He he he... What else can we go for?

Not sour grapes actually. But I actually scratched my head times and times again when reading these kind of achievements by Malaysian academics, Malaysia bags 46 golds in inventions exhibition. Is this really what our academicians are driving themselves to do on a daily basis?

If you google "International Exhibition of Inventions", you'll get this. Online newspaper who seems to highlight the story on the 13th of April is our own dear paper, The Star! UPM's VC, on the other hand blamed the local firms of not supporting Malaysian inventors at Our firms not keen on local inventions. The Iranians, who lose out by 3 medals, highlighted the Iranian inventors win 43 medals at Geneva International Exhibit. The Switzerland's news and information platform, swissinfo.org indicated the news of Inventors look for big break in Geneva, Deutsche Welle's The Weird and Wacky Wow Geneva as well as a Associated Press news on paid subscription of Globe and Mail's Invention fair shows ideas ranging from wild to whacky

The INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF INVENTIONS, NEW TECHNIQUES AND PRODUCTS OF GENEVA is, according to it's website, touted to be THE MOST IMPORTANT IN THE WORLD with 1000 inventions, 675 exhibitors from 42 countries, 56'225 visitors from all five continents, 650 journalists and more than US$ 30 millions' worth business negotiated. It is the 33rd series exhibition under the patronage of the Swiss Federal Government and of the State and the City of Geneva. A look at last year's winners list do not include any Malaysian though. The have not, up till just now, updated the 2005 winner. Talk about being the place where www was born! They claimed this:-"The fact you can access this information with such ease is due in part to an invention in Geneva a decade ago – the World Wide Web invented by a young British scientist at CERN.", in a paragraph at this site

About inventing the net, the un-named British scientist, Tim Berners-Lee contributed to his finding to the IP protocols and DNS instead of claiming all the rewards.A very short personal history of the World Wide Web can be read there.

The organisors were indeed happy with the 2005 participation and have even specifically commended the large delegation from Malaysia and Iran in their closing Press Release. Geneva seems to be an ideal place for this kinds of things, and they do indeed promote themselves as 'the ideal business location in the heart of europe"!

How much does it cost for an exhibit to be displayed there? You could register any of your inventions there, if you have the cash to promote your product there. The entry form is found here! If you are a privateer, it might sets you back Euro1395 (about RM6795) for the minimum package; or if you are going in your companies name, or the product is already commercialized, prepare to part with Euro1985 (that's about RM9668). You get group discout of 10% for total though! For 112 entries from 10 different Malaysian universities, most probably, these guys have donated a minimum of RM974,368 and close to RM1 million(!) to the organisers, hummmm. Will they do this annually? Imagine RM1 million low-cost projects to the poors instead, or better schools, or more books at public libraries?

I used The Universal Currency Converter ® to convert EUR to RM at 4.87126RM to EUR1! It's quite neat and free!

One guy who attracted my most attention is Mohd Dan Palil! Prof. Madya Dr. Hj Mohd Dan is a very nice guy at Kuittho, Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn. Excellent idea, he he he. I'm looking forward to more of the environmentally friendly helmets on the roads soon! Swell chap and it was indeed a pleasure to know him personally. One of my former colleague, S, seems to have something against Md. Dan, but, I guess, Md. Dan is million times better as a human than S!

However, there's one good thing about going to this place. The venue is a good start to market an invention where the networks seems to converge. But, why don't we get those people in the country and arrange for this kind of exhibition locally at lower cost! Laymen could enjoy the exhibitions as well! Duh!

If you have missed the article, why don't you read it down below?
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http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/4/14/nation/10682628&sec=nation

The Star Online > Nation

Thursday April 14, 2005
Malaysia bags 46 golds in inventions exhibition
BY GAVIN GOMEZ

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia emerged a big winner in this year’s International Exhibition of In- ventions, New Techniques and Products, bagging a record 46 gold medals and five special awards.

“This is the best we have ever done. I would like to congratulate all the participating universities and students who worked hard to make the country proud,” Higher Education Mi- nister Datuk Dr Shafie Salleh said when announcing this yesterday.

Universiti Malaya (UM) led the way with 19 gold medals, 11 silver, three bronze and three special awards.

This was followed by Uni- versiti Sains Malaysia (USM) which bagged six gold medals, two silver and one special award; and Universiti Tekno- logi Malaysia (UTM) which earned six gold medals, three silver, two bronze and one special award.

The other universities on the winners list were Universiti Teknologi Mara, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, the International Islamic University Malaysia, Kolej Uni- versiti Sains dan Teknologi Malaysia, and Kolej Universiti Tun Hussein Onn.

These universities submitted a total of 112 entries.

Dr also commended UM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Hashim Yaakob who won two golds and one silver medal for research conducted in collaboration with other researchers from his university.


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