Kiwie 2022: three inventions led by PUCP women won gold and silver medals in Korea

The PUCP is a cradle of women scientists and proof of this are the three inventions led by PUCP inventors who won gold and silver medals at the International Exhibition of Korean Women's Inventions, Kiwie for its acronym in English. This edition took place from August 25 to 27 and counted with the participation of more than 300 technological proposals from women inventors from all over the world, among them 42 Peruvian women who showed 35 inventions with patent registrations or on the way to obtain them.

The automatic microbiological sample staining equipment with reagent return and gas protection, led by Ángela Guerrero Echevarría, brought home a gold medal. It is an automated equipment that speeds up the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

The other two projects that won silver medals were the system for the collection, storage and treatment of water in communities, led by Belén Desmaison Estrada; and the procedure for the synthesis of zinc tannate from a powdered source of hydrolyzable tannins, led by Antonella Hadzich Girola. The latter is a procedure to obtain non-toxic, low-cost and eco-friendly pigments to replace carcinogenic anticorrosive aggregates in the formulation of primers.

Why is Kiwie important?

The Korea International Women's Invention Expo (Kiwie) 2022 is an event organized by the Korea Women Inventors Association and the Korea Intellectual Property Office. It aims to increase women's interest in invention activities, promote a global network of women inventors, evaluate patent technologies and inventions developed by women, and finally promote and disseminate inventions internationally.

"Patents are valuable credentials in the world of research and innovation at an international level," explains Melisa Guevara, head of the PUCP Intellectual Property Office. Guevara points out that these allow accrediting a broad knowledge of a thematic area that contributes to technological development. To have a patent is to have a title so that a technology -be it a product or a process- can be protected in the system. "To convert your proposal into a patent, there must not be a pre-existing identical technology, it must have an industrial impact and application," he adds.  

For university authorities, the Kiwie represents a unique space because it values the female presence in the development of new technologies and puts Peruvian female inventors on a par with those from South Korea, China and other world powers. Guevara adds that these recognitions are relevant and provide very powerful credentials that are registered in international databases.

Institutional support to PUCP inventors

"These experiences change lives. The juries that come from countries with high technological development evaluate the result of your effort. To be qualified with gold or silver in technologies that are important for our social contexts is great. Many of them pursue doctorates abroad on scholarships, also thanks to their inventions," explains Ms. Guevara.

Through the Vice Rectorate for Research, the PUCP supports women inventors in this contest since 2020. The authorities are working to ensure that this participation is sustained over time. In fact, the University has an institutional policy to support, strengthen and ensure the presence of its inventors in this field. This is an effort that is maintained with each rector's team.

In this regard, the head of the PUCP Intellectual Property Office invites all female inventors to come forward to evaluate their technologies and receive the support they require in any project. All this in order to make the PUCP female talent cross borders, measure themselves with the best in the world and surpass them.