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UAE’s MOST RECOGNIZED CHILD INVENTOR
Eleven-year-old Emirati inventor Adeeb Al Balushi is on a mission to save and improve people’s lives through innovation. From a very early age, he has been getting recognition for his awesome inventions. It was a trip to the beach that sparked Adeeb’s inventing career, when his father, who had suffered from polio, could not go swimming because of his prosthetic leg. Adeeb, then six, made his father a waterproof alternative using an enhanced medical wax coating. That was his very first invention, and then, soon after, he created a small vibrating robot to help his mother clean small spaces. Awesome job! His inventions did not take much time before they grabbed the attention of the media, which led the Dubai government to subsequently contact him.
With the government’s supervision and funding, Adeeb has come up with more inventions since then, including a seat belt that monitors a passenger’s heart rate and alerts the authorities when it is too high or low, a fireproof helmet with a camera system to help the person see during emergency, and a smart wheelchair for the disabled. At a very young age, he is doing so much in the field of innovation, which is truly worth appreciating.
In November 2014, he addressed 3,000 delegates at the International Telecommunication Union conference in Busan, Korea. He is one of the youngest inventors in the world and was given the Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance. Adeeb was also featured on CNN for his wonderful inventions.
Last year, I had the chance of meeting and recognizing Adeeb during our monthly progress meeting at SEWA under the theme of innovation for a better tomorrow. I saw great motivation and inspiration in his personality to make a difference in people’s lives through innovation. During the gathering, he was with his parents, who commented that Adeeb, since his early childhood, loves to make and break the toys they give him to create something new out of them.
Since April 2014, he has been on an international scientific tour with the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology, which has had him attending academic conferences, meeting with researchers, and even attending a space camp at the US Space and Rocket Center in Alabama. He was quoted as saying, “I’ve learned a lot, but most importantly, I’m having fun while doing it.”
On April 4, 2017, the University of Manchester, UK; honored Adeeb and his younger sister Dana, 11, for their scientific achievements in the fields of medical sciences and space sciences.
Adeeb and Dana are the first and youngest students to discuss scientific research on full-scale projects at the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester, impressing the institute’s management for their considerable research, logic, and scientific qualities.
