About the program called PRIME CAFE-PLUS

A unique mentorship-driven educational program for building presentation skills of young science students was initiated by AIST, Japan in 2022. Called CAFÉ-PLUS (Classroom for Advanced & Frontier Education - Presentation Learning for Young Students), this year it enrolled 44 contestants internationally and a team of 21 mentors (from AIST and other institutes in Japan, India, Indonesia, China and Korea). Twenty-two selected contestants were trained by mentors (1:1) for successive 3 rounds involving presentations on topics geared for different audiences (including high-school students, funding agencies and Industry collaborations). Competition of online presentations and on-spot evaluations through which 22, 11, 6 contestants were promoted to next rounds were marked by motivation, energy, positivity and networking. Final three winners were (i) Shifa SHETTY, All India Institute of Ayurveda, India (ii) Shruptha KUMARI, Shri Dharmastala Manjunatheshara Univ, Sattur, Dharwadand, India and (iii) Vishal KUMAR, All India Institute of Ayurveda, India.