Falling Walls Lab Egypt 2019

On the 18th of July 2019, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) hosted its 6th consecutive Falling Walls Lab Egypt. The FWL Egypt is funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and hosted by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with the support of our Partners Egypt Innovate, Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (TIEC), the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT), the Misr El-Kheir Foundation and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina – Bayt Al Sinnari.

Outstanding talents and innovative thinkers came together at Bayt Al Sinnari to showcase their research projects, social initiatives and business models.

Our high-calibre jury selected our winner who will travel to Berlin in November and compete at the global Lab Finale. The winner also receives a ticket for the Falling Walls Conference which takes place on the 9th of November and brings together leaders from the worlds of science, industry and policy-making.

Meet the winner:

Michael Assad, Isra Ali, Egypt, Breaking the Wall of Diabetic Limbs Loss© Michael Assad

Isra highlighted the problem that diabetes patients suffer from retained healing of wounds and ulcers which could lead to more complications such as microbial infections, gangrene and trauma that would finally end up with amputations. Her idea to solve the problem focuses on the development of a single dose drug loaded smart wound bandage that will act as a scaffold for enhancing proper and rapid wound healing due to the bandage constituents.

The presentations were evaluated by the esteemed jury with a score based on three criteria: breakthrough factor, relevance to society and performance.

Meet the Jury:

Starting from the right side:

Isabell Mering: Director of the DAAD Regional Office Cairo
Philippe Maupai: Head of Science and Protocol at the German Embassy in Cairo
Dr. Rasha Tantawy: Head of Entrepreneurship and Development at the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (TIEC)
Prof. Dr. Amr Farouk: Assistant, President of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT)
Sonja Miekley: Head of DEinternational at the German-Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce (GACIC – AHK)
Hoda El Mahgoub: Head of the Cairo Liaison Office of Freie Universität Berlin

This year Egypt ranked 2nd as the Lab with the highest applicant number worldwide. Out of 137 applicants here are our 12 Falling Walls Lab Egypt 2019 Finalists that amazed us with their ground-breaking ideas.

During the break last year’s winner Dr. Laila Ziko (Breaking the Wall of Antibiotic Resistance) gave an interview about her experience in the Falling Walls Lab 2018. She provided an interesting insight into the final event of the Falling Walls Lab in Berlin for the audience and our finalists.

The night ended with a light dinner where the participants, jury and guests had the opportunity to network and enjoy the historical flair of the location at Bayt Al-Sinnari.

Download: Falling Walls Lab Egypt 2019 – Programme (, 0)