Sawiris Foundation honors 556 senior students at public universities

The Sawiris Foundation for Social Development participated in the closing ceremony of the 7th "Young Innovators’ Awards" competition program held by its partner Nahdet El-Mahrousa Association to honor 556 young winners of the YIA Program 2010-2011. The winners are the graduating senior students at the faculties of engineering, science and agriculture of the public universities, who presented more than 110 research projects to this year YIA program. The ceremony was held on Tuesday, September 27 in the Center for Civil Education in the presence of the young researchers, the sponsors of the program, the representatives of the ministry of Higher Education and the media and pressmen. 

The "Young Innovators’ Awards" competition program aims to support and develop innovative scientific research among Egyptian senior students. The program aspires to positively impact the scientific culture in Egypt in three ways: by supporting research and development activities; empowering and developing scientists, engineers and researchers; and creating linkages between university research and industrial applications. The YIA program, incubated by  Nahdet El-Mahrousa Association, organizes an annual competition to select the outstanding projects and distributes annual awards to the winners worth LE 6000 each.

The Sawiris Foundation – The Gold Sponsor of the 7th "Young Innovators' Awards" - has funded 50 projects of the 110 winning projects, with a grant totaling LE 500,000, aimed at providing motivation, encouragement, and most of all, recognition to the most promising researchers/scientists of the future.

Speaking in the celebration, Dr. Gannat El-Samalouty, the Executive Director of the Sawiris Foundation, voiced her happiness to participate in this event that honors the winners of the 2010-2011competition in collaboration with a distinguished group of partners from the civil and private sectors, under the auspices of the Supreme Council of Universities. She underlined that Sawiris Foundation believes in the importance of investing in building the capacity of the Egyptian youth, developing their skills and expanding their choices and opportunities for community participation in all aspects, economically, socially and politically.

"Today we celebrate 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.," she said. "Those young scientists have already made an access to ground-breaking solutions for the development of methods and instruments of production and created an added value. They provided innovative projects that respond to the circumstances in Egypt and cope at the same time with the latest theories and applications of advanced sciences. They proved to us that caring about their talents and unique abilities, and providing them with resources and incentives is a national mission that deserves to join forces of the government, civil society and private sectors in Egypt”, she added.

Concluding her speech, Dr. EL-Samalouty pledged that Sawiris Foundation will continue its efforts and its activities consistent with its slogan "commitment to development" in support of all projects aimed at addressing the most pressing issues and the social groups most in need in the community; including education, training, employment, and healthcare. She also promised to transfer the attention of work from quantity to quality hoping to contribute to the achievement of the national dream of a real boom in the quality of life in Egypt.

The ceremony was attended by other sponsors of the YIA Program: Misr EL-Kheir Foundation (Silver Sponsor), Mobinil and Sadako (Bronze Sponsors), as well as others who provided support for the program, such as the Institute of Research and Development and Al Quorra Foundation for Sustainable Development.

Dr. EL-Samalouty and the sponsors awarded the winning projects as follows:

• First prize:"The Sixth Sense" project developed by students of the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University: Mr. Mohamed Hamza, Mohammed Mohsen, Islam Said, Hassan Samir, Mohamed Gamal and Mohamed Mostafa.
• Second prize:" The Aquaculture" project submitted by the students of the Faculty of Agriculture, Al Azhar University: Ahmed Magdi Labib, Hassan Mohammed, Shadi Rafat, Mohamed Gouda and Mohamed Badawi.
• Third prize:"Green Chemistry for Nipa Ester Preparation" project submitted by the students of the Faculty of Science at the University of Alexandria: Maghfera Mustafa, Hebatullah Muhammad.