The National Science and Engineering Contest “Mold SEF” (Moldova Science and Engineering Fair), 9th edition, took place in the period 18-19 March 2021, in online format.

The National Science and Engineering Contest “Mold SEF” is organized annually by the National Agency for Curriculum and Evaluation within the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, in partnership with the National Association of ICT Companies, with the support of the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI).

The general objective of the event is to identify and develop multiple intelligences in pupils, to increase interest in the study of mathematics, physics, computer science, chemistry, biology, natural sciences, technical and engineering sciences.

For this year’s edition of the Contest were registered 36 projects developed by 58 pupils, guided by 29 teachers, representatives of educational institutions from 12 districts and municipalities. Of the total number of projects, 15 were in the Science and Mathematics category, 14 in the Applied Sciences category and 7 in the Information Technology category.

The evaluation criteria for the participating projects are: applicability, creativity, scientific approach, complexity of the study, up-to-dateness of the topic, clarity of presentation. Taking these criteria into account, the Jury selected 26 projects to be awarded at the national stage and proposed the submission of two projects for participation in the international stage of the contest.

The winners of the national stage of the contest are from educational institutions from the districts/municipalities: Balti, Briceni, Chisinau, Drochia, Falesti, Glodeni, Hincesti, Ialoveni, Orhei, Ungheni.

At the same time, the projects proposed to represent the Republic of Moldova at this year’s International Science and Engineering Contest for Pupils “ISEF”, which will take place in May, in online format, are: “Utilizing the antiviral potential of wormwood (Artemisiaabsinthium L.) for preparation of the spray “HOPE” with broad spectrum of action” developed by Prepelita Mihaela and Vrabie Marius, 12th grade pupils at the Theoretical Lyceum “Ion Creanga” from Ungheni and “Supplementing low-researched sparse-data domains with non-traditional data using Machine Learning (algorithms)” elaborated by Vizitiv Ana, 11th grade pupil, Lyceum “Da Vinci” from Chisinau and Griza Madalina, 11th grade pupil, Theoretical Lyceum “Orizont” from Chisinau.

The list of winners of the National Science and Engineering Contest “Mold SEF”, 9th edition, can be consulted at the following address: https://bit.ly/3r7W1C8.