Dubai: A nine-year-old Emirati inventor of devices such as a car seatbelt heart monitor, cleaning robot and light-weight prosthetic limbs has been honoured by Dubai Municipality (DM) ahead of World Intellectual Property Day (WIPD).
Boy wonder Adeeb Al Balushi was awarded a certificate of appreciation by the municipality’s Director-General Hussain Lootah at the DM’s main building in Deira on Thursday.
WIPD is held on April 26 every year to celebrate innovation and highlight patent and copyright issues.
Also honoured on Thursday were DM officials during a ceremony titled “Creativity – The Generation Next,” which is this year’s WIPD theme.
Adeeb is a child prodigy whose innovations are registered with authorities, his father Sulaiman Al Balushi said.
The young school goer said he started inventing after seeing his father in discomfort.
“I always think how to help the needy people to make their life easier with the help of new technology. I started to think to make a lightest artificial leg supporter as my father is a victim of polio and was suffering from a heavy artificial leg,” Adeeb said.
He added his father, a 43-year-old businessman, would take off the apparatus before using the swimming pool.
Adeeb also made a tiny cleaning robot for his mum for those hard-to-reach places such as under the sofa and room corners.
And the heart monitor idea flashed when his father asked him how he would alert family and emergency services if the car driver or passenger needed first-aid. Adeeb said his heart-monitor, embedded in the seatbelt system, can wirelessly beam health alerts to first responders.
He has also invented a fireproof helmet with a camera system to help see in emergencies.
On Thursday, he gave a short presentation on his inventions before he was thronged by fans and media.
“I feel really proud and happy for this [certificate of appreciation]. All I want to do is help people, be a UAE scientist when I grow up. It started with my dad, he is my basic inspiration for everything,” Adeeb said.
“I was encouraged to always ask ‘why?’ You have to keep asking – why is the sky blue, why is the grass green?
“My advice [to peers] is never ever give up. To be an inventor, you need: passion for discovery, a problem, and how to help people solve it.”
His father, Al Balushi, said: “Adeeb is always asking questions. He wouldn’t play with toys, he would open them up and see what was inside, how it all worked. I’m always trying to be his age with him, and he is always trying to be my age with me.”
He added: “Adeeb has around seven inventions, I hope these items come to the market. Adeeb will have full rights to it.” The seven innovations in Adeeb’s name are registered with the Emirates Intellectual Property Association.
During the event’s opening speech, Lootah stressed the need for protecting the intellectual property rights of the national youth and encouraging them to be creative.
He added that the civic body is keen to protect the intellectual property rights of all its employees, organisational units and departments.
The departments honoured include Planning, Architectural Heritage, Public Health Services — top in scoring intellectual property rights during 2009-2012 — in addition to Corporate Marketing and Relations, Accreditation, Corporate Excellence, DCL, Electronic evaluation team, and Corporate Support Services Sector.
The Ministry of Economy was also honoured for its contribution with DM in protecting intellectual property rights.
