Great! Five Elementary School Children In Dubai Find Practical Tools For Sterilization To Prevent COVID-19

Five children from an elementary school in Dubai have made a practical finding that the UAE government appreciates. (photo credit: khaleejtimes)

JAKARTA – The UAE government's efforts to continue to encourage students to make innovations, especially digitalization, are now bearing fruit. Several inventions have begun to be made, even by elementary school students in the Arabian peninsula.

Five students from a school in Dubai have created a practical device and sterilizing material that can be used on the door handle of an institution, to prevent the spread of the raging COVID-19 outbreak. This finding is believed to be able to further improve the public health safety of their colleagues.

Class VI students from GEMS Founders School Al Mizhar in Dubai said the innovation was a precautionary measure to control the spread of COVID-19 and to ensure the safe return of their friends to teach classes in the new school year starting in September.

Maryam Allawi, Muhammad Ibrahim, Muhammad Zayan, Youssef Mahfouz, and Zeina Naim are the brains behind this innovative project. These students said they were interested in finding more effective alternatives to chemical-based sterilization and cleaning agents.

Their innovation consists of a glass tube that surrounds the door handle and is lined with a ground titanium dioxide casing. The thin casing can destroy bacteria through chemical reactions stimulated by ultraviolet (UV) light.

Pupils rely on the fact that the door has a device that produces kinetic energy. They also added an Arduino-based temperature sensor and an LED screen to monitor the temperature of everyone passing through the door.

“This device acts as an alarm system similar to the current thermal cameras we find in schools, shopping malls and other public places, but with minimal human intervention. This project is a low-cost alternative to current doorknobs and reduces the risk of major infection with viral diseases,” said one of the innovators.

They said that they presented the project idea as a solution that helps reduce the risk of the spread of COVID-19 to protect members of their community.

They are also interested in applying the practical skills they have learned in computer science lessons at school through innovative projects with the help of their teachers.

Saba Adnan, director of Innovation and Technology at GEMS Founders School, Al Mizhar, praised the innovative project and emphasized that students are working to present the idea to the "Global Innovation Challenge" in the next few months.

"This project has been shared with Dubai Police," he added.