Kuwaiti Nouf Al-Asfour among top 10 Stars of Science
Young Arab innovators advance to engineering stage
DOHA, Oct 13: The latest Proof of Concept episode of Stars of Science, aired on MBC4, challenged the 16 selected candidates to scientifically validate their ideas with 10 now through to the Engineering stage.
Six candidates were eliminated during the Proof of Concept stage following a heated debate amongst jury members that included Dr Hayat Al Sindi, the Founder and President of the Saudibased i2 institute, Dr Mazen Hasna, Vice-President & Chief Academic Officer at Qatar University and the programme’s permanent jury members Youssef Al Salhi, GM of Qatar Shell research and technology center and Dr Fouad Mrad, Executive Director for the Regional Technology Center at the United Nations — ESCWA.
The judging criteria was based on each candidate’s working prototype (50 per cent), product feasibility (30 percent) and their resourcefulness and approach (20 per cent).
The Engineering stage is one of the most challenging as the 10 remaining young innovators will be judged on their product’s functionality, marketability and resourcefulness before six move on to the Design stage.
The prestigious panel of jurors for the Engineering phase will include Dr Farouk Al Baz, Research Professor and Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University who has been acting as a VIP juror for four consecutive seasons, as well as Dr Eyad Masad, Assistant Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at Texas A&M University Qatar and Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University (USA).
Dr Farouk Al Baz, Research Professor and Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University in the United States, said: “We are really impressed to see that this year a majority of the candidates’ projects are very much focused on directly benefitting the wider society. Each innovation tackles a prevalent issue in the Middle East in a unique and innovative way. We look forward to seeing what each of the candidates will be presenting at the Engineering stage.”
Hosted by Khaled Al Jumaily, Stars of Science Season Five consists of eight prime-time episodes plus the live finale, where the public will be invited to vote alongside the Jury. The program began on September 13th 2013 (8 pm KSA), with daily updates airing from Saturday to Thursday at 4.30 pm KSA on MBC4.
The top ten finalists who participated in the Proof of Concept prime and are now through to the Engineering prime:
Name, Nationality, Age, Invention: Alaa Al-Rawi, Iraq, 24, Auto-Adjusted Comfortable Seatbelt; Anwar ALMojarkesh, Syria, 26, Assistive Pillow for Hearing Impaired; Mohamed Amine Besbes, Tunis, 26, Virtual 3D Drawing Pen; Mohammed Doumir, Algeria, 28, Camel Racing Diagnostic Boots; Mohammed Islam, Egypt, 22, Navigation and Home Automation for the Blind; Mohammed Al Kuwari, Qatar, 29, Automated Verdict in Disputer Football Scoring; Nouf AlAsfour, Kuwait, 21, Automated Reflexology Glove; Sherif Yahia, Egypt, 27, Speech Synthesizer for the Language Impaired; Waleed Jan, KSA, 24, Mechanical Braille Editor; Mohamed Ismail, Egypt, 29, Solar Panels Autonomous Robot Cleaner.
Nouf Al-Asfour is 20 years old and from Kuwait. She is studying petroleum engineering.
Nouf’s creation is the Automated Reflexology Glove. The invention is a motorized glove massage system for both hands based on reflexology therapy that targets 15 various critical spots in the human hand which are connected to the various organs of the human body. The glove integrates mini-motors positioned and controlled individually for dual degree of freedom each (rotation and pressing) at each of eight spots in each hand based on desired results of user (headache, eyes, others). The novel feature is the individual dual-effect of freedom control of various motors at separate critical spots in the hand versus the electronic vibration glove to offer a complete robotic gloves massaging device.
Nouf suffers from migraines and became tired of using medicines so decided to look for other alternatives that could ease the pain. She discovered reflexology which decreases the pain without using any sort of medical treatment and so decided to design a portable hand massage glove which focuses on certain points of a person’s hand that prevent migraine pains.
She hopes to turn her idea into a reality now that Stars of Science has opened a door that wasn’t open previously. It also gave Nouf the push that she needed to convert her ideas into reality.
Nouf’s strength is her constant striving towards self-improvement. For the latest updates, log on to: * www.starsofscience.com * https://www.facebook.com/Starsof ScienceTV * http://twitter.com/starsofscience * http://www.youtube.com/starsofsciencetv
These sites also include information on the applications process for Stars of Science Season which is currently accepting submissions from applicants until Dec 15, 2013.