Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Metini, President of Ain Shams University, and Prof. Dr. Ayman Saleh, Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research, witnessed the final qualifiers for the Youth for Development Initiative at Ain Shams University in cooperation with the Ministries of Planning and Economic Development, Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Supreme Council of Universities, in the presence of Prof. Dr. Dalia Sami, coordinator of the Supreme Council of Universities in the initiative, Prof. Dr. Hayam Wahba, the initiative’s general coordinator, the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Commerce for Graduate Studies and Research Affairs, the rapporteur of the jury and members of the jury; Prof. Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Muntaser, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Science for Graduate Studies and Research, Prof. Dr. Dina Lashin, Director of the Central Unit for the Development of Graduate Studies, Prof. Dr. Sherine Mazloum, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Arts for Graduate Studies and Research, Prof. Dr. Lamia Radwan Professor at the Faculty of Agriculture.

Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Metini, President of the University, said that everyone who participated in the competition is considered a winner because he has a rich experience that will give him experience even if he did not get the first places. His Excellency also praised the effort made for a period of six months to coordinate and work on the initiative.

He touched on the beginnings of the initiative and Ain Shams University's full support for it, praising the cooperation between the Ministries of Planning and Higher Education to benefit from the students' ideas in solving community problems.

On the other hand, Prof. Dr. Ayman Saleh thanks all the participants in the competition, stressing that the participation of young people in the search for solutions to the problems facing the Egyptian state helps in raising awareness as well as their contribution to providing solutions.

Prof. Dr. Hayam Wahba, the university's coordinator for the initiative, said that work on the initiative has been started since January 2022 through extensive meetings with the coordinators of the Ministry of Planning, the Supreme Council of Universities and coordinators of the participating universities to reach the general framework of the initiative. She also indicated that during this period all participants received intensive training courses from the Planning Institute and the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.

She also explained that the first phase of project qualifiers presented by 19 teams representing the faculties of Ain Shams University, where the teams participated in 19 development projects and policy papers, all targeting several axes, namely, economic and social empowerment of women, environmentally friendly projects, health system support and innovation to improve public service, Developing and organizing the Egyptian family, training teachers, the new education reform strategy, reforming the health care system.

She also added that the submitted projects were counted and the extent to which they conformed to the basic criteria and conditions that must be met in the project in terms of the project idea, summary, market research, business model and other basic pillars. Introductory (Power Point), through which the best eligible projects are selected to be sent to the Supreme Council of Universities to represent Ain Shams University in the final competition for the Youth for Development initiative scheduled to be held at the end of next June.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the members of the jury honored. Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Muntaser, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Science for Graduate Studies and Research, Prof. Dr. Amr Shaat, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Engineering for Graduate Studies and Research, Prof. Dr. Dina Lashin, Director of the Central Unit for the Development of Graduate Studies, Prof. Dr. Shereen Mazloum, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Arts for Graduate Studies and Research, Prof. Dr. Lamia Radwan Professor at the Faculty of Agriculture.

The winning teams were also announced, where the project of the role of information and communication technology in confronting violence against women of the Faculty of Commerce won the first place, the Qaderoon project won the second place in the framework of the public service of the Faculty of Medicine, and the third place went to the Faculty of Science in the vital monitoring project for the pollution of the Nile River (Rasheed Branch) with heavy metals (using Nile tilapia) within the framework of environmentally friendly projects, and the first place for the policy paper of the Faculty of Engineering in the Green Ribbon project, and the Fifth place for the Faculty of Computers and Information in the project of remote automatic control of solar panels.

In her speech, Prof. Dr. Dalia Sami, coordinator of the Supreme Council of Universities in the initiative, focused on coordination and cooperation between the Ministry of Planning with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Supreme Council of Universities and Universities participating to empower young people and provide innovative solutions to some of the problems facing the Egyptian state.

She explained that the five winning projects will qualify for the final competition to compete at the national level with five Egyptian universities.