The sixth edition of the National Science and Engineering Contest for Pupils “Mold SEF” took place in Chisinau, during the period 16-18 February. The contest was organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research by means of the National Agency for Curriculum and Assessment, as well as together with several partners.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Education, Culture and Research Monica Babuc, who wished the participants a lot of success, emphasizing the importance of supporting research activities among young people, even in general education institutions.

In the context of supporting and stimulating ideas of creativity and innovation, the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI) participated as a partner of the contest. Present at the opening of the event, AGEPI Deputy Director General Andrei Popa mentioned that this contest is a good platform for young people to exchange ideas and promote their created works.

This year’s edition of the contest was attended by 85 pupils from pre-university, secondary and vocational education institutions from 10 districts and municipalities, with 53 projects registered in three thematic categories: science and mathematics; applied sciences and information technologies.

The best works were awarded mentions, I, II and III class diplomas, according to the three categories of the contest and special prizes from the partners. Thus, AGEPI offered gifts and monetary prizes to the laureates of the three categories, as well as to the professors who prepared the pupils for the contest.

The projects that ranked first, for each category are:

• Chirita Sandu, pupil in the 9th grade, Technological Lyceum “Hertli” in Chisinau, with the Project “A novel Approach to call quality assessment using sequential neural networks”;
• Grecu Vladlen and Botoroga Cristina-Dana, pupils in the 12th grade, Technological Lyceum “Onisifor Ghibu” in Orhei, with the Project ”White Pollution”;
• Mitioglo Artemie and Mitioglo Vladislav, pupils in the 11th grade, Theoretical Lyceum “Orizont” in Chisinau, with the Project “Combating air pollution with the help of nanotechnology”.

The awarding ceremony was attended by representatives of the institutions involved in the organization of the event, partners and sponsors of the event. The guests congratulated the participants for their performance and expressed confidence that the future of the Republic of Moldova is in the hands of ambitious and inventive young people.

The projects that ranked first will represent the Republic of Moldova in the International Competition “Intel ISEF 2018”, which will be held in May, in the United States of America. We should note that one of the projects selected last year for participation in this prestigious competition was rewarded with USD 5,000.