Gaza holds second exhibition by children using technology to better the community

Tens of Palestinian children in the besieged Gaza Strip took part on Tuesday in the first-ever technical exhibition to display their technical projects to support daily life for the community. 

Dubbed "Distinguished Exhibition 23", the exhibition was organised by Al-Motamayzoun Modern School in Gaza for the second year in a row to encourage students to present their innovative and advanced technology projects to the local community, according to Majed Abu al-Hanoud, the director of the Innovation Center at the school.

"This year, about 250 students, including both genders, displayed 80 technical projects during the event. Each team of students used to present proposals of their projects to the attendees and their goals that would achieve," he said to The New Arab.

"The technical projects relate to artificial intelligence and programming, disability, people with special needs, games, environment, soil, public health and other areas that serve the local community, in addition to robots with different specialisations, space science, metaverse, and other modern sciences," said Medline Shaqalih, a coordinator for the event.  

"The industry of the participating projects goes through several steps. The year begins with crises that the Palestinian people suffer from. To try to solve them, the students start researching, making small models that simulate the problems that have appeared, modelling them with the supervisors, and dealing with them technically, using modern scientific means," she explained. 

Judy Abu Jabal, a student from Gaza City, participated in the exhibition with her three-member team in the "Flying Chick" game project, which works to increase a child's focus and develop their abilities in an attempt to solve the problem of children's lack of enjoyment and boredom with games.

"Because of the smartphone, most children are not interested in playing games that would attract and depend on their imagination," the ten-year-old student said.

So, the student said, "My team and I decided to invest in our project that took about six months ahead of being ready to teach the other children how they develop their imaginations through smart games depending on technical tools."

For her part, Hala Sharaf, a colleague of Abu Jabal in the project, remarked, "We are very happy to participate in this technical exhibition and to show the world that the children of Gaza have diverse talents and energies in the field of artificial intelligence."

"It is good for our schools to pay attention to the scientific development of students, especially children, to qualify them to become useful to society, to challenge all the difficult circumstances imposed on them, and to be free from siege through creativity in the field of artificial intelligence," she added.