Young Egyptian and Emirati inventors won the three top prizes at the 2015 Intel Science Competition Arab World, which was held in Alexandria on Dec.17-19.
In first place, Egyptian Mohammed Ayman Abd Al-Latif won the top prize of $2,500 for inventing a new way to isolate lung cancer cells and eventually prevent the disease.
In second place, Emirati Maryam Al-Hashmi won a prize of $2,000 for inventing a renewable lighting source that uses recycled plastic.
In third place, Egyptians Amr Mostafa Omar and Fady Mostafa Omar won $1,500 for devising a new method to calculate the circumference of the circle using only its chord.
The four young students also won the category-specific awards for their projects; Al-Latif won in the category of biological science, Al-Hashmi won in environmental engineering and the Omars won in mathematics.
As for the other categories, Emirati Noor Almarri won in physical energy for her project on producing thermoelectric energy for power, Egyptian Mohannad Barakat won in robotics and computational biology for his project on artificial neural networks and Lebanese Raneem Al-Harriri won in psychological and behavioral sciences.
In addition, Jordanian, Saudi and Palestinian students also won special awards presented by Jordanian Abd Al Hamid Shoman Foundation and the Saudi Mawhiba Foundation, which were among the competition's sponsors this year.
The event saw 130 students from 11 Arab countries compete with their projects, which were judged by a judging panel composed of 40 professors from across the MENA region.
The Intel Science Competition Arab World is the regional version of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, which is the world's biggest international science and engineering competition for school students.
The annual competition, now in its sixth year, hosts an exhibition for the students to showcase their projects, which encompass 20 different scientific fields. Each year, it brings together various educational organizations and young talented inventors in an effort to further scientific innovation in the Arab World.