The Nationwide Council for Science and Expertise (NCST) on Wednesday, October 18 awarded 4 researchers for his or her ‘excellent’ contributions to addressing societal challenges on the nationwide degree.
The awards have been offered on the conclusion of the NCST Pre-Council Assembly Symposium, which was organised to supply invaluable insights into analysis outputs for socio-economic improvement. The occasion befell on the Kigali Serena Resort.
Dr. Egide Kalisa acquired the Most Completed Researcher Award, which got here with a prize of Rwf 10 million. Prof. Jean-Marie Ntaganda was honoured because the Most Modern Researcher and was awarded Rwf 8 million.
Dr. Peace Bamuligire was recognised with the Girls Researcher Award, which additionally carried a prize of Rwf 8 million whereas Dr. Kizito Nkurikiyeyezu was offered with the Promising Younger Researcher Award and acquired Rwf 6 million.
The decision for abstracts, which resulted within the 4 awards, was prolonged to all Rwandan nationwide researchers throughout numerous sectors together with enterprise, authorities, larger schooling, and personal non-profit organizations in September.
The invitation was aimed toward these engaged in ongoing analysis research, research-funded initiatives with ground-breaking concepts and options, know-how improvement, new evidence-based scientific developments, and revolutionary services and products within the fields of sustainable vitality, meals safety, life and well being sciences, native manufacturing, digital companies, in addition to the preservation of a resilient setting and pure assets.
Talking in the course of the awarding ceremony, Gaspard Twagirayezu, the Minister of Training, congratulated the awardees and emphasised the significance of celebrating scientists and their contributions to a rising knowledge-based economic system.
He expressed hope for extra such occasions to rejoice these in numerous fields, together with science, arts, and sports activities.
Twagirayezu additional highlighted the importance of supporting science and know-how, significantly within the context of synthetic intelligence (AI), a discipline that’s gaining prominence.
“You realize that Rwanda has printed AI coverage, and it has a number of pillars.
These pillars revolve round capability improvement, analysis, and coordination,” he mentioned, including that there’s a want for coordination amongst people from the agriculture, analysis, and schooling sectors to utilize AI.
Twagirayezu additional pushed for establishing more practical platforms to facilitate collaboration and harness the potential of rising applied sciences and fields.
He considered NCST Assembly symposium as a possibility to reinforce collaboration and take advantage of rising applied sciences and information.
Jean-Pierre Rukundo, the Founder and CEO of Beno Holdings Ltd, is a detailed collaborator of Dr. Egide Kalisa, who has been honoured because the Most Completed Researcher.
In an interview with The New Occasions, Rukundo make clear their joint undertaking titled “It is Time for Electrical Buses in Rwanda,” which is centred on analysis and improvement inside the personal sector.
He defined that their analysis sheds mild on air air pollution brought on by motorcar emissions, figuring out two main issues: air air pollution close to colleges and overloading of vans.
Rukundo mentioned they proposed options to the problems.
“For colleges, we really helpful utilizing electrical buses as an alternative of personal vehicles to scale back air pollution. We came upon that oldsters’ idling automobiles are main contributors. These automobiles additionally negatively have an effect on kids’s psychological well being,” he mentioned.
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To deal with overloading, Rukundo mentioned their analysis recommends creating sensors to watch car weight and restrict extra cargo, with the opportunity of fines for non-compliance.
The researcher expressed gratitude for profitable an award for the undertaking, emphasising the collective effort of their group and companions as key enablers.
Along with the undertaking, Beno Holdings Ltd has undertaken a number of noteworthy initiatives, corresponding to the event of velocity governors for cars and a cutting-edge good white cane designed to help people with visible impairments.
Through the occasion, NCST additionally offered the Finest STI Communicator Award to Patrick Nzabonimpa, a reporter for The New Occasions, in recognition of his contribution to elevating consciousness about science, know-how, and innovation in Rwanda. He was provided a prize amounting to Rwf 6 million.
