Little inventors come up with big ideas in the UAE

By Euronews

Published on 05/07/2019 - 16:29

Investing in inventors is how some countries in the Middle East and North Africa are looking to enrich and enhance their societies.

In a bid to find creative and technological solutions to life’s problems, the UAE is launching various initiatives to keep up the momentum.

The upcoming Dubai Expo 2020, which will start in October and last for about six months, is expected to showcase innovative and dynamic designs which could benefit society.

The emirates is also supporting innovators in the first stages of their careers, with initiatives like the Sharjah Children's Biennial which took place in early 2019. It was an event which saw more than 3,000 children from 42 nationalities submit ideas with the goal of creating a working prototype.

Many of the inventions are far from realistic, such as a giant vacuum machine, designed to clean outer space and remove the Earth’s pollution.

Practicality, however, is not always the top priority of the project, the most important thing is to encourage youngsters to think outside the box.

“I used to scribble a lot of inventions and stuff and this gave me the chance to show one of my favourite inventions,” says 16-year-old Taym Ibrahim, a winner at the event who designed a new sport called Tornado Skate, where competitors hover in the air and race wearing solar powered sand skis.

Seven-year-old Efran Sabin from Dubai holds fast to the idea that necessity is the mother of invention, and his energetic four-year old younger sister Eshal provided his inspiration.

“My sister, every time, gets lost,” he explains, describing what happens when he and his family go for outings to the shopping mall or playground.

To keep tabs on the tearaway tot, Efran created the Panic Track Watch, a device which uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to locate his sister wherever she wanders.