CAIRO: Marwa Abdel-Fattah signs by turning her nose up and shaking her index finger: she will not be snobby about giving Daily News Egypt an interview if Falcon Eye wins at the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival.
A team of six hearing-impaired children, Falcon Eye took the first place at the Egypt FLL Championship during March 17-18, where young students designed robots and presented science research projects. The Alexandrian group beat 14 other teams from Alexandria and Cairo to the top award.
FLL is an alliance between For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), an American NGO that develops programs foster children’s enthusiasm for technology, and the toy building brick company LEGO. Egypt has participated in the FLL Challenge annually since 2007.
When Alexandria started participating in FLL in 2008, they were the first to introduce a hearing-impaired team to the challenge. When the Arab Academy for Science and Technology (AAST) introduced FLL to the Asdaa Association for Serving the Hearing Impaired, they were not certain of the results.
In the very first competition, “we were surprised; our [hearing-impaired] team came third. The team was invited to participate in the Open Asian FLL Championship in Japan.
The second year was met with even more progress. The hearing-impaired team from Alexandria won a Recognition of Challenge Award, given to a team that performed impressively despite challenges. Invited to FLL Arabia in Jordan, the team won awards for the Best Project and Best Training as well as an appreciation shield.
Two teams of AAST employees’ children as well at two teams from Asdaa participated this year. Falcon Eye and Future Creation Group were from Asdaa. This year’s competition was on the topic of “Smart Move – about the transfer of vehicles or ideas.
Fifteen-year-old Nada Magdy has participated in all of the last three years. Definitely the most outgoing of the lot, she takes you aside easily for a chat.
When Nada first participated she was very shy, Al-Mallah tells Daily News Egypt. “After FLL, she is very eager to talk to everyone. All she cares for now is that she communicates with others. She has the guts now.
The hearing-impaired faced no sympathy from their competition. Waleed Abdel-Salam from Falcon Eye said that when they distributed lapel pins with the sign of the hearing-impaired, people made fun. “Now people will wear this and say ‘This is the group that came first’.
“It is not the government that created integration between communities, Saeed Gamil of Asdaa, who translates our conversations, adds. “We got integration ourselves.
The children are excited to visit the US for the competition, but know their aim clearly. “We are not going for a holiday, we want to work hard and win.
Falcon Eye will present their research project, a smart sign language interpreter that allows for conversation between people that can speak and the hearing-impaired. “We want to make this program, and distribute it worldwide and do something for the deaf community there.
“If you are an instructor and don’t know how to sign, you can use this program, said Al-Mallah, adding that the group had already made a prototype translating some scientific jargon not found in sign language. Sign language differs between cultures, said the group, revealing different signs for “Thank you in Egypt (a salute) and US (hand on heart and a flying kiss).
Competition was fierce in Egypt. The worst moment for the group was when a motor in one of the robots broke down. They were lucky to have spare parts, but felt luckier to get good points despite that fallback.
Having worked 5-6 days a week on the project, encouraged by their parents and teachers, the children said, “the tire wore off in a second when they heard that they had won first place.
“We want to feel like the national football team when they came back from African Award, said Waleed looking forward to the competition in Atlanta in April. “We’re done with Egypt. Now we’re dreaming of a further victory.
Israa Mahfouz, Israa Ibrahim, and Nader Sherif are also on the Falcon Eye team that will represent Egypt at the World Festival in Atlanta, US, April 14-17.
For more information on the FIRST LEGO League, visit http://www.firstlegoleague.org/. For the Egypt site please visit http://www.ieeegoldegypt.org/FLL/. The Facebook group link to FLL Egypt is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=91782352528.
