Mohammed El Raffei

Mohammed El Raffei is unlocking the potential of Egypt’s youth by shifting their role from passive recipients of an instructor-led education to learning through hands on experiments. More than the subject matter, students walk away with a new proficiency in the critical “soft skills” neglected in Egypt’s educational institutions, but which define the modern economy.

Mohammed seeks to bring science to life for young Egyptians because he believes such experiences cultivate self-confidence, creativity, resourcefulness, and teamwork that is needed to drive a new Egypt. His Competition Of Robot Design (CORD) challenges groups of young people to create a robot that moves, using materials in their homes or communities, and if necessary, low-cost store-bought items. This model creates a leveling effect and welcomes participation from all socioeconomic classes. The competition’s “no prior knowledge necessary” aspect further democratizes the opportunity.

Mohammed focuses on robots, in particular, because these complex, dynamic machines are often seen as the epitome of a sophisticated, scientific world unattainable to the average person. Once a young person builds a machine with simple materials and a team of peers, what had been previously dismissed—even if subconsciously—becomes doable. Some participants will go on to pursue science in more depth, which Mohammed nurtures through his Robo Academy, providing Egypt with the well-rounded science experts so instrumental in the 21st century. Others will bring these newly cultivated skills to other arenas in need of innovation.

While the competition focuses on ages 18 to 25, Mohammed is in the process of creating opportunities for younger people to engage in a similar experience. After a pilot which included eighty children between the ages of 8 and 12, he is now working with the Ministry of Education and an Egyptian citizen organization (CO) to implement a robot-creating curriculum—whose English meaning is, “the best things come from nothing”—into the country’s public schools.

Children and young people do not get practical experience with science—or anything else—as part of their education in Egypt. A recent UNICEF report indicates that the traditional methods of “chalk and talk” are still in practice, where students are expected to listen to a lecture and copy in their notebooks what is written on the blackboard, which they then recite back on exams. This method allows for only a small number of students to excel in the classroom, and those who do, often find their knowledge at odds and insufficient to build or participate in the modern economy, which demands critical thinking, problem-solving skills, teamwork, and innovation, rather than rote memorization.

The official CORD competition takes place over the course of one 8 to 10 hour day. After an initial introduction, CORD instructor-volunteers, also known as CORDians, host an interactive workshop with participants to review the basics of robotic mechanisms. Participants then break into their teams (usually composed of three young people) and begin to build their robots using only the low-cost materials they have brought and their recently acquired knowledge. The robots are built with the goal of being able to cross a “playground” that changes for each competition—essentially a maze with slopes, sharp corners, and other obstacles. After this round of trial and error, with CORDians on hand to provide support, the actual competition starts and the teams able to create a robot that successfully completes the maze are awarded a prize.

While competition day draws the publicity, Mohammed finds the 3 to 5 weeks preceding the competition the most integral. It is during this time that CORDians host workshops that take competition participants through the journey of making something out of nothing. Beyond the technical information of robotics, which they share and participants practice, a series of soft skills are developed. CORDians challenge participants to recognize the resources embedded within the team, while not being afraid to be bold, make a decision, and then reassess a plan based on the results. When participants complain that the 4kg weight limit is inhibiting, CORDians remind them that any given item can take on more strength based on how it is incorporated into the design of the robot.

Mohammed has captured these key soft skills, including his “nine creative attitudes” into a curriculum from which CORDians are trained. One key aspect of this curriculum includes facilitated dialogue around Egyptian scientific achievement. Not only are young people reminded of just how much of a scientific marvel the pyramids are, but they are asked if they think Egypt is finished contributing to the world—in science and beyond.

Launched in 2007 as a student organization at Ain Shams University, where Mohammed was completing an engineering degree, CORD has seen both a numeric and geographic expansion. Up from fifteen teams all based on one campus in the first year, the number of teams shot up to 1,000 in 2011, participating in competitions spread across fourteen universities and youth centers in a fifth of Egypt’s governorates. More important to Mohammed, however, is that despite the first year when only 6 percent of robots successfully completed the playground (this number is now up to 90 percent), the enthusiasm was so high after the experience that 80 percent of participants signed on to become formal or informal members of CORD and volunteered to initiate future competitions. This model of participants becoming CORDians has continued and every week groups of volunteers go to different campuses to recruit new participants and train new facilitators to host competitions. They set up a booth in the most exposed part of campus and begin taking apart and putting together robots that move around; encouraging all those standing by with bewildered or amused expressions to get a closer look. Similarly, competitions are held in public spaces, serving to recruit more people on competition day.

This outreach, combined with a traditional and social media strategy, has seen competitions held as far north as Alexandria and as far south as Aswan. It was during a competition in a youth center in Aswan, one of Egypt’s poorer cities, that CORD received an offer to be hosted in the training facilities attached to all of the engineering institutes in Egypt. Impressed that competitions encouraged more students to attend class and that up to 85 percent of the teams were composed of women, the lead coordinator agreed to do all he could to promote competitions across the country.

Parents have also proven to be emphatic supporters of CORD, with many attending competitions. For this reason, and recognizing how much television Egyptian children watch, Mohammed is creating a public television program to publicize the benefits of robot design to children as well as parents—looking for a substitute for online video games. The program will be interactive, providing quick tips on the basics, which will then be used to take apart and put together various household items.

Mohammed has had great success with the media, which has written about CORD in the country’s largest newspapers, aired footage from competitions during the evening news, and hosted members of the team on Cairo’s number one radio station and popular television youth program.

While CORD actively recruits young people from all academic backgrounds for its competitions—a team from the medical faculty won the very first CORD competition—Mohammed is focused on engineering students to cultivate a better equipped group of people to tackle the country’s technological needs. Robo Academy partners with engineering schools and builds on the interactive nature of CORD competitions with more specialized and advanced techniques. More importantly, it brings together students from across engineering disciplines to counter the current siloing that pervades the field. Mohammed works to include students from entirely different faculties in various sessions. Working together, these groups take on new perspectives and generate new skill sets to solve problems. Mohammed plans to link Robo Academy with the real needs of the private sector, and has enlisted a dishwasher and refrigerator company to provide case studies based on actual issues. CORD will also do a team training with the company staff.

To scale his work, Mohammed is in the process of registering CORD as a CO and incorporating staff to collaborate with the 300 CORDians currently fueling the organization’s efforts.

With a father who is a rocket scientist and astronaut, Mohammed grew up in a home full of high expectations. While he was a solid academic performer, Mohammed was an introvert and felt most comfortable when tinkering in the corners. He created his first robot when he was ten, which performed chemical reactions that were deemed too dangerous to be carried out at school. However, after one teacher challenged him to use his creativity to give a class lesson on the solar system, Mohammed found that students were paying attention and his nervousness went away. He began to give interactive presentations to his classmates about how to take a complicated scientific concept and simplify it with basic materials—often those previously headed for the trash bin.

From the perspective that everyone has the power to think and render solutions if given the right tools and orientation, Mohammed launched CORD during university.