27 shortlisted innovators armed with their courage, knowledge and scientific theories have come to Doha- Qatar to undergo the final round of intense selections under the ever watchful eye of an expanding jury panel consisting of– 2 permanent Jury members and 8 local jury members who were present during the casting tour, as well as 3 VIP Jurors from the fields of Science, Design & Business that will also be part of the panel at a later stage in the contest.

Despite the best efforts of the hopeful candidates, the jurors were not easy to convince as each candidate attempted to explain what the novel idea of their innovation was, & what their vision of implementation would be if they secured a place in final 16.  Some hopefuls performed better than others, beaming with confidence as they tried to secure their place, whilst others got confused under pressure when quizzed by the Jury.

Outside in the waiting area, hopeful candidates waited impatiently for their turn as each potential candidate who had presented to the Jury came back and shared their story of how it all went. Ranked in groups, the waiting candidates tried hard to outdo the Jury by guessing the final results, only to discover the jury had made provisions for the final batch of candidates to be kept in a secure area away from the rest of the hopefuls so as not to spoil the surprise. 

Waiting nervously, whilst host Khaled broke the news in ascending order to the assembled hopefuls, results of the selection were shared to the delight of the 16 candidates who had secured their place on the Stars of Science adventure.

Abdullah Abou Zeid from Egypt, took first place by securing 90.8 points, followed closely by Abdellah Shakroun from Morocco with 88.1. Youngest candidate Hisham Shaker from Egypt came in with 86 points. Iyad Maalouf from Jordan got 82.9 and in fifth place Jinan Al Shehab from Kuwait came in with 81.5. Ahmad Al Ghazi from KSA, secured 80.6 points with Sadek Qassim from Kuwait coming  in with 78.3. Mohammed Faytoury from Libya got 77 points & Maha Al Amro from KSA, 74.2. Anis Sobhi from Oman gained 72.8 and Mohammed Ablah from Egypt got 72.5. Ahmad Al Khater from Qatar came in with 71 points, Ashraf Al Jarbi from Tunisia came in with 70.2 points , Marwan Ben Saleh from Tunisia gained 68 points, and the final two places were awarded to Hind Hobeika from Lebanon with 67 points and Ibrahim Seddiki from Algeria with 46.4 points.

Tune in to next Sunday’s episode to find out more about the personalities behind the innovations.