In recent days, news of Moroccan contestants winning international contests appeared at a frequency that’s higher than usual. In this article, we list 4 Moroccan achievers that have made Moroccans proud in the last month.

Youssef Azzouzi: Reconciling the Heart and Kidneys  

The Moroccan inventor, Doctor Youssef Azzouzi, won the title of the 11th edition of the Qatari Show “Science Star” on November 8 for his invention that helps pumping the blood from the heart to the kidneys of the patients with congestive heart failure. The Prize is an amount of $600 thousand to be split among two other contestants.

Azzouzi qualified to the finals along with a Qatari inventor who created an interactive prayer mat that teaches children and new converts how to pray, and a Jordanian eye doctor who invented eye glasses that help patients with a lazy eye blink.

Pitching his invention, Azzouzi said that it solves a serious problem that is affecting “approximately 26 million people world-wide”, which is congestive heart failure. This disease prevents the blood to go to the kidneys in a sufficient amount, which creates complications at the level of the kidneys. In its current state, medical engineering offers two solutions for this health problem, “a heart transplant or artificial implants” both of which assist the heart in pumping blood to the kidneys. However, these solutions, according to Azzouzi, have two problems: They are “very invasive” and require major surgical operations and “very expensive”.

The Moroccan inventor’s solution consists of using an “aortic stent” which are usually deployed in the treatment of a disease called aneurysm, which is caused by the weakening of an artery wall that produces a bulge at the level of the artery. However, Azzouzi uses the infrastructure of the aortic stent and places it under the kidney branches and when the blood flows from the heart, the backpressure pushes the blood toward the kidneys and compensates for the insufficiency that the disease creates. 

 

Lehcen Oulhaj: Huge Memory for Infinitesimal Details

The Fez-native, Lehcen Oulhaj won the title of the Russian program “Incredible People” for a totally different talent. The 26-year-old prodigy has an enormous memory for infinitesimal details that the untrained eye may not even see. The the prize of the Russian show that is adapted from the internationally renown show “The Brain” is 15 an amount of $ 15.7 thousand.

Lehcen Oulhaj competed against participants from all over the world, who possess incredible talents. One contestant is able to swing blind-folded on a bar and perform dangerous moves, another contestant can ride for a long time on very small bikes, another one can solve complicated mathematical calculations in short time.

The Moroccan contestant performed tricks that blew the minds of the jury. In one episode, he was given 200 pieces of Russian puppets to look at for a short time and put back in the exact same order after being mixed. The final performance was even more extraordinary. A jury member randomly selected one egg from a display of 200 identical-looking eggs. Lehcen examined it from all sides for few seconds before it was put back among the eggs, and was able to recognize it, making the members of the jury gasp in astonishment.

 

Moroccan Medical Team Against All Odds

A Moroccan team comprised of 4 young medical students won, last October 14, the current year’s Euro SimCup organized by Eusem Congress 2019 in Prague. The Competition consists of medical simulations and the teams “deal with various emergency clinical situations including adult and/or pediatric scenarios and trauma”.

The Moroccan team is both the youngest and the one constituted exclusively of medical students from the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Oujda and not practicing professionals. They are Omaima Demnati, Fatima Amkhaou, Idriss Benali and Amine Adriouche. The Moroccan team came first in the first round of the competition. In the second round they beat the British team and defeated the French team in the final round.

The jury is comprised of four members, Pier INGRASSIA from Italy, Felix LORANG from Germany, Alessandro COSTA from Italy, Djan MESELI from Ireland and Mohamed MOUHAOUI from Marocco

It is worthy to note that the Moroccan team did not have financial support from their university and had to cover the expenses on their own. Also, the they came out victorious from the competition despite the fact that it was in English.

Fatima Ezzahra Akhyar, Arabic Reading Challenge

Moroccan student has been gaining Moroccan social media users’ interest in the past month thanks to her outstanding performance at the 4th edition of UAE’s Arabic Reading Challenge. On November 8th, Fatimaezzahra Akhyar qualified to the final of the show that will air this November 13.

The show that aims at promoting reading among young students, presents the contestants with challenging tasks related to presenting the information read using flawless language techniques. The contestants have to complete before qualifying to the next rounds.

Fatima Ezzahra Akhyar has been making steady strides towards the title with her talents that putting her way ahead of competition.

In this current edition, a record of 13.5 million participants from 49 countries have represented 62,000 schools. Fatima Ezzahrae Akhyar, a student at Cadi Ayyad high school in Tetouan, has won the title of the competition at the national level, which qualified her to participate in UAE finals.

The 9-year-old Moroccan Meryem Amjoun won the title of the 3rd edition of Arabic Reading Challenge.

 https://youtu.be/YLwdA6tgI84