The Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, Mikheil Chkhenkeli participated in the award ceremony of the 2021 winner of the Millennium Innovation Competition. The competition was organized in partnership with the Ministry, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, with the financial support of the US Embassy. The winners were addressed by the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili and the US Ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan.

Mikheil Chkhenkeli congratulated the winners of the competition and thanked Georgia's strategic partner - the United States of America for supporting the education system. 

Mikheil Chkhenkeli: “Dear students, inventors, congratulations on your victory! For me, as a minister and a professor, it is doubly gratifying to see so many young people who are interested in science. It is with you and with your support that it is possible to create competitive new products, applications, engineering, and technological solutions in Georgia.

As you know, the development of innovations and technologies brings us even closer to the modern world and helps to strengthen the new generation of inventors, engineers, and start-ups. One of the priorities of the government and our ministry is to develop the field of natural sciences and technologies. That is why it is especially important that the teams participating in the Millennium Innovation Competition present their projects in areas such as space and aviation, robotics, mobile technologies and applications, environment, health, and nutrition.

I would like to thank our country's key strategic partner, the United States of America, the US Embassy, ​​the American people, the Ambassador personally - Her Excellency Kelly Degnan and the Millennium Challenge Corporation for supporting the Georgian education system, as well as for supporting the Millennium Innovation Competition.

Special thanks to Millennium Foundation and Millennium Challenge Corporation. Beyond the Millennium Challenge Compact, you are implementing important projects that support the next generation in Georgia - modern technologists, engineers and inventors.

Young people, I wish you good luck again!"

The Millennium Prize for Innovation - A trip to NASA Summer Camp in the United States was won by the Elves team on the project "Design of a low-voltage air ionizer using carbon nanofibers." There are five students in the team: Anastasia Chalagashvili (6^th Author School), Panteleimon Kobakhidze (Aia-GESS School), Mariam Mikadze (Aia-GESS School), Mariam Magradze (Aia-GESS School) and Gega Khachidze ( V. Komarov N199 Public School). The aim of the project is to clean indoor air from viruses, bacteria, spores, and dust particles by means of a device that ionizes various molecules in the air.

The second-place team, consisting of students from Komarov Tbilisi Public School N199, created a "smart suit" using a substance called Nytilon, which detects the movement of the human body and moves the limbs by conducting electricity in Nitinol. "Smart Suit" can help people in medical rehabilitation who have disabilities due to an illness or injury.

The third-place team "Goal Diggers", consisting of students from Gori, Mestia, Kutaisi and Senaki schools, created a robot teacher who can be used as a teacher's assistant "colleague". Using a robot in the learning process is simple and fun. It helps the student to study the alphabet, colours, geometric figures, and symbols, as well as to check what the student has learned and gives appropriate feedback. 

In addition to the winning teams, special prizes were awarded to the finalists by the competition partner organizations: Kutaisi International University, San Diego State University in Georgia, TBC Bank, Geolab and Letterato Academy. 

Despite the pandemic, the Millennium Innovation Competition in 2021 has already been held for the seventh time. Up to 300 students participated in the 2020-2021 competition. At the first stage of the competition, 64 applications were submitted, of which 45% were from Tbilisi and 55% from schools in the region.

The Millennium Innovation Competition has been running since 2014, with the financial support of the US Embassy, ​​and aims to encourage high school students to innovate and develop new technologies and increase their interest in the natural engineering (STEM) fields. More than 2,000 students have participated in the competition so far.