The Planetarium Science Center (PSC) in collaboration with Intel Egypt and the Ministry of Education are organizing Intel Bibliotheca Alexandrina Science and Engineering Fair from 13-15 March 2016. In the closing ceremony, four winning projects will be announced, which will represent Egypt in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in the USA during the period from 8-13 May 2016.

A number of public figures were invited to attend the Intel BASEF 2016, such as, Eng. Tarek Kabil, the Minister of Commerce and Industry; Eng. Mohammed Ahmed Abd al-Zaher, the Governor of Alexandria Engineer; Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar; Dr. Abbas Shoman, Al-Azhar’s Deputy; Eng. Yasser El-Kady, the Minister of Communication and Information Technology; Dr. Al-Hilali Al-Sherbini, the Minster of Education and Technical Education; Mr. Gomaa Mostafa Ansari Zekri, Ministry of Education’s deputy; Dr. Ashraf El-Sheihy, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research; and Eng. Khaled Abdel Aziz, the Minister of Youth and Sports. Moreoevr, Mr. John Winstead will attend the event on behalf of the Consul General of the United States of America in Alexandria, in addition to a delegation from the US Agency for international development.

It is worth mentioning that this is Intel BASEF’s ninth year, however, it is different this year as it covers all parts of Egypt. The Planetarium Science Center, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, have expanded Intel BASEF geographically to cover all the governorates of Egypt. This year, Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) have organized three final fairs to filter the submitted projects, in addition to the qualifications and School fairs. 93 projects were qualified to participate in Intel BASEF 2016 where the students will present their projects, whether individually or in teams, in different scientific fields, from 13-15 March 2016.

Intel BASEF is considered the third and last final fair this year; where two other fairs were held in Cairo and Luxor. In Cairo Fair, which included projects from all over Cairo, 4 winning projects qualified to participate in Intel ISEF. Whereas in Luxor’s fair, which included projects from all over Upper Egypt and the Red Sea governorates, two projects won. So that the total number of the qualifying projects, after the closing ceremony of Intel BASEF, will be ten projects.

Intel BASEF empowers students, whose ages vary from 14-18 years old, to enhance their skills through focusing on knowledge, scientific research, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, and the ability to work in teams. This is considered the corner stone of Egypt’s knowledge-based society which depends on scientists and researchers.

The projects will be evaluated by professors, scientists, engineers in addition to volunteers specialized in industry. The grand award will be decided using a scale of 100 points; providing certain number of points on the creative abilities, scientific thinking, the projects’ goals, the students’ skills and clarity in addition to being precise. The judges are following an international criteria used to evaluate projects.

The International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition. It provides the opportunity for more than 1,500 student from all over the world to gather, share ideas and present their scientific projects, in addition to competing for millions of dollars in prizes, scholarships, scientific trips to meet scientists and Nobel laureates in various fields of science from all over the world.