Khawaja: Jordan

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

الآن أصبح لديك فرصة أكبر لتحقيق حلمك بإنشاء شركتك الخاصة. في عامها الثالث، أتاحت جائزة الملكة رانيا الوطنية للريادة المجال لكل الرياديين – سواء كانوا طلبة جامعيين أو أشخاص طموحين من عامة المجتمع – للمشاركة في المسابقة والتنافس على جوائز يقدر مجموعها بـ 70.000 دولار أمريكي. فإذا كانت لديك فكرة مشروع في أي من مجالات العلوم والتكنولوجيا، لا تتردد بتقديم فكرتك لمركز الملكة رانيا للريادة من خلال الموقع الإلكتروني www.qrce.org لتبدأ خطواتك الأولى نحو النجاح!

تتميز الجائزة هذا العام بمساهمة شركة Google
العالمية في دعم جائزة إضافية تقدم لأفضل خطة عمل لمشروع على الانترنت، بالإضافة إلى الجائزة التي يقدمها مركز الملك عبد الله الثاني للتصميم والتطوير لأفضل خطة أعمال في مجال الأمن والحماية.

إذا لم تتمكن من مشاهدة العرض التعريفي لجائزة الملكة رانيا للريادة خلال الحملة التعريفية للجائزة في الجامعات والأماكن العامة (النقابات، غرف الصناعة والتجارة...) فيسرني دعوتكم لمشاهدة الفيديو الخاص بالعرض بالصوت والصورة

إذا كانت هذه المرة الأولى التي تسمع بها عن الجائزة فأدعوك لزيارة موقع مركز الملكة رانيا للريادة للتعرف على دور الجائزة في تحويل الإبداع والثروة الفكرية إلى قيمة اقتصادية عالية من خلال تشجيع أصحاب الأفكار والريادية على تحويل أفكارهم إلى منتجات وخدمات مميزة في السوق العالمي

ملاحظة إذا وصلتك هذه المقالة بالبريد الإلكتروني فيجب عليك زيارة الموقع حتى تتمكن من مشاهدة الفيديو

Bookmark this post:

(3) comments

Monday, May 12, 2008

Entrepreneurs WANTED!

In cooperation with Google and King Abdullah II Design and Development Bearu (KADDB), the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE) has officially launched the 3rd year of the Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (QRNEC) with $70,000 of cash prizes in addition to in-kind services provided by the Centre to the winners in order to support the their mission in creating successful startups.

The QRNEC is now open for all entrepreneurs - whether you are a university student or an aspiring entrepreneur, so, everyone is invited to apply and compete for $ 70,000 of cash awards.

The additional interesting advantage for this year is that Google is offering an additional cash award for the best the online business plan, in addition to the special award that KADDB is offering for the best business plan for defense and security.

If you have a business idea in any discipline of technology (biotechnology, nanotechnology, information & communication technology (ICT), agricultural technology, environmental technology, water, energy or any other disciplines of technology) that is likely to win, present it to the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE) through the its website (www.qrce.org) before 19/6/2008 and start on the road to success!

QRCE has established many invaluable partnerships, this year, with many institutions contribute to the support of the center and the competition. These institutions are: Google, King Abdulla II Development and Design Bureau, Orange, Jordan Commercial Bank, Jordan Dubai Capital, Optimiza, Jeeran and Jordan Business.

Are you curious to know about the winners and success stories of the previous 2 years? Then, please play this embedded video:

If you receive this post by email, you need to visit the blog url (http://mkhawaja.jeeran.com) to be able to play the video.

More posts will be posted here about the orientations presentations I did around Jordan.. stay tuned! :)

Bookmark this post:

(3) comments

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Do-It-Yourself!

Do-it-yourselfers are simply people who dare to build and compose innovative products out of basic things available around. In fact, the term do-it-yourself didn’t enter the language until the early ’50s, and the abbreviation DIY soon followed.

A year ago, I’ve read an article by Paul McFedries, that says we live in the age of tech DIY in which geeks of all persuasions and both sexes engage in various forms of digital tinkering and hardware hacking. It is interesting to know that the vast majority of the DIY widgets fall under the new category of open-source hardware. The recipes and constructopedias that explain how to create them are shared with anyone who wants them. That brings in more DIYers, and the hobbyist renaissance grows even bigger.

Bashiti Hardware –a specialized hardware retailer in Jordan- organized a national DIY competition last year as part of its role in supporting this culture among Jordanians. Unfortunately I was not able to join or -at least- be there take photos and meet the DIYers but I’m sure it was an extraordinary experience for everyone.

I was really impressed when I read a news release that says MIT has recently released fun-filled comic-book called: “Howtoons” that is designed to inspire youngsters all over the world with a sense of can-do adventure, and to teach them a few principles of science and engineering--and a sense of the creative possibilities all around them--along the way of just having fun.

In this comic book, cartoon kids Celine and Tucker set up a home workshop and then proceed to build a whole series of toys and gadgets out of leftover items. The idea for Howtoons came about when Bonsen and Griffith were MIT graduate students. They organized few workshops that include few of the construction projects - for local schoolchildren and invited MIT professors to come and bring their families. The book evolved spontaneously as people attended these workshops tinkered and experimented with a variety of simple materials.

The impetus for developing the concept into a business plan came when they took a class in developmental entrepreneurship taught by Legatum Center founder and faculty director Alex "Sandy" Pentland.

The projects range from rockets and goggles to simple electric motors, a marshmallow-shooting blowgun, and a simple way of making homemade ice cream. The materials are mostly everyday items like plastic bags and bottles, rubber bands and paper clips.

The idea of publishing this comic-book is to make the instructions as visually self-explanatory as possible, so that kids anywhere can use them without having to read the words (although the book will also be translated into several languages – hopefully Arabic language would be one of them!).

I would like to conclude by a quote for Bonsen – one the co-authors of Howtoons: "We want to inspire them to think about the world around them not as it is, but as it could be."

Bookmark this post:

(4) comments

Monday, December 24, 2007

Special smiles for a speacial Eid :)

Special smiles for a special Eid! :)

Bookmark this post:

(4) comments

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Happy belated Eid Greetings :)

Jood and her little cow wish you a Happy Eid this year and every year!

Bookmark this post:

(8) comments

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Blind.. but with Vision!

It is my pleasure to introduce to you Mohammad Shar'; a specialized computer programmer in adaptive technologies.

Mohammed Al-Shar', who was born blind, has exceeded the expectations of his community and today he does what most of his peers with sight might find difficult!

While many blind people have gone beyond the odds to succeed, Al-Shar' has even taken his confidence to a new level of challenging his disability by learning and mastering computer programming. Currently, he is working as a technical support and training executive for Nattiq technologies, an international firm that specializes in assistive (also called adaptive) technologies.

To know more about Mohammad and his success story I invite you to read my articles @ October's issue of JO magazine. The article title is: "Life is Virtual".

You may also view the amazing video broadcasted at Al Jazeera channel few months ago.

If you receive this post by email, you need to accesss: http://mkhawaja.jeeran.comto be able to watch the video.

Bookmark this post:

(2) comments

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

أفطر مع الملائكة الصغار

It's a pleasure inviting you to this Iftar...

Bookmark this post:

(4) comments

Monday, August 20, 2007

Solar Taxi.. the "Free" clean drive!

Yesterday, I was lucky to drive the SolarTaxi; a solar-powered car that travels around the world to promote the use of clean energy and fight against human actions that cause global warming.

Louis –the car driver and the tour director- expressed that the story has begun when he was a 15-year-old boy; his dream was simply to drive a car powered by solar energy and hence it consumes ZERO drops of patrol. But sadly, after 15 years his dream did not come true since it is not affordable now to buy such a car. That was not the end; he took the challenge and worked hard communicating with Swiss universities, research centers, private sector companies so that his dream would come true and accumulated the effort to build the first prototype for his dream car.

I look at this initiative as a wonderful evidence of cooperation between academia and industry in Switzerland, and I think Jordanian universities have to shake the hands of the private sector and work on similar R&D projects that would raise the quality of our education and contribute in the growth of vital local industrial sectors.

Oil will not continue to be the most affordable type of energy in the upcoming 10-20 years! If Arabs is not ready for such a day when other alternatives of energy would be more feasible for both human and industrial applications, they will be the biggest losers ever!!

On the other hand, This initiative rings the bell to take serious actions about the everlasting problem of global warming, and think of effective solutions that we can put into action today to rescue our planet and prevent further abuse of natural resources.

The interesting thing is that the car is equipped with GPS so that you can track it online, through its official website.

I invite you also to read the press release published at Alghad newspaper about the demonstration of the SolarTaxi at the Royal Scientific Society.

last but not least, make sure to watch this short video that I did take for the SolarTaxi...