EGYPT'S Brain Bee

Press release for the 4th Egyptian Brain Bee Competition

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Alexandria Neuroscience Committee (ANC) organized the 4th Egyptian Brain Bee (EBB), a nation-wide neuroscience competition for high-school students. Youssef Hossam Eldin Mohamed a second-year high school student at El Nasr Boys School (in Alexandria) earned the 1st place, and will represent Egypt at the International Brain Bee to be held in Daegu, South Korea between 19-21 September 2019. In second place came Arwa Gawad Hosny from Reda Aashour school in Maghagha and in third place came Fares Alaa Fathi from Alexandria STEM school.

 

Around 300 students from all over Egypt registered for the competition, and after two stages of online examinations, the students with the top 10 scores qualified for the final stage, which took place on Wednesday 13th of April, 2019.

 

The national competition was designed to match the format of the International Brain Bee (IBB) competition, and consisted of a written theoretical exam, practical exams on neuroanatomy and neurohistology, a clinical exam where students had to identify the correct diagnosis for some neurological and psychiatric diseases as well as a live judging panel that asked questions on neuroethics as well as data analysis scenarios that tested students’ critical thinking abilities.

 

The competition questions were designed by both junior and senior neuroscientists including Nardene Saad (Egyptian Brain Bee coordinator), Salma Said (ANC board member) and Moataz Assem (PhD student at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Alexandria University). On the panel of judges were Dr. Jaidaa Mekky (Assistant Professor at the Neuropsychiatry department), Dr Yasmine ElAshram (Professor at the Physiology department) and Moataz Assem. The organizing committee also included Dr. Tarek Omar (Professor of Pediatrics and Pediatric Neurology), Samar Abdelhady (6th year medical student & ANC board member),Kirollus Nagah (STEM October), Moustafa Gaballah (6th year medical student), Iman Idris (Alexandria university hospitals & ANC board member) and Mohammad Taha (Chemistry undergraduate, American University of Cairo AUC), Nourhan Wael (1st year medical student), Mariam Tarek (1st year, faculty of agriculture), Reham Saad (Alexandria University Hospitals), David Usama (STEM Assiut).

 

The competition aims to encourage students to pursue their academic interests as well as raise awareness on the importance of Neuroscience research in improving the mental health of our community as well as treating Neuropsychiatric disorders.

 

Youssef is now preparing to represent Egypt at the International Brain Bee.

 

Alexandria Neuroscience Committee-ANC hopes to hold the Egyptian Brain Bee on a broader scale that will include more students next year.