The Intersection of Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Education

Held under the patronage of Her Majesty under the theme “Agile Minds, Turning Tides”, the Teacher Skills Forum spanned three full days at the Dead Sea. The Queen Rania Teacher Academy (QRTA) organises the TSF annually, in partnership with the International Baccalaureate (IB), according to a statement from Her Majesty’s office. (Read More)

Welcomed to the forum’s main session by QRTA Academic Adviser Mary Tadros, Her Majesty attended a panel discussion on how to equip upcoming generations with the agility they need to be resilient.

I had the honor to be among the esteemed panel that included lecturer and Director of Learning and Outreach at Harvard School of Education’s (HGSE) Project Zero Tina Blythe, Chair of the IB Examining Board David Homer, CEO of the Education Development Trust Patrick Brazier. The session was moderated by Phd - Curriculum Coordinator, American Community School Beirut Dr. Hanadi Dayyeh,

During the panel, Dr. Hanadi directed two questions at me, which I believe should be shared with my network.

First Question: "Loay; there is a real difference in the workplace of today and the future, What would be your message to educators in the room to prepare students for the unknown?"

I recently read a book called Whiplash by Joi Ito, Director at MIT Media Lab & Jeff Howe where they mentioned 10 principles on how to survive the future. Two of these principles are directly related to this question; first is giving our students compasses rather than maps and the second is prioritizing their learning over their education.

Quoting from the book: "In the past couple of decades we have seen 2 revolutions, one in technology and the other in communication, which led to explosive force that changed the nature of innovation and education. Today, everything digital is getting faster, cheaper, and smaller at an exponential rate. And with any change, we see many strategic errors and extraordinary learning curves in all fields including education. So we need to be fully aware of the present and develop a very broad network of exploration and curiosity. Focusing too much on the past or the future will narrow our vision and make us less able to respond to changes."

Instead of rules or even strategies, the key to success is culture...

It's impossible to understand the details or anticipate all of the challenges that our students might encounter. We have to become comfortable with the idea that we are not in control, that we can't anticipate or even know everything that is going on but we can still be confident and courageous. Instead of rules or even strategies, the key to success is culture; and how we communicate this culture of continuous learning while staying confident and courageous in dealing with changes in the classroom, in our labs, through events, activities, meetings and feedback. We need to prioritize learning over education!

"Education is passing on knowledge, learning is the ongoing process of acquiring new skills and values." 

Second Question: "Do you get ideas for new projects from youth? Where do you see it addressing the needs and how do you see their skills fitting?"

Here, the question was directed to me in Arabic. I took a deep breath and shared the story of my brother and colleague Asem Hasna who was a source of inspiration to most of our work and helped shape the work I'm involved in today.

From a small 3D printing lab to the first Fab Lab in Jordan then a €11 Million Business Incubator supporting 100+ startups...

Asem Hasna, a young Syrian refugee lost his left leg during the war in a bomb explosion (read the full story on TechCrunch), joined our team at 3Dmena's small 3D printing lab and started learning about 3D printing applications. Asem was taught how to program and code in Arduino in three days, and built his first prosthetics prototype in three weeks. Now teaching others how to do the same, quoting my partner back then, Levin said “this is a good test case on how accessible these technologies are for the people we are trying to help.” read more on Wamda)

Asem rapidly absorbed expertise in advanced technology in order to help those who had lost everything. He found a path to dignity and purpose as a volunteer for Refugee Open Ware (ROW), our consortium for humanitarian innovation. “ROW gives people hope to live,” he said. “We changed the life of an amputee to become a good thing in this world.”

Our initiative aimed to provide refugees and host communities with an education and set of vocational skills suitable for the coming decades. Our training program focused on creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and technology development — the skills least susceptible to automation.(Continue reading on World Economic Forum)

With the success he found in Jordan’s supportive startup community, Hasna also was facing hardships after two years living in Amman as authorities started cracking down on Syrians working in the heavily stretched country that has hosted over 1 million asylum seekers.

He boldly decided with his injured room-mates in September 2015 to embark on the arduous trip to Germany in order to seek asylum (Full story on CNN)

“My world opened up with open source technology. It changed my life for the better and I want to pass that on to the next generation”

After Asem's journey and settlement in Germany, we knew that there are thousands of other Asem's that need access to such enabling platforms. So we spearheaded the fab labs movement in Jordan in order to scale the work we did. (Full details on Venture Magazine).

From thereon, I joined Luminus Education to scale this work into what it is today, co-establishing the first fabrication laboratory in the country that became part of the leading manufacturing & hardware business incubator in North of Jordan (Luminus Shamal Start). With 100 startups incubated, 300+ jobs created, $1.5 million of grant funding provided since late 2016 and now in the scaling phase with Funding from European Union & Luminus Education.

Fab Lab Irbid is a space dedicated to providing up-and-coming entrepreneurs with the latest modern technologies, knowledge and means for product innovation. Equipped with state-of-the art machinery, the laboratory is designed to help startups experiment with and build any product prototype from scratch. 

The Fab Lab lab is a constituent of the Luminus ShamalStart programme, the programme was launched by Luminus Education in 2016 - in collaboration with the Royal Scientific Society as Partner and iPARK as Implementation Partner. Funded by the European Union, Luminus ShamalStart provides makers, inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs with a comprehensive ecosystem to transform their ideas into actual projects by offering them the tools and resources they need throughout their journeys. In tandem, Luminus ShamalStart grants access to a designated workspace - namely FabLab Irbid - which is part of the global Fab Lab network. One of the largest digital fabrication laboratories in the world, FabLab Irbid is the first facility of its kind in Jordan, comprising advanced and easy-to-use equipment and tools that facilitate the production and market evaluation of almost any prototype, while lending insights and knowledge presented by a resident group of experts and specialists. Furthermore, Luminus ShamalStart delivers incubation programs for entrepreneurs with either operating businesses or promising ideas - in the fields of service or manufacture - paired with specialized mentorship and technical support services, as well as funder and investor networking, in order for them to confidently navigate and penetrate the business world.

To know more about the Fab Lab Irbid & Luminus Shamal Start core offerings and traction see below slides:

So definitely yes we get inspiring ideas from our youth and we should always listen.