Haj bracelet, talking robot for deaf, finalists in Oman hosted science TV show

Energy Tuesday 21/November/2017 21:10 PM
By: Times News Service
Haj bracelet, talking robot for deaf, finalists in Oman hosted science TV show

Muscat: Finalists of Arabic reality show ‘Stars of Science’ will receive $600,000 in prize money for projects that aim to solve regional and global problems through technology.
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Funded by the Qatar Foundation, the finalists will compete for the winner’s prize money of $300,000, followed by prizes of $150,000, $100,000 and $50,000 for others. The show finale will air on Saturday, November 25. The finals are taking place in Muscat for the first time.
All the finalists have already prepared their business plans and expect to get the necessary permissions soon to turn their projects into reality.
“We are all winners here. Our projects are ready and regardless of who wins the competition here, we will pursue our projects not just in the Arab region but globally. However, our first aim is to inspire people,” said Ahmed Nabeel, whose project will make surgeries safer through automated self cleaning laproscope with a virtual beam.
Other projects include a bracelet navigation system for Haj by Meshal Al Shahrani, a textile machine that can make clothing waterproof or integrate healing medicine within the fibres by Fuad Maksoud, and Mohammed Al Jerairi’s interactive robot teacher, which can interact with students providing both entertainment and information.
The criteria for selecting winners include relevance to problem solving, business case and the innovation and technology involved, among others. The show will be filmed in Oman, in partnership with the Oman Technology Fund, which is facilitating the whole event in Oman.
Voting has already started and will run until 2pm (GMT) Thursday, November 23. To choose your favourite Stars of Science innovation, vote online at www.starsofscience.com.
According to Alya Al Suwaidi, media relations officer at Qatar Foundation, 14 participants from the earlier seasons of the show have already started their own businesses, some of which are multi-million dollar ventures now.
“This is one of Qatar Foundation’s initiatives, among many, to develop the youth and create a sense of innovation among them. Many participants from the earlier seasons of the show have already started their businesses. More than 200 staff members from different departments at the Qatar Foundation advice and aid these participants to incubate their projects. It is not just the technology of the project but its complete business plan that wins the competition,” remarked Al Suwaidi.