JEDDAH: Wajih Al-Maghrabi, chairman of the panel of judges for the national Olympics for scientific innovation, organized by King Abdul Aziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba), revealed that a number of organizations in the Kingdom are putting in place mechanisms to discover innovators at an early age.

“We lack the correct mechanism to reach these innovators,” he said. “Studies confirm the importance of early discovery of giftedness because it might lead to 80 percent of future inventors.” He said that Saudi creations over the past 10 years confirm that the Kingdom is moving in the right direction. He confirmed the importance of doing more work in this field because it is the only way for distinction.

During an event organized by the cultural committee for the Riyadh International Book Fair, he said: “We should realize that our people are creative. We should ask ourselves why our scholarship students excel abroad but we don’t discover them early on in the Kingdom."

Young Saudis presented their scientific achievements, starting with Hassan Al-Balawi, a Ph.D. scholarship student in electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in the US. He participated in the science stars program and won first place for inventing a “wake cap.” His research focuses on brain and computer sciences.

Mohammed Awwad Al-Zaydi, founder and director of operations at the Visual Experiment Company, talked about inventing the 3D virtual guidebook. It took him eight months to make his first model which will be available commercially.

Mohammed Al-Sharif, a former journalist, who received the title of “most determined person in the Kingdom,” beat more than 11,000 competitors in the third issue of the award. He told those present that he was in an accident that caused fractures in his face and spinal cord. Doctors in Germany said he would never walk again, but he is walking and uses a wheelchair only on occasions.

Hannan Nasser Abdul Rahman Abu Humaid, who is 16 and a high school student, talked about her research which handles the effect of electromagnetic rays on the brain. She chose fine rays that affect people such as mobile phones and WiFi, as well as radio and microwaves. These rays are stored in the brain and might cause headaches and cancer. She said her invention is a chip to absorb electromagnetic rays.

Mohammed Omar Balbeid, executive director for the Arab Scientific Club, talked about a smart mouse for people with disabilities. It was launched as an invention that moves with the movement of the head and has been developed to follow the movement of the eyes.

Saeed Al-Saeed talked about his invention which is related to water-cooling systems for computers by using thermoelectricity.