GEMS Global Innovation Showcase 2019 Sees More Than 300 Student Teams Display Ground-Breaking Solutions to World Challenges

One of the region’s largest exhibitions of youth innovation and entrepreneurship took place on 9 February at GEMS Modern Academy in Dubai. Now in its third year, the GEMS Global Innovation Showcase witnessed over 1,000 top GEMS Education student inventors and entrepreneurs present their solutions and prototypes, all geared towards achieving an exponentially better tomorrow.

The Showcase is a milestone event encompassing three flagship GEMS Education initiatives, open to students in GEMS Education schools across the world.

Global Innovation Challenge

Run in partnership with Silicon Valley-based Singularity University, the Challenge sees students invited to submit solutions that have the potential to positively impact hundreds of millions of people using future-focused technologies such as 3D printing, robotics, and nanotechnology, as well as skills such as data science and coding. Categories include: disaster resilience, food scarcity, prosperity, environmental sustainability, healthcare, access to drinking water, and more.

GEMS Xcelerator Programme

Designed to provide skills, knowledge and support aimed at evolving students from “inventors” to “entrepreneurs”, the Xcelerator Programme offers shortlisted teams seed funding, industry mentorship, workshops, training and opportunities to pitch to investors.

GEMS X ENBD Future of Digital Finance Challenge

In partnership with Emirates NBD, the Challenge invites all GEMS Education students to generate technology-enabled solutions that reimage how we interact with financial institutions in today’s rapidly-changing society, with Emirates NBD providing mentorship, internships and product incubation opportunities.

GEMS Global Innovation Showcase 2019 saw well in excess of 300 student teams display their prototypes and solutions. Projects ranged from brainwave-detecting headsets that can control drones and remote-controlled cars to help improve users’ attention spans (Team AiO from GEMS Millennium School Sharjah), to Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered early diagnosis of skin diseases, the algorithm of which has already been patented (Team SCD Device from GEMS Dubai American Academy). Another project involves Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors attached to ants for enhanced early detection of earthquakes (Team BrilliANT from GEMS Heritage Indian School).

Mick Gernon, Chief Education Innovation Officer at GEMS Education, said: “At GEMS Education we see genius in every child, and this is why we believe it is so important to provide opportunities for our students to unlock their potential. To that end, we are actively and continuously looking at a whole range of platforms that allow young learners to identify and develop new talents. The GEMS Global Innovation Showcase is one such platform, and we are immensely proud of the incredible genius, invention and enterprise on display here today.

“The teams began their journey several months ago by learning about exponential technologies and understanding their impact and implications on our future. They have worked with teachers and peers, and used a human-centred approach to innovation, which is what makes their solutions truly scalable, able to affect millions of people. The quality, knowledge and passion displayed by our students is evident for all to see.”

The full-day event, which saw over 3,500 visitors gather at GEMS Modern Academy, was a celebration of innovation and positive global impact, complete with free workshops on AI-powered emotion recognition, DIY robots, modular programmable drones, and STEAM kit demos. Microsoft and Liv Bank were also present and displayed their initiatives towards leveraging technology in education and creating better financial decisions for future generations.

All exhibiting teams were assessed by over 50 judges, made up of leaders from across a variety of industries and organisations. Shortlisted teams will enter a two-month industry mentorship and workshop phase, during which they will be provided with financial, business planning, customer research, marketing and investor pitching support to further develop, build and scale their solutions. Projects selected for the final stage will then be presented at the annual Singularity University Global Summit in Silicon Valley, California in August 2019.