On Tuesday, 30 April, the annual GEN-E Latvia competition for student enterprises organized by the educational organization Junior Achievement Latvia (JA Latvia) and the Latvian Investment and Development Agency took place in Jūrmala. At the event, the Latvian Patent Office (LPO) presented its sympathy awards to student enterprises in the secondary and primary school categories.
Being a long-term cooperation partner of JA Latvia, LPO regularly participates and evaluates student enterprises at CITS BAZĀRS student trade fairs organized by JA Latvia to choose the best ones in the Knowledge-based product/service nomination. LPO also takes part in the rating of finalists to select the student enterprise that will represent Latvia in the European final, which will take place in Italy this year.
Having evaluated 31 finalists, LPO presented its award in the primary school category to Hushroom from Jelgava Secondary School No. 4, which design acoustic panels from mushroom mycelium. In the secondary school category, LPO awarded the social responsibility enterprise CubeLex from Valmiera Technical School, which created an interactive game for children with language and writing disorders. Both of these enterprises received high praise from all members of the jury.
“We are really surprised and happy about students’ creativity, innovative ideas and desire to create sustainable and socially responsible products, because such things have a future. Therefore, I invite young people to register their intellectual property, thus both protecting it and ensuring their companies’ growth,” said LPO Deputy Director Eriks Rēķis at the awards ceremony.
In the final of the competition, the opportunity to go to Italy and represent Latvia at the European level was won by Fortfull Group from Ogre Technical School, which created an innovative wristwatch for people with visual and functional impairments.