‘Technology Marketplace’ hailed as a great success

By Cassandra Mascarenhas
The ‘Technology Marketplace,’ a unique initiative highlighted as the ‘show and tell to the industry’ organised by the Ministry of Technology and Research, has been hailed as a great success and an event that industries have been yearning for by both the exhibitors and those visiting the two-day exhibition.

Declared open by the Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa earlier this week, the event was organised as one of several initiatives envisaged by the Ministry to bridge the gap that exists between research and industry and to bring industry to collaborate more closely with State research institutions.
The participants at the ‘Marketplace’ included The Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies, Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), Institute of Fundamental Studies, National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERD C), Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI), Sri Lanka Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment (SLAB), National Science Foundation (NSF), Nanco (Pvt) Ltd. and Centre for Research and Development (CRD) of the Ministry of Defence.
“We have got very positive feedback so far and I think that activities like this should be done on an annual basis and on a much larger scale as well because from what little we have experienced here, the people are just yearning for this,” stated NANCO Senior Scientist and Business Development Manager Dr. Shehan De Silva.
“NANCO is a research organisation, a public private entity and by doing that we have had the freedom of getting into niche areas, for example, the nanotech space. Within that sphere, we are trying to differentiate ourselves by adding value to the Sri Lankan industries.
We are not necessarily doing what’s popular in the global arena but we are adding value to the local industries to make them more competitive. Along those lines, we are also coming up with new products which are novel because they try to solve the problems of the bottom million,” he explained further.
Identifying some of the key stakeholders involved in the ‘Technology Marketplace’ initiative including the research institutes, both public and private, banks and the private sector, he expressed his regret over the fact that only the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) had been showcased as a private sector entity in the organisation although there were many others in Sri Lanka and added that it would be excellent if they too could come on board in the future.
Another distinctive feature of the exhibition was the participation of the Ministry of Defence’s Centre for Research and Development.
“This has all basically been made through the collaboration of the University of Colombo and the Sri Lanka Navy. The engineers have been adopted into the Sri Lankan Navy as officers and with their assistance, we have developed these systems,” said RMGC Navarathne with the Sri Lanka Navy, while explaining how an automatic identification systems works through the placement of sensor nodes in strategic locations across the island including the Galle Harbour, Colombo Harbour, Trincomalee and Jaffna.
“This has been made by the Sri Lanka Navy, including all the software development, and although these are commercially available, it would cost the country millions of rupees, which is why we have come up with our own prototypes. We can also sell these to other countries at similar prices,” he added.
Sri Lanka Navy Head of Research and Development Commander Neville Amaranatha pointed out some other inventions developed by the Ministry of Defence such as a machine built especially for thalassemia patients.
“After the war, we had more time on our hands to experiment in other areas so we thought that we could do something for the country and for the poor people as part of our social responsibility. One such experiment was this machine A machine we have made for thalassemia  patients as they need to take medication every one hour and this machine has been specially designed for this use,” the Commander explained.
The Ministry of Defence has so far built 150 such machines, which cost Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 100,000 if imported and distributed them within 20 hospitals free of charge and it is now in the process of making another 250 of these machines. He added that a representative from Hemas Hospitals who was present at the exhibition had shown great interest in purchasing these machines from them.
Although the ‘Technology Marketplace’ has received a very positive responses from all stakeholders involved, it is yet to be seen if it will in fact be an annual event.
“We can’t expect results in just a year – we would have to see if there are more industry tie-ups, whether the research institutions are generating more income for themselves, whether the industries are showing more interest in adding value to their products and working with Government research institutions – we want to inspire confidence in the industries. We will set ourselves some targets, identify Key Performance Indicators and monitor the success. A year is too early to assess the outcome,” said Secretary to the Ministry of Technology and Research Dhara Wijayatilake.