Fifteen inventions made by groups and individuals based in the Cordillera have qualified as finalists in the Regional Invention Contest and Exhibits (RICE) of the Department of Science and Techno-logy.
The inventions, which are now on virtual exhibit at rice.dostcar.ph mostly dwell on agriculture and use of applications and geographic information for emergencies and disease monitoring.
Now on its 10th year, DOST Regional Director Nancy Bantog said by sustaining the regional search, the agency hopes more inventors will submit their works for eventual development, patenting, and mass production.
“We hope to encourage more people to have their works patented. It will be a waste of knowledge if the invention is not used by many,” Bantog said at RICE opening last Nov. 22.
Through the DOST’s Technology Application and Promotion Institute, the agency has expanded its assistance to inventors by helping them in the patenting and prototyping of their inventions or copyright of researches.
The DOST started monitoring the number of inventions submitted for patenting in 2017.
In the Cordillera, six inventions have pending patent applications. These are the processing of the dagway plant (Saurauia glabra) into jelly, process of making wine from medinillamagnifica leaves, all submitted in 2017; calamansi peel cookies, chicken taro balls, and a double load radial bearing submitted in 2019.
RICE has five award categories: Tuklas Award for outstanding invention, Unlad Award for outstanding uti-lity model, Banghay Award for outstanding industrial design, Likha Award for outstanding creative research, and Sibol Award for outstanding student creative research.
Finalists in the Unlad Award ca- tegory are the geo-bio method for soil stabilization, process of making sundried pork, and biological fungicide and methods for controlling fusarium wilt on sweet potato.
Finalists in the Likha Award are lemongrass tea flavored with freeze-dried fruits, fermented binubudan or heirloom rice, development of garden tiller mounted potato digger, analysis of dengue cases in Baguio using geographic information system, modified bicycle, and flamethrower to control soil born insect pests, diseases, and weed control.
For the Sibol award high school category, the finalists are glass bottle crusher, toys from scraps, and sweet potato and lakatan peelings as component in making edible cutlery.
For the college category, the finalists are growing chamber with light emitting diode for oyster mushrooms, motorized pulverizer for dried cassava and sweet potato, and GeoCall: emergency hotline app.
Three regional winners will be selected per category. The first prize regional winner per category will automatically qualify for the national contest.
Winners of the outstanding invention will take home P50,000; outstanding utility model, P25,000; and outstanding creative research, P20,000 each.
The board of judges in the regional search are experts in the fields of civil engineering, renewable energy, intellectual property, industrial engineering, business administration, Botany, food science, metals engineering, and mechanical engineering. – Rimaliza A. Opiña
