Two Syrian Engineers win WSA Young Innovators 2022 Award

The World Summit Award (WSA) Young Innovators is a special recognition for young people under 26 years of age, using ICTs to take action on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The WSA Young Innovators is open to any entrepreneur, company as the WSA winners of each year are honored as outstanding digital innovation with special impact.

Two Syrian engineers, Fatima and her sister Yasmine Asmail, have recently won the WSA Young Innovators 2022 Award for digital entrepreneurs for their “Walking-cane” project which was implemented by their “Pine Tech” Company. The project has been incubated by the Information and Communication Technology Incubator of the Syrian Computer Society (SCS) branch in Lattakia province.

The event was organized by the United Nations to promote digital innovation that has a positive impact on society for young people.

Engineer Fatima said in a statement to the Syriatimes e-newspaper that their project was selected among the top 5 projects out of 300 others submitted by participants from 80 countries.

She indicated that the idea of ​​the “Walking-cane” project is based on helping visually impaired people to overcome obstacles and avoid stumbling and falling through a talking cane with a modern digital technology.

Fatima noted the importance of participating in this competition, which included many member states of the United Nations, stressing that it is considered an international platform to showcase the latest innovations in information and communication technology in society through a gathering of startup companies and businessmen, social, experts, government leaders, academic competent persons, and civil society representatives.

In turn, Engineer Yasmin pointed out that this year’s competition is characterized by considering the European Youth Award (EYA) as part of the international competition “WSA”, which made the competition greater.

She stressed that their winning of the award is a solid evidence of the creative energy of the Syrian youth and their strong ability to achieve major successes.

Head of Lattakia’s branch of the SCS, Eng. Maryam Fayoud, expressed the SCS’s pride in the winning of the Walking-Cane project which was one of the creative ideas supported by the Information and Communications Technology Incubator of the SCS.

She stressed that the two sisters are distinguished by their firm determination to establish their own company in cooperation with SCS’s support to participate in local and international events.

Eng. Fayoud made it clear that the incubator is one of the important projects of the SCS which aims to provide sponsorship and support for the entrepreneurial ideas thus these young people become owners of start-up companies which are able to exist in the digital market locally and globally.

Interviewed by: Rawaa Ghanam

Photos by: Rawaa Ghanam