The winner of the first prize in the student category will get SR150,000, the second prize will get SR100,000 and the third prize will get SR50,000. Four outstanding works by academics and researchers will get SR50,000 each, said Fouad Al-Awad, the exhibition’s general supervisor.

An award distribution ceremony will be held at Al-Qasr Palace of Jeddah Hilton at 9 p.m. on Thursday, when prizes and certificates will be distributed to all of the 92 participants at the show.

Organized by the King Abdul Aziz and His Companions Foundation for the Gifted, the exhibition of inventions was opened by Education Minister Prince Faisal bin Abdullah on Sunday.

The inventions displayed at the show covered nanotechnology, energy and environmental protection, medicine and pharmacology, engineering, water desalination, information technology and telecommunications.

“We have doubled the amount of prize money this year in order to encourage competition,” Al-Awad said. He added that delegates from 19 Saudi cities and 33 local and international agencies took part in the exhibition, which is being held for the second time.

He said more than 2,250 students from 90 schools visited the show daily.

“A large number of Saudi families and expatriates also visited the show with their children to see inventions,” he said.

Faisal Al-Fehaid, manager of information technology at the foundation, said the exhibition’s interactive website attracted more than 280,000 visitors.

“We have received requests from 531 inventors to present 852 of their works at the show,” he pointed out. He said the website gave a lot of information to visitors about the new inventions.

He said his department set up an electronic system to facilitate the work of judges to select the best inventions on display.