RIYADH, 10 March 2008 — On behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Minister of Education Saleh Al-Obeid, who is also the vice president of the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for the Gifted (KACFG), opened here yesterday Saudi Arabia’s first exhibition for inventors — Ibtikar 2008.
Government officials, businessmen, as well as representatives of public and private institutions attended the ceremony.
“This is where the importance of the exhibition and the logo stems from — ‘Developing creativity to serve progress’,” said Al-Obeid. “The essence of providing a rich environment for creativity is essential in achieving the goals of a nation.”
Khaled Al-Sabti, secretary-general of KACFG, said the government institution was receiving unlimited support from King Abdullah, who has called for the embracement of inventors as a national treasury.
“The unlimited support from King Abdullah is the greatest motivation for us and everything we do here at KACFG,” he said. It was King Abdullah, who instructed officials that an exhibition be held to highlight the inventions of Saudis, he added.
Saudi Aramco, a co-organizer of the exhibition, participated in the exhibition. The Saudi oil giant highlighted its most famous inventions, all of which received international patents. Other government bodies participating included the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, and the Saudi Chambers of Commerce for Commerce and Industry.
Sixty-three contestants, including several Saudi women, are participating in the exhibition. Inventors have been allocated a small area to display their inventions, take questions and distribute their contact details. The names of the contestants and their inventions are displayed above the allocated area.
Many Saudi inventors relied on theirlaptops to provide the visitors with presentations on how their inventions work. Others brought models of their inventions.
A special area in the exhibition had been constructed for Saudi women inventors to protect their privacy and not confuse them with other contestants, but at the same time distinguish their place on the exhibition floor.
Among the Saudi women inventors was Reem Khooja, 22, from the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. She participated in the exhibition with her invention “Automotive Cylinder Slide Microscope.” The idea stems from a robotic arm that moves the sample to the slide without human interference.
Khooja said it was unfortunate that women inventors in the Kingdom did not get the support they deserved due to local customs and traditions. “Society has not supported me,” she said. “Even when a woman invents something, the family usually gives men more attention in such cases,” she added, when asked about her family’s support. Khooja said she had invented several devices.
Yahya Al-Malki, a young Saudi in his 20s, presented his invention, “The Secure Safe.” He invented a device that senses when a safe has been broken into and then in a fraction of a second automatically calls the owner of the safe on his personal cell phone. He gave Arab News a demonstration of how it worked. A few seconds after the safe was opened, his cell phone rang and a message in Arabic appeared on the screen saying “personal safe opened”. The invention has still not received a patent, but has won third prize in a Taiwanese contest, he said.
The five-day exhibition in the Four Seasons Hotel is open to members of the public starting today. Opening hours are from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. for singles and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. for families.
