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Tech whizz Tasneem Yousif celebrated the taste of success at a major international robotics competition and hopes to one day establish a business to mass produce her inventions.
The 23-year-old University of Bahrain student finished runner-up at the recent Information and Communications Technology (ICT) competition at the GITEX 2015 technology exhibition recently held in Dubai.
The challenge, designed ‘to give students the opportunity to present innovative solutions to industry leaders on an international stage’ challenged teams representing universities across the world to produce an innovative robotics project.
Tasneem, and her fellow computer engineering majors Aysha Khalid, Abeer Ali and Zainab Fardan, created ROBODEM, a remote monitoring system that can detect explosive gases using a web or mobile application.
Tasneem said: “Explosive gases pose a threat to human life, and are sadly becoming even more prominent in modern warfare. There are many sensors used in homes, hotels, offices and stations but these are either fixed in one place or used manually by humans. Our robot can infiltrate areas not accessible or reachable by humans, and can be controlled through an Android mobile application or from a website.”
ROBODEM, which took three months to build, is a patented robot that features four primary systems: monitoring, detecting, tracking and controlling, and is designed to be used by petroleum and gas companies, although it can be deployed for home or office use too.
The GITEX competition took place in three stages. The first was the shortlisting of 10 projects from the initial batch of 100 submissions, of which Tasneem’s was the only one from Bahrain.
The second stage was the revealing of the projects themselves at the exhibition, including a presentation and demonstration of the robot’s capabilities to the judges who were representatives from Google, Microsoft, GITEX and the UAE government.
The final section was the choosing of the top three, which resulted in UAE winning first place, Bahrain second and India third. Tasneem walked away with BD2,000 in prize money and a certificate.
She continued: “I was very happy to achieve second place, although I must admit I wanted to win. I wasn’t surprised that the first prize was won by UAE in a Dubai-based competition, but it was a great achievement for me as GITEX is one of the biggest technology events in the world.
“I was also proud to represent Bahrain as it’s the first time that the kingdom had been nominated for this competition. No one had even entered before so it was a big step to put us on the technological map.”
GITEX was not ROBODEM’s first major success. It has been chosen as the best senior project in the University of Bahrain’s computer engineering department and has earned several honours including being nominated as one of the best student projects at the Bahrain eGovernment IT EXPO 2014, best invention at the Supreme Council of Women’s Women and Work exhibition, best IT project at the Youth Tech Symposium, and most impressively, shortlisted in the top five projects in the Microsoft Imagine Cup.
Tasneem hails from an Egyptian family, but was born in Bahrain and her sisters Shaima, Esraa and brother, Ahmed, all work in the medical profession.
She said: “I was the only one in the family who loved technology so much that from a young age I followed that path and pursued my interest rather than try to become a doctor or chemist. I love pursuing ideas that fuse hardware and software, so that was my basic principle for ROBODEM and my future projects.
“I have no intention of resting on my laurels. I’m going to try again at GITEX with a new project, although it will have to be entirely different, as per competition rules.
“My dream is to make this project a reality, as I really feel that ROBODEM has a place in society as a safety device, although like most people in this situation I need investors and sponsors to start up a business!”
