Saudi youth compete at Sci-preneurship in Jordan

Five Saudi students were challenged to think out of the box and come up with an invention to help solve water scarcity problem around the world in only 24 hours. The challenge was part of the Sci-preneurship competition held by Intel corporation and Injaz Al-Arab on Saturday and Sunday this week in Amman, Jordan.
The Saudi students were part of the 36 students from six countries across the MENA region at the Sci-preneurship event, which brought 18 students from Injaz Al-Arab and 18 students from Intel to merge creative thinking and entrepreneurial skills with science, technology, engineering and math. The students were from Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and of course Saudi Arabia. “For many years Intel has globally supported and encouraged youth to pursue the path of entrepreneurship. In the region, Intel has come together with Injaz Al-Arab to maximize the outreach of this initiative,” said Ferruh Gurats, corporate affairs director of Intel Middle East, Turkey and Africa. “We are confident that this collaboration will have a lasting effect on the future of the participating youth,” he added.
The winning team was from Lebanon who targeted the Saudi market with their invention. They invented a device that can be installed in air-conditioning units; it prevents the water from dripping on the floor, while storing it for other usage.
They won the Sci-preneurship award based on their merits in creativity, innovation, presentation skills and team spirit.
The Saudi team’s invention was an improvement upon an already existing subsurface irrigation system by adding a Wifi panel that serves as the brain of the entire system. “It is connected as a sensor that measures the water inside the soil and it is also connected with a forecast server to obtain dynamically updated weather information,” said Abdullah Bu Khamsin, Intel ISEF alumni who won second place globally in plant sciences at the Intel ISEF 2013 in Phoenix. “Based on that information, it dictates the amount of water that should be injected into the soil but instead of traditional irrigational system, the subservice water injects the water directly to the roots of the plants underground. This greatly reduces the percentage of water loss due to evaporation,” he added.
The Saudi team split into three scientists who were in charge with coming up with the invention and the two entrepreneurs who helped with the marketing plan. “We found out that our project has more than one added value and it has a longer life where it can reduce the cost to the minimum and give you a huge result,” said Ahmed Halawani, Intel ISEF alumni who won a special award from the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Physical Society for his research on diluted magnetic semiconductor at the Intel ISEF 2013 in Phoenix. “In order to use the technology we had to know the basic of fundamental science so we can optimize and make the project as efficient as possible,” he added.