Hosted online by the DAAD Regional Office Cairo and supported by the American University in Cairo (AUC) as well as the Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC), the Falling Walls Lab Cairo was a great success also in 2021: Scientists, young entrepreneurs and researchers from the fields of agriculture, medicine, technology, education and linguistics competed against each other to find out “Which are the next walls to fall?”.

Out of a total of 11 ground-breaking ideas that have been presented by our “Labsters” during the event, Dr Ahmed Taha managed to win the jury for his innovation of “Breaking the Wall of Document Verification”. Dr Taha developed a system based on blockchain encryption which serves the unambiguous assignment of documents to their respective owners. His innovative approach is supposed to be a useful countermeasure against forgery and can have multiple areas of application, decomplicating various bureaucratic processes while making them safer at the same time.

By successfully competing against his 10 fellow Labsters, Dr Ahmed Taha will get the opportunity to participate in the Falling Walls Conference 2021 which takes place in November in Berlin. In the framework of this event, his innovative invention and career can profit from an attention and funding boost through networking events and further opportunities to present his idea to relevant stakeholders. Moreover, if he will succeed to prove the value of his innovation in the Falling Walls Final, he will benefit from even larger funding for his project and awareness generated by the event. We wish Dr Taha all the best for his projects and we hope that verifying documents with the help of blockchain technology will evolve to become the standard way in the future!

In addition to the first prize, the Falling Walls Lab Cairo also has offered enriching opportunities for additional winners: The Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, represented by our jury member Dr Rasha Tantawy, generously agreed on enrolling the top three achievers into their “Preincubation Programme” which aims at creating an environment for researchers to pursue their ideas by e.g. providing them with access to a co-working space.

The American University in Cairo (AUC), represented by our jury member Prof. Dr. Alaa El-Din Adris, moreover has contributed to the Falling Walls Lab Cairo by sponsoring the audience award also in 2021: An award determined by the audience of our Facebook livestream who voted online for their favourite idea.

These are our labsters and their innovations:

Enjy Katary,
Breaking the Wall of Air Quality Regulation

Belal Nassef,
Breaking the Wall of Energy Waste

Hussein Mohamed,
Breaking the Wall of Professional Education Finance

Oluwole Sanni,
Breaking the Wall of Suicide in Africa

Alaa Gad,
Breaking the Wall of the Therapy of Alzheimer’s

Elsayed Abdelkafy Mahfouz,
Breaking the Wall of Automated Weighing of Turkeys

Roice Bwambale Kalengyo,
Breaking the Wall of Threatening Water Quality

Ahmed Taha,
Breaking the Wall of Document Verification

Moustafa Yehia,
Breaking the Wall of Tumor Heterogenity

Ahmed Samir Mohamed Ali,
Breaking the Wall of Viral Diagnosis

Zeinab Hafez,
Breaking the Wall of Protecting Sperm DNA against Desertification

 

These are our jury members:

Ms. Isabell Mering Director, DAAD Regional Office Cairo

Mr. Philippe Maupai, Head of Science & Protocol, German Embassy in Cairo

Prof. Sabine Müller, Dean Faculty of Applied Sciences & Arts & Professor of Branding & Communication, German University in Cairo (GUC)

Dr. Rasha Tantawy, Head of Entrepreneurship & Development Department, Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC)

Prof. Dr. Alaa-Eldin Adris, Professor of Practice & Associate Provost for Research, Inno-vation & Creativity, American University in Cairo (AUC)

Prof. Dr. Ansgar Meroth, Professor of Information Technology & Foreign Affairs Representative, Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences (HHN)

Prof. Dr. Matthias Knaut, Academic Founding President, German International University (GIU)

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the labsters, jury members, guests and viewers who attended the Falling Walls Lab Cairo 2021. To our labsters, we wish the best of luck for their projects and careers!