Nahdet El Mahrousa Celebrates Egypt’s Young Innovators

Nahdet El Mahrousa celebrated the success of past winners of its Young Innovator’s Awards (YIA) Program at the American University in Cairo’s Downtown Campus on Monday November 19th. Under the auspices of H.E Dr. Amr Ezzat Salama, Former Minister of Higher Education & Research & Development, and the Counselor of the American University in Cairo; and in the presence of their Excellencies: Dr. Nadia Zakhary, the Minister of Research and Development; Dr. Mohamed Hamza, the Head of Cultural Affairs and Sections at the Ministry of Higher Education; and Dr. Sayed Tag, the Acting Vice President of the Supreme Council of Universities; who honored the event with their attendance and shared their insights on the challenges facing R&D in Egypt.

During his keynote speech, Salama said, “It is so important to foster innovation and creativity as both a skill and a mindset in our young people, and to encourage them to think and act sustainably too. YIA is a great initiative and I am thrilled to have had the chance to meet some of these students and learn more about their inventions – they are our future”.

With Egypt ranking at 39 of the top 40 countries by number of published scientific research papers in 2011 with only 5,592, the Young Innovator’s Awards addresses a pertinent need and aims to make a positive impact on Egypt’s scientific culture by supporting and developing innovative research among Egyptian students.

Over the past eight years, the program has supported students in all national Egyptian universities, in all 87 faculties of Engineering, Agriculture, Sciences and Computer Science, and has implemented partnerships with numerous businesses, government agencies and educational institutions.

“Nahdet El Mahrousa is committed to developing students who are both innovative, entrepreneurial, and feel the responsibility towards their country”, said Mr. Loay El Shawarby, Chairperson, Nahdet El Mahrousa. “We are proud of the fact that more than 3,800 young Egyptian scientists, engineers and researchers in universities have been awarded with financial support, traineeships, and professional opportunities through the Young Innovator’s Awards”.

The event, which called for entries for next year’s program and highlighted the new YIA program model, was also attended by a distinguished group of YIA program partners from the civil and private sectors to support Egypt’s young scientists. “Our partnership with Nahdet El Mahrousa is an investment in the future prosperity of Egypt. We realize the importance of furthering scientific innovation and that will remain a focus for the Foundation in the future”, said Dr. Ganat El Samalouty, Executive director of Sawiris Foundation for Social Development

The event showcased an outstanding group of young Egyptians who believe in scientific research and knowledge as a road for progress, and have devoted their time and effort to search for new ideas and formulas in the areas of science, engineering and agriculture for the development of Egypt.

Mohamed Mamdouh Mohamed Labib (Helwan University – Electrical Department, Power Section 2008)

Project submitted to YIA: Production line automation solution

Mohamed Mamdouh Mohamed Labib, who is currently working as a Service Engineer in ABB, has seen his graduation project cross into an actual applicable system of industry adopted by Shell in Egypt. But he didn’t stop there; he is concomitantly working on his Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University and teaching courses at Siemens. He is the first out-of-Siemens individual to teach their courses.

During the summer before his senior year in Helwan, Labib underwent an internship at Shell Oil Company. During his time at Shell, he found out that the capping of oil barrels is the final manual step of a fully automated process; and like any young entrepreneur, he immediately saw an opportunity for improvement. Thus, he teamed up with eight of his colleagues at university and focused on developing an automated capping system that is superior to manual capping in accuracy and time.

The group successfully designed and built a device that automated barrel capping with 100% accuracy and in 24 seconds; versus 87% accuracy and 90 seconds (average) taken by manual capping. The project was an academic and professional success, gaining the admiration of both business professionals and academic professors alike. The project was adopted by Shell Egypt and is currently under study for application at their plants.

Labib reference his success to YIA program which helped him, not only financial, but through its unique junior incubator program helped him technically and legally to finish his project and transfer it into an applicable system of industrial usage successfully. When asked about the YIA program he simply says “it’s the program that built us, the culture of research and development and the atmosphere of innovation they provided was indispensable to my success.”