalmicroscopes etc.During the year, the Councilorganized around 20 bootcamps for college studentsacross the state and 1561 studentsattended these whichfocused on technology, innovationand entrepreneurship.The Council also conducted14 workshops across thestate for school students onSTEM education and morethan 1000 enrolled for theseprogrammes.Noronha said these workshopswere aimed at familiarizingstudents with technologyat an early age. He saidthe council also conductedtwo orientation programmeson innovation for headmastersand headmistresses ofschools. These programmes,which were conducted one ineach district, were attendedby 350 school heads.The council established aprototyping laboratory at DonBosco College of Engineeringequipped with 3D printer andlaser cutting machine besidesother equipment for the benefitof innovators so that theymay build prototypes of theirideas at the laboratory andlater commercialize the productif successful.The Council also conductedon a pilot basis a financial literacyworkshop for studentsof class 8 for rural schoolsof Goa and the programmeincluded topics like moneymanagement, entrepreneurshipetc.The Council also conductedprogrammes on risk capital,industry-institute interaction,IPR, etc for the benefit of alarge number of participants.It received a total grant ofRs 30 lakh during the year towardspayment of salary of itsstaff as well as for the conductof these programme and settingup the prototyping laboratory.The annual report 2019-20 has been placed beforethe Legislative Assemblyas required through theDepartment of Science andTechnology.
