Today's Edition
ISIDORA CIRIC (ABU DHABI)
On a stretch of polluted river in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, an AI-powered solar robot built by students cuts across the surface, herding floating rubbish into a metal basket and feeding real-time readings back to a phone.
In Cairo’s industrial quarter, teenagers fire special ceramic tiles that store daylight to glow after dark and kill bacteria on contact through infused antimicrobial compounds, making public spaces safer and more accessible for everyone.
And in Jordan’s Ruseifa, deaf students recycle rainwater and greywater to feed hydroponic beds that supply fresh greens to a local e-market, sharing the knowledge in sign language so that everyone can copy the system.
Representing their schools, these young innovators will share the stage next week in Abu Dhabi as finalists for the Zayed Sustainability Prize, vying for a Global High Schools grant of $150,000 that would take their ideas beyond the school gates.
The winners will be announced on January 13, during the opening ceremony of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2026.
Inside the Judging Room
This year’s edition received 7,761 entries from 173 countries, but only a few made it through to the final round.
For jury member Marko Londa, Founder of Moonshot Pirates and Selection Committee Member for the Global High Schools category, three key considerations guide the shortlisting process: originality, clarity of focus, and depth of understanding.
The first filter assesses whether students are thinking beyond what already exists, using AI and new technologies to approach challenges in ways that weren’t possible a few years ago.
“I look for that spark: a fresh approach, not just a copy of an existing solution,” Londa told Aletihad.
Clarity of focus is where many strong concepts drop points, Londa pointed out, because teams can mistake ambition for direction and end up building something that does a bit of everything but solves nothing well.
“The strongest projects usually solve one problem really well. When a team tries to solve everything at once, the solution becomes vague and execution suffers,” he said.
This goes hand in hand with team dynamics, Londa added, because “the strongest projects aren’t driven only by a teacher”, but by students whose “energy, ownership and passion” come through in every video and presentation.
When assessing depth of work, the committee looks for projects that are grounded in lived experience and tested, even in small ways, with the people they aim to serve. This feedback, Londa explained, often decides whether a prototype will hold up in real-world conditions once it leaves the classroom.
“Meaningful inclusion, to me, means access… not just the chance to submit an application,” he said.
“When programmes truly include underserved communities, they don’t just invite them to participate; they actively reduce barriers and provide mentoring, tools, coaching, time, and encouragement”.
Behind the scoring sheets, he sees the application as a kind of fast-track course in how real projects behave once they leave the classroom. And while the Prize is structured to reward outcomes, it also seeks to encourage positive habits that students can carry with them long after the ceremony lights go out.
“Through the application process, students are pushed to engage with real-world problems in a meaningful way. They research, they test assumptions, they understand constraints, and they learn how complex real impact actually is. That experience alone is incredibly valuable,” Londa said.
“Not every project will turn into a long-term solution. Still, every project, every experience brings young people one step closer to becoming innovators whether with this idea or the next one.”
Al Rajaa School for the Deaf
For Al Rajaa School for the Deaf in Jordan, the starting point was inclusivity. Environmental education across the region often relies on lectures and materials that deaf students cannot easily access, while practical activities tend to be designed without their input.
The answer was to turn the campus into an eco-school where students experiment with rainwater harvesting, greywater treatment, recycling systems and hydroponics, then sell home-grown produce through a community e-market.
The breakthrough came when neighbours began asking for tips. Families started replicating composting and irrigation methods. Deaf students became local instructors.
“This taught us that people value simple, practical, and youth-led solutions that can be applied in their daily lives,” the students told Aletihad.
Recognition as a Zayed Sustainability Prize finalist has brought new visibility and “global recognition of the creativity, capability, and potential of deaf students”.
Local newspapers have asked for interviews, and the Jordanian Fund for Human Development arranged a visit to Ain Al Basha Vocational Training Centre, where pupils picked up new techniques which they hope to adapt for their own project.
Should the grant arrive, the team wants to expand their eco-school model and share it with other schools, using the prize to train more deaf youth to take on leadership roles in environmental action.
Fawakhir School for Applied Technology
The work of Egyptian finalists from Fawakhir School for Applied Technology began with two everyday observations: how quickly microbes reappear on cleaned surfaces, and how many buildings rely on weak or inefficient lighting.
“We learned that many communities require solutions that can help reduce the spread of disease and its economic consequences, while also cutting down on energy use,” the students told Aletihad.
They decided to tackle both problems with one fix — a tile system that combines antibacterial and antimicrobial ceramics with phosphorescent tiles that glow at night without electricity.
But instead of stopping at the concept stage, the team approached their school principal, who took it to the Egyptian Ministry of Education. This connected them to the Faculty of Applied Arts and the National Research Centre, which opened its facilities for full-scale testing.
The Zayed Sustainability Prize finalist slot has also changed the pace of the work, pushing the team to treat the project like a product that can scale globally, while at the same time offering important recognition to youth-led innovation.
“This achievement strengthened our confidence that students — when given the chance — can develop real, impactful solutions to global challenges.”
If they secure the prize, the team wants to begin pilot deployment in public spaces, with the long-term goal of establishing a production facility for wider distribution.
Rashaya High School
For students at Lebanon’s Rashaya High School, the idea grew from observing how Lebanon’s rivers, once a source of pride, are now clogged with plastic and solid waste.
“We began our project by addressing the problem of water pollution in Lebanon,” the team told Aletihad.
They designed and built Liquid Spark — a solar-powered unit that autonomously tracks and collects floating debris, safely delivering it to shore while streaming real-time data to a mobile app.
“The turning point came when we understood that our solution could operate beyond a school project and deliver measurable impact in real conditions,” they added.
For the Rashaya team, the finalist status confirmed that the school’s commitment to sustainability is recognised on the global stage. It has also moved their project from a student experiment into a credible, community-backed solution.
“Being named a finalist in the Zayed Sustainability Prize validates that our voices can be heard on an international stage and that our ideas have the power to reach far beyond what we initially imagined,” they said.
If they get the win, the students plan to officially deploy Liquid Spark on Lebanese waterways, using it to gather environmental data and support ongoing river clean-ups.
