TEHRAN – The first International Nanotechnology Olympiad (INO) 2018, was a great chance for participants to share their information and ideas.

The first International Nanotechnology Olympiad was held from April 10 to 15 at Tehran’s Pardis Technology Park and nine teams from four foreign countries competed at the event.

Chairman of INO steering committee Ali Beitollahi called the completion in a high professional level in which, notable solutions were proposed for challenges as the theme of the Olympiad, ISNA reported on Monday.

The participants presented their solutions for the global challenges related to water and wastewater treatment, agriculture, food and packaging, alternative energies, drugs and medication, information and communication through nanotechnology.

“The ideas proposed during INO have potentiality for turning from creative ideas into industrial solutions,” he said.

He named teamwork as one of the positive aspects of INO, which leads into synergy to solve problems regarding global issues.

“Such competitions are great opportunities for talented researchers to connect with each other,” he said.

Nine teams competed at the event, which promote commercializing ideas in the field of nanotechnology, Head of Research Center for Science and Technology in Medicine (RCSTIM) Saeed Sarkar announced during the ceremony.

Spain, South Korea, Germany, Russia and some African and Latin American countries are the new target markets for RCSTIM, he said.

He said that Iranian companies focus on health field for production.

Foreign participants praise INO teamwork 

At the ceremony, German researcher at German Federal Institute for risk assessment Andrea Haase made a short speech at the Olympiad.

In her speech, she highlighted the importance of human resources in nanotechnology and extolled workshops, which was held during the event.

Taiwanese nanotechnology professor and researcher Alan C. L. Tang were also amongst the speakers.

He praised the friendly atmosphere of the competition, which led to establishing connection between teams.

He expressed his thanks to organizers who held such an event in five days saying that it was a hard task, which needed a lot of coordination.

Professor Maw-Kuen Wu at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica called the Olympiad an opportunity for participants to discover their abilities.

Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC), the national academy of Taiwan Academia Sinica, Korea Nano Technology Research Society (KoNTRS) from South Korea, and Moscow State University Joint Stock Company RUSNANO from Russia are named as founders of 1st International Nanotechnology Olympiad on INO website.

Member of INO steering committee and Professor at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Kyung-Ho Shin also made a short speech at the event.

He called nanotechnology as a powerful instrument to deal with global challenges and find novel solutions for the problems.

He expressed his hope over increasing of participants in coming editions so that more chances can be provided for cooperation between teams.

Four winners from four countries 

At the ceremony, four teams were recognized as the winners of the competition.

Participant team from Taiwan won 3000-euro award as the team with the best total score from the three aspects of novelty, business and scientific/technological.

The Iranian team was selected as the best project in terms of business development aspects and won the 2000-euro award.

South Korean team won 2000-euro award as the most novel and highest impact idea.

In terms of scientific and technical development, the Malaysian team won the 2000-euro award.

Iran, INO permanent secretariat 

On the sidelines of Asia Nano Forum (ANF) meeting in Tokyo on February 15, 2017, a memorandum of understanding was signed to announce the country to host the first INO. Representatives from Iran, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan attended the meeting and declared their readiness to participate in the forthcoming competition. In accordance with the MOU, the first INO was held in Tehran.

During the meeting, Iran was assigned as the permanent secretariat of Olympiad and will be responsible for keeping the Olympiad under surveillance in the involved countries.