Living in a country where Star Academy actually still exists, and where stupid people, with useless aspirations and pathetic rewards of signing one CD with Arab labels, pollute the airwaves, one of the countries of the Gulf we mock for being stupid, is holding a brilliant “Stars of Science” competition series.
One Lebanese participant, the only Lebanese one for that matter, has made it to the Qatar Foundation-funded competition’s final four.
Hind Hobeika is a 22-year-old AUB Mechanical Engineering graduate who has designed and engineered swimming goggles that monitor a swimmer’s heart rate. Hind, a passionate swimmer herself, noticed that no device existed to help swimmers monitor their heart rates, for a better work out, and of course their safety.
Here’s a YouTube of Hind and other experts explaining more:
I was surprised to hear about this from none other than Hind’s younger sister, and my good friend Youmna Hobeika. If it were some brainless, vain show of tweens singing, and a Lebanese person made it to the finalists, we would go crazy and create mobs and conspiracy theories about Saudi dialing-slaves who will beat us at sending SMSes. But science? Brains? Something useful? Something that would make the world better? We shy away… Shame!
Hind’s device is ingenious, it is original and it has filled a huge gap in the sports and fitness world with a sleek looking pair of goggles I’d love to try on some day when it hits the shelves worldwide.
So, let’s help our fellow Lebanese candidate and AUBite get the recognition she deserves, and send 4 to 1084 from your Lebanese mobile phone. You can vote as many times as you want, and voting ends Sunday! So, hurry up! Send 4 to 1084 as soon as you read this.
For numbers from other countries, go to www.starsofscience.com
Here’s another YouTube for my engineer-readers, explaining more about the engineering aspect
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