(Zaman Al Wasl)- Ihab Qahawati, a Syrian refugee based in Jordan, has launched ‘IBTKR GO’ initiative to direct mental capacity and refugees' energies towards innovation and entrepreneurship by holding workshops and innovation events that enable them to establish sustainable projects to improve the livelihoods of refugees and host communities.
Sciences have been Ihab's favorite since he was in the primary school.
Qahawati created a small elevator and mixer with game engines and drove his passion and ambition to learn more about how to create more sophisticated and intelligent devices. However, he didn’t have any computer or Internet; in 2009 he got the first computer and managed to learn programming.
In 2013, Ihab the young man from Hama was able to get the first ESP2866 microcontroller called Arduino with a range of sensors where he designed a small set of smart devices.
In 2016, Qahawati devised a smart cat feeder, that can feed cats in specific quantities according to their weight and age through the application of the “Internet of things” to get notifications when the amount of food from anywhere in the world by connecting the phone and the device to the Internet.
Qahawati worked in the Innovation Labs in Jordan in 2017 as a volunteer to teach children how to create e-projects using Arduino where he was able to get training on how to make youth initiatives with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
At the end of the training he received a good financial support through which he bought electronic items and launched his initiative.
The founder of IBTKR GO explained that his initiative, launched in mid-2017, is an initiative to improve access to sustainable livelihoods for Syrian refugees and host communities in different governorates.
His project aim to identifying and solving local problems and challenges through digital innovations using the Internet of things
The initiative enabled young refugees to know how to create products and inventions using the Internet of Things.
The Internet of Things, or IOT, is a network of physical devices, electronic devices, computers, sensors, these devices communicate and exchange data and give the ability to connect to the Internet or to each other to send and receive data to perform specific functions through the network.
Qahawati pointed out that the initiative includes practical workshops to explain sensors such as: the sensors for measuring temperature and humidity, distance, movement and gas sensitivity, GPS sensor for sensing heart rate, soil moisture sensor, and how to program them.
Also, it includes teaching how to make a smart farm or a smart car or an electronic basket or a safety device for homes.
These innovations will be into pilot projects that generate profit and interest, and orientate the young refugees towards incubators and manufacturing laboratories and enable them to access free higher education to get the best courses in international universities, in any field they want.
He said that he has trained more than 350 young men and women from Jordan and Irbid and he is interested in helping young people to develop their creativity and creativity which is part of the community responsibility, through his initiative.
(Reporting by Faris al-Rifai)
Zaman Al Wasl
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