Fatimah Abdulhakim receives three awards including the grand award for her project on “Super Swabs”

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

• The Intel Science Competition- Arab World announced its first Arab pre-college scientist winners at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt
  
• 102 students presented 68 science projects from across 10 Arab countries to compete for $25,000
  
• Fatimah Abdulhakim from Saudi Arabia, Sarah Al-Shaarawy and Yousr Al Shaarawy  from Egypt and Woroud Al-Rimawi from Palestine received Grand Awards of $7,500 total from the Intel Foundation
  
• 16 Young Arab Scientists receive ‘best of category’ awards and 3 other receive university scholarships
  

Alexandria, Egypt, Dec 11, 2010 – Celebrating the brightest pre-college scientists of the Arab World, Intel Corporation and Science Age Society today announced the top winners of the first Intel Science Competition – Arab World at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, under the patronage of the Arab League. Fatimah Abdulhakim from Saudi Arabia received a Grand award of $3000 for her project on “Super Swabs”, Sarah Al-Shaarawy and Yousr Al Shaarawy from Egypt received $2,500 and Woroud Al-Rimawi from Palestine received $2,000.

102 young scientists presenting 68 projects from 10 Arab countries were selected to compete in the first Intel Science Competition - Arab World held at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, including Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia und the United Arab Emirates. In addition to the winners mentioned above, 16 additional projects received ‘Best of Category awards’, 10 received ‘Best of Country’ awards and three others received scholarships from Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime and Transportation (Mohamed Safwat Yassin from Palestine, Luai Emad Badr from Tunisia, and Zuwaina Malik Al-Jabri from Oman). Full list of winners is in the attached addendum.

The event was attended Dr. Khaled Al-Habbas, Advisor to the Secretary-General of the Arab League who attended on behalf of the His Excellency Amr Moussa, Arab League Secretary-General, Dr. Essam Sharaf, Science Age Society CEO, Shelly Esque, Intel Vice President for Legal and Corporate Affairs, Director of Corporate Affairs Group and President of the Intel Foundation, Dr. Hoda El-Mikati, Bibliotheca Alexandrina Director of the Planetarium Science Center, Arab and African ambassadors, Ministers of education and higher education, university presidents, as well as regional academics and scientists.

Arab strategic partners participating in the competition include UAE Ministry of Education, Oman Ministry of Education, King Abdul Aziz and His Companions Foundation for the Gifted (Mawhiba) in Saudi Arabia, Hariri Foundation in Lebanon, Ministry of Education in Palestine, Ministry of Education in Jordan, Ministry of Education in Egypt, Ministry of Education in Morocco, Ministry of Education in Tunisia, Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, Ministry of Education in Kuwait, and the Kuwait Science Club.

Dr Essam Sharaf, chairman of the Science Age Society and former transport minister of Egypt, said the competition, the first of its kind, creates an opportunity for pre-college Arab students to compete with each other and encourages families, schools, and the society at large to support youths to build a knowledge society in the Arab world. "We at Science Age Society promote the culture of science and the importance of training all school teachers on the ethics and methodology of scientific research. Our strategic partnership with Intel to organize a competition for the first time in the Arab world out of our belief that focusing on students' creative skills has become a basic need." 

“The Intel Science Competition is the first of its kind in the Arab world. These finalists represent the best and the brightest young scientists, innovators and leaders from the Arab world,” said Shelly Esque, Intel Vice President for Legal and Corporate Affairs, Director of Corporate Affairs Group and President of the Intel Foundation, who was visiting Egypt at the time of the Competition. “Judging by the caliber of the projects presented this week, I am confident that these young innovators will make our world a better place.”

Dr. Hoda El-Mikaty, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Planetarium Science Center said: “Today is a day to remember, where we witness the birth of our future Arabic speaking science society. Our young scientists and researchers are expected to take the lead in venturing in new horizons of science and technology discoveries for the welfare of mankind. Our gift to these talented youth is giving them the opportunity to excel in science and technology, where we expect them to exert all efforts to enrich the advancement of science and technology on all levels: national, regional and international.”

            The finalists were selected from 68 projects spanning from biochemistry and microbiology, to computer science, to electrical and mechanical engineering to energy and transport and much more. Their projects were evaluated onsite by 28 judges representing 10 Arab countries from nearly every scientific discipline, each with a Ph.D. or the equivalent of 10 years of related professional experience in one of the scientific disciplines.  It is funded jointly by the Intel Foundation and Science Age Society, with additional support from other corporate, academic, government and science-focused sponsors. More specifically, this year’s sponsors are the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime and Transportation, and the Information Technology Industry Development Agency.

For more information on the competition, visit www.iscarab.org.

The Intel Education Initiative

Intel's commitment to education extends far beyond the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Over the past decade alone, Intel has invested more than $1 billion, and its employees have donated more than 3 million hours toward improving education in 50 countries. To learn more about the Intel Education Initiative, visit www.intel.com/education and the CSR@Intel blog at blogs.intel.com/csr. To join Intel's community of people sharing their stories with the hope of becoming a catalyst for action and a voice for change in global education, visit www.inspiredbyeducation.com.

About Intel

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.

About Science Age Society

The Society was founded in 2008 as a non-governmental and not-for-profit organization that aims to contribute to the dissemination of a culture of science, promote the importance of scientific research and learning,

The Society seeks, via its various activities, to spread and promote scientific culture through plans aimed at encouraging the use of scientific methodology and making it a main approach when considering and addressing social problems.

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CONTACTS:                  Mayar Naguib                                            Mohammed Aboud      

Intel Corporation                                         Science Age Society
+ 202-24-61-5449                                       +20 14 25 11113
Mayar.naguib@intel.com                            maboud@sasegypt.org

The following list is for the 16 Best of Category winners, from which the top three were chosen: 

The following list the 10 Best of Country winners: