Hussam Hassan
Sudan
Mission: to help blind people read e-books.
"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
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Protect your courage
Nine years ago, Hussam helped a blind friend prepare for his final year exams. Seeing him solve complex problems in his mind, Hussam realized how smart his friend was. But, since he was blind he faced a lot of difficulties in school. Without knowing how he would do it, Hussam intended to help. In 2010, as an electronic engineering student at the University of Khartoum in Sudan, an idea crossed Hussam’s mind: What if it was possible to help the blind read electronic books, by translating the text to braille in a dynamic way. He started to put his designs into papers and participated in an international competition held in Berlin, Germany. The competition was about turning ideas into real products, and out of more than 1,200 competitors around the world, Hussam was selected as a second prize winner which gave him a huge edge in implementing the device.
