A very good morning to all present today and a very warm welcome to the fourth Penang International Science Fair. It is indeed a great pleasure for me to be here this morning to officiate the opening of the largest Science Fair in Malaysia, the Penang International Science Fair, 2015. Each of you represent one of the 60,000 people that we are expecting at the Fair over the next 2 days.
Penang International Science Fair (PISF) is an initiative begun by the Penang State Government in 2011 and organized as part of the Penang Science Cluster’s (PSC) mission of “Inspiring Innovation”. PSC focuses on developing young minds by exposing them to science and engineering through a unique, stimulating and innovative experience. This event is a collaboration between the Penang State Government and the manufacturing industries that form the backbone of the PSC as part of Penang State Government’s Public, Private and people’s Partnership (PPP) to involve the private sector.
Some of you may recall the very first Science Fair in 2011, organized by Intel Technologies, a Pillar Head of the PSC. It attracted 12,000 visitors for a 1 day event. Since then, the fair has been expanded to 2-day events, with visitor numbers increasing year on year. Last year, we ran the event for the first time in a sports stadium, at SPICE. More than 50,000 visitors turned up. So this year, we welcome you back to SPICE again, and we expect to see more than 60,000 of you here for the next two days.
The PSC has 5 pillars and each of the pillar heads take turns organizing the PISF. Last year was B. Braun and was superbly organized.
This year, Motorola Solutions, as the organising chair, is providing the leadership to make this 4th Penang International Science Fair another milestone. My sincere thanks to the leadership team of Motorola Solutions for making this happen, specifically to Dr Hari Narayanan, the MD of Motorola Solutions.
This year’s fair promises another 2 days full of fun activities with exhilarating learning experience. There will be a total of 45 different exhibitors, hands-on workshops with 4000 slots to choose from, various competitions such as Lego Robotics, Kung Fu Robot, Soccer Robot and Space War, and the National finals of Young Innovate Malaysia. My congratulations to the 30 teams who made it to the finals, out of the 175 teams who competed nationwide. You will hear more about these activities from Dr Hari.
The Penang International Science Fair is truly a very unique event with active support from every segment of the community ranging from industry, government, universities to individuals. This is not a science fair that we put together as a single event. The fair is the culmination of all the thousands of activities that were organized by the Penang Science Cluster at schools, at our science cafes and outreach initiatives over the course of the year and leveraging on our dynamic electronics and medical devices cluster.
We are proud that the PISF is the largest science fair in the country – so large that we had to hold it in a sports stadium. Once again Penang Leads in rekindling interest in science and technology to put the wonder and magic back to science. The PISF costs RM450k and the state government contribute RM141k.
PISF wants to demonstrate not just the wonder of science but also the magic that a science- based career can enrich your lives as well as reward you with wealth – look at all the millionaires and billionaires here!
Once again, my appreciations for Penang Science Cluster, the pillar members – Keysight Technologies, National Instruments, Intel, Dreamcatcher, Exabytes, B Braun and especially Motorola as chair person of the organizing committee for making this fair another big success, and not forgetting exhibitors, sponsors and participants. Also the volunteers who worked for free – Penang is proud of you!