Falling Walls Lab
News
By

Being a jury member at The Falling Walls Lab Tunis 2019

Have you ever heard about the event of the Berlin wall falling on November 9, 1989? This particular historical event inspired the Falling Walls global event!

Falling Walls is a platform that was created on the occasion of the anniversary of the fall of the famed Berlin Wall. The foundation stands as a unique way for leaders to break barriers in the worlds of politics, science, business, arts, and society and break walls through innovation!
The question the foundation seeks to ask is ‘which walls will fall next’? The main aim is to spearhead innovation and discussion on research, to promote the latest scientific findings. The innovations and research are meant to reach the broad audience that comes from all parts of society and the world.
The Falling Walls Foundation is a charity that is supported in generous ways by the German Ministry for Education and Research, the Berlin Senate, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Helmholtz Association, in conjunction with other acclaimed institutions of academia, foundation companies, prominent individuals and non-governmental organizations.

Tunis chapter

On 21, September 2019, ‘Falling Walls Lab’ was held in Tunis. The event was sponsored, in part, by the UniversitéCentrale de Tunis UC – HONORIS United Universities. They offered the first winner of the Falling Walls Lab Tunis event a trip to Berlin!
Among the things promised for attendees was a chance to learn more about how to study or do research in Germany.
After several weeks of preparation, the participants were finally ready to pitch their innovative projects to the jury.

The jury

At 2 pm on 21st September 2019 in TunisCity of Science members of the jury were ready. Everything went according to plan and the presentations began at 2 pm.
The event received 47 applications from countries that included; Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Malta Kenya, Jordan, South Africa, and other African countries. Only, a pre-selected 25 candidates were able to present their ideas in front of the jury.
The jury included inter-disciplinary professionals and experts. It consisted of; Ines Nasri, DorraGhorbel, KhaledGhedira ( Chief Innovation Officer at the UniversitéCentrale), Kevin LoicKuissuMbe, YousserBejiAchich, Leila Triki ( Dean of MSB-Mediterranean School of Business), AmeurCherif (Dean of Université De La Manouba), ManelHarrathi(Director Enterprise Strategy at FIS)and MonemHabbasi.

The pitch

The most promising of the applicants were slated to present their initiatives, research work and business ideas at the Falling Walls Lab Tunis.
‘The Lad’ is a version of the Falling Walls event that is designed using a challenging format where the participants present topics in front of the jury for three minutes only!
The topics presented were diverse and, the participants and jury always look forward to a day that is as inspiring as fruitful.
The members of the jury were then asked to evaluate each of these presentations based on three categories:

  • Breakthrough factor
  • Relevance/impact
  • Structure/performance

After each of the presentations, the audience was given an opportunity to ask questions and make comments. Each jury member was encouraged to engage with the scholars in the audience and conversations were truly inspiring and very problem-solving oriented!

The Evaluation

The results were then discussed during the jury meeting and the three best presenters would then be named the winners of Falling Lab Tunis.
After the deliberations, the first-place winners were on track to get an opportunity to travel to the global Falling Wells Lab Finale that will take place later in the year in November 2019, in Berlin. All the 100 winners of the international Labs take part in the event, in a bid to be the Falling Walls Young Innovator of the Year!

The Winners

Finally, after everything was deliberated, the Falling Walls Lab Tunis 21 Sep 2019 at Tunis City of Science was successful and 10 multidisciplinary and outstanding jury members made their choice:

  • Mohamed Walid Jomni from Tunis Business School, for breaking the walls of Autism using virtual reality took 1st place.
  • Brahim Cherif from Université de Ghardaia, Algeria, for breaking the wall of Unpredictable Histone Code took the 2nd place.
  • Mouine Abidi, from Faculté des sciences de Tunis, for breaking the wall of Quantum Computer took third place.

Falling Walls … What’s next?

Headed into the future, the problems of the world are going to need special attention from the people who innovate. The Falling Walls Foundation is playing an integral part in this.
The event would not have been as successful as it was without the dedication of its organizer Dr, Sana AmairiPyka.

0