Written by Rachid Zein el-Din
Translated by Lynn Waked
The financial crises as well as security and everyday problems we face never seem to affect the aspirations of the young Lebanese who want to reach the highest summits there can be in scientific, economic and social domains.
The young Lebanese Saiid Ramzi Abi Farraj, from Baalchmayh, is a living proof!
Despite all these problems, Abi Farraj and Elie Astih - students at the Antonine University (UPA) - have managed to become active on the students level through the organization of the Young Progressives, and that by registering a scientific and distinctive invention that was lauded by MP Walid Jumblatt and the Lebanese society for the scientific, human and economic development.
This invention - Hexapod Robot - which is shaped as a spider is built to detect mines that have been a source of misery and suffering to the citizens across the Lebanese territory.
In an interview with Saiid Abi Farraj, he said he decided to start this project with his colleague Elie, after that a close person of the latter was injured by mines.
"The goal of our project is to alleviate the suffering of citizens. An idea has been hence created to invent Hexapod robot as a graduation project."
"We have conducted a thorough study on mines and an extensive research before finalizing the project in its current form," he said.
"What distinguishes our invention is that our robot works alone, without any assistance. It does not need anyone to make it move and it is programmed to more than one brain so that it performs several jobs at the same time," he said, adding that this project was a prototype which gave the results we want."
Abi Farraj then pointed out that "we had the most information on the mines, their types and methods of work from officers of the Lebanese army, and we made visits to certain military sites and studied all circumstances of this subject."
"The army officers have provided us with accurate information which contributed in the success of our project. We also took into consideration the problems they face. However, we have not discussed cooperation between us and the army engineering regiment to create robots for the army," he added.
"The Lebanese army hasn't contacted us, but we expect a meeting to be held within the next three weeks, in coordination with the Antonine University, to explain in detail our prototype and have an approval so that we can, in an advanced stage, opt for the creation of more developed robots, "he said.
Abi Farraj finally thanked MP Walid Jumblatt "who asked us to give him the details of this new invention."
The question, however, would be: will this invention be used for the public good or will it remain like so many other inventions which have been placed in the drawers of their inventors pending adoption?
Here lies the responsibility of the State to adopt these projects and make their inventors shine in the spotlight so that, in turn, the name of Lebanon shines on the list of developed countries, instead of being on the list of countries that are incubators of terrorism.
