Taroudant, Morocco - Three Moroccan engineering students from “L’Ecole Marocaine des Sciences de l'Ingénieur” (EMSI) (the Moroccan School for Engineering Sciences) in Rabat have qualified to represent Morocco at the world semi-final of the Microsoft’s "Imagine Cup,” an international competition for innovative technology, which will be held on May 31 in Qatar.
Presenting a project called "Red Silence,” Yassine Mounir, Idrissi El Amrani, and Hicham Bouchikhi will represent Morocco in the semifinal competition of Microsoft’s "Imagine Cup.” The students outperformed their competitors at the national level, including students from both the public and private sectors of higher education, on April 20 in Casablanca.
The Moroccan team’s project, “Red Silence,” is a small robot that “helps individuals lacking motor functions and speech ability to communicate and express their feelings and what’s on their minds.”
The robot is equipped with “easy to use and fully customizable applications,” and is also "equipped with a rotating camera that the users can still control through the movement of their eyes."
Idrissi El Amrani, one of the three Moroccan semi-finalists, told MWN the story behind the success of their team.
"We are primarily three friends. We met each other during our first year at (EMSI), and we set a goal to participate in the Microsoft Imagine Cup, and win," El Amrani told MWN.
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Moroccan semi-finalists "Red Silence". Yassine Mounir, Idris El Amrani and Hicham Bouchikhi. (from the left)[/caption]
“We dream of using our knowledge in the field of our interest to help improve the quality of human lives,” said the team.
Driven by humanitarian motives, the team tries, through their inventive project, to ease the life of people with motor disabilities.
"To do this, we offered them a grid control that adapts to any screen, which they can control with a single eye movement. For example, if they need water they just have to stare at the image of water on the screen and with a simple wink, they ask for water around them," Explained El Amrani.
In a press conference held on Friday, May 23 in Rabat by (EMSI) to celebrate its 5th year of participation in Microsoft’s"Imagine Cup,” the Deputy Director of EMSI Rabat, Hafid Griguer, said the project developed by the three students attracted the attention of the jury because of its “high-tech” implementation and the humanitarian and industrial benefits it necessarily implicates.
As part of the competition, the participants are required to devise innovative solutions to resolve some of the world's toughest challenges and to realize their dreams using Microsoft’s latest technology platforms.
Started in 2003, Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is the world's premier student technology competition, which brings students from all over the world to compete in different fields.
Edited by Elisabeth Myers
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