SANA’A, April 25 — Yusof Al-Kebsi, a sixth grade student from the Yemen Modern School in Sana’a, holds the mini-elevator he has made in his hands. He dreams of winning a trip to NASA awarded by the international Iken Scientifica competition for scientific inventions.

This competition is organized in Yemen by the Al-Hamedi Company, the exclusive agent of Mexus Education Company, an education solutions provider located in Mumbai, India.

Al-Kebsi looks forward to getting a ‘passport’ by winning in the third round of the competition and moving on to the fourth. Al-Kebsi is one of 60 students who have made it through the first and second rounds of the competition, which started in March.

Now he is doing his best to be one of six winners in the third round. Those six finalists will be able to travel to Mumbai as a team to compete against 15 teams from different countries including Egypt, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

The winning team will receive a trip to NASA along with three distinguished students selected by the committee of judges. Moreover, the National Geographic Channel will provide special media coverage during the nine students' trip to the USA.

Al-Kebsi won the second round of the competition and the third round will be held at the Police Officers Club in Sana’a, on Thursday morning.

He presented his mini-elevator before the IKEN Scientifica judges committee, as did the other students. They displayed their other inventions, like a simple automatic watch.

All students had to put together the pieces of their inventions in front of the panel of the jury committee. Al-Hamedi Trading Company which is the exclusive agent for Mexus Education Company in India brought the materials from India to the students for their inventions.

Al-Kebsi operated his mini-elevator using a power generator resembling a small battery. The elevator lifts things from one place to another by connecting the power generator to a gear to move the elevator up and down.

According to Al-Kebsi, the mini-elevator could be scaled up to a full-sized version in the future if the technology becomes available.

Ruba Al-Awadhi and Ayat Al-Hakemi, two girls from the Al-Jazeera School, also made elevators using the same techniques Al-Kebsi used in his.

Al-Hamedi trading company brings in all the pieces needed by the competitors to assemble their mini-inventions, according to Hatem Noor Al-Deen, director of Al-Hamedi Trading Company.

“The tools we bring in from Mexus Company come with detailed user instructions to help the students construct the samples they want,” Noor Al-Deen told the Yemen Times.

“It is a fact that school books are no longer enough to build students’ creativity. So, the Iken Scientifica competition is very important because it uses workshops which are intended to bridge the gap between theory and practice,” added Noor Al-Deen.

Students are happy with Iken Scientifica workshops. “They are very important because they present real issues to help nurture students with creativity so that they can start to think and invent,” according to Kawkab Al-Harazi, a member of the Iken Scientifica team in Yemen.

“This way is the only way to boost curiosity about scientific inventions among Yemeni students and enable them to generate their own ideas,” said Al-Harazi.

When a student wins one of the rounds, he receives a ‘passport’, which starts with a message of congratulations sent to the student’s father.

Fathers are now confident that their children could be the Iken Scientifica Global lcon 20011-12, and win a free trip to NASA.

Ibraheem, a student in primary school, came to his father, Abdulhameed Al-Sharjabi, last Thursday holding a passport. Written inside was a message encouraging Al-Sharjabi to reward his genius son for passing the first round of the competition.

After each round, a detailed report of the student’s performance, showing his son's strengths and weaknesses, is sent to Al-Sharjabi.

“Ibraheem has developed a lot because of this competition. His thinking has changed and he has started to think about bigger issues than before. He has also started questioning everything he encounters,” Al-Sharjabi told the Yemen Times.