CAIRO, Feb 4 (MENA) – Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli inspected Tuesday evening Knowledge City in the New Administrative Capital and paid a visit to the National Academy of Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities (NAID).

NAID is a center of excellence to support research, development and entrepreneurship in the field of assistive technologies and tools to integrate and empower people with disabilities.

NAID President Abdel Moneim el Sharkawy gave a presentation on the axes of the academy’s work, which include: the innovation and creativity axis to support and localize the assistive technology industry in cooperation with academic and research bodies and technology companies; and the digital integration and technological empowerment axis to achieve digital access where some of the academy's related programs, projects and activities were reviewed.

The NAID represents an integrated environment for the various stages of developing assistive technologies, from designing, modeling, simulating, manufacturing accurate models and testing, as well as developing digital content available through 18 specialized research and application laboratories, Sharkawy said.

Theses laboratories cover many domains, including engineering design, IoT, robotics and artificial intelligence, 3D printing, digital mechanical manufacturing, biomechanics and rehabilitation, he went on to say, adding that there are also the virtual, augmented and extended reality laboratories, as well as labs for experimentation and interactive training, in addition to specialized business incubators and accelerators.

During his tour of NAID, the premier visited the laboratories of artificial intelligence, 3D manufacturing, electronics and robotics, where two graduation projects were reviewed one on a self-driving wheelchair using artificial intelligence and the other on developing a prosthetic limb design using 3D printing technology.

Madbouly visited the Extended Reality Studio, the first of its kind in Africa, where he was introduced to a prototype of a virtual environment based on extended reality to train people with disabilities to use industrial equipment safely. (MENA)
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