Bye 2023... Welcome 2024!
An overview of what has been going on with my life during the last month of 2023, and a quick look into the future!
Picture of the Year :)
2023 has come to and end, and it was a year filled with growth and great experiences. Before talking about December let me remind you about myself :)
I’m Youssef Kusibati, a 16-years-old obsessed with self improvement and technology. I aim to always help the people around me and in the world, and currently improving myself [technical and soft skills] to get to the place where I could help the most people!
I’m working on multiple stuff that could help me reach my goal including projects in brain-computer interfaces and extended reality…
This month was filled with great experiences and growth. I had great progress in the projects I’m working on: 21Verse, MIT Solveathon, TKS Focus Project, TKS Sprint Challenge with META, AI Nexus, Conrad Challenge, and school clubs! A lot of stuff to unpack, so let’s get into it…
21Verse 🥽
Just to remind you...
21Verse is an innovative Metaverse platform targeting individuals with Down syndrome to improve their access to education, physical therapy, and socialization…
During this month, we were preparing for the CoCreate Exhibition happening at AlFaisal University that aims to show our project progress so far… Preparation included creating posters, brochures, and reaching out to people to visit us there!
I have implemented a simple memory game that was approved by a special education specialist experienced with educating Down syndrome adolescents. Additionally, our prototype right now is in two languages: English and Arabic.
Finally, we will soon have a website to show the progress in our project, so stay tuned!
The website is still inactive, but this is its domain: 21Verse.tech [still inactive]
MIT Solveathon + Conrad Challenge
Reminding you… the project is about:
Implementing technology to make physical therapy and occupational therapy more accessible and cheaper for patients.
We are also having a an exhibition showing our work in the last couple of months during January, so we were busy preparing for it… Unfortunately, we [probably] won’t be able to complete the second version of our product in time for the exhibition.
However, we are happy with our first prototype, and will improve upon our idea in these two weeks to participate in the Conrad Challenge since we really think it can create a change for many people’s lives. Thus, now we will be working towards completing the Conrad Challenge innovation stage application…
If you are in Riyadh by the 17th of January and interested in visiting us at the exhibit, please email me and I’ll send you an official invite…
TKS - The Knowledge Society
A teen human accelerator that help students achieve exponential growth -personally, socially, and academically- by developing deep technological and soft skills to create an impact.
This month at TKS there are two main highlights: completing Replicate #1 [Focus Project] and the TKS X Meta Challenge [TKS Sprint Challenge].
TKS Focus Project - Brain Computer Interfaces
A 4-step project where we get deep into a domain of technology to gain hands-on experience in the field.
I’ve completed the technical aspect of the second step of the project [Replicate #1} which is a pong game using the MUSE headband that reads brains signals and feeds it into the code I have learned in order to move the pong pad to avoid making the ball fall down on the ground by just blinking…
I will soon have the content ready for this project [a step-by-step article and an explanatory video]… Stay tuned [I’ll upload it on my Youtube Channel], and, for the meantime, you could read my Learn article where I share my baby steps into the BCI field.
TKS X Meta - Sprint Challenge
A 2.5 week challenge where TKS partnered with Meta for TKS students to apply their training throughout the previous months to solve a detailed recommendation slidedeck to be submitted to Meta executives.
The problem statement we were given was:
"What can Meta do to ensure the safety of young people that use its products? As Meta ventures more into the Metaverse, what ideas are important to consider to provide a high quality, non-harmful experience for younger platform users?”
Me and my team [
] worked on this challenge for those two weeks. It was a great experience overall and I learned a lot throughout the challenge.One of the great skills I learned was asynchronous work since all my team members live in very different time zones, so I needed to work asynchronously and attend meeting early in the mornings.
We built a recommendation focusing on content categorization alongside an updated family center to make Instagram and eventually the whole Meta ecosystem of products safer for the younger audiences.
AI Nexus
At AI Nexus which originally started as a school club, we had a lot of progress and growth.
We have successfully set up a partnership with a STEM organization based in Texas, US called INSPIRE STEM that greatly aligns with our goals of spreading knowledge about technology to all teenagers around the world.
It involves a series of workshops and articles to be completed throughout the next few months in partnership with both organization. Look out for our LinkedIn to see more details soon!
One more thing…
I experienced a lot of amazing stuff during this month from amazing memories with my friends to real improvement in my technical and research skills…
Ps. I’m also currently applying to the Rise Challenge [was named a finalist last year]…
Picture of the Month :)
What to look for next year?
I won’t put a list of goals for this; however, I know inshallah that this year will be one of great growth and experiences. It will definitely have a lot of new stuff happening including applying to universities…
That’s so cool Youssef!!