On Friday May 14th many community members gathered at the Santa Clara County Government Center to celebrate the 9th annual Santa Clara County Palestinian Cultural Day. Among those gathered were three young Palestinian students and their entourage who attended the event at the request of community leaders to be recognized for their scientific accomplishments. Aseel Abu Aleil, Aseel Alshaar and Noor Alarada traveled to San Jose from the West Bank to represent Palestine in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair last week. The competition is the largest pre-college science fair in the world with more than 6 million global contestants and 1,500 finalists in competing for over $4 million in scholarships and prizes, including a grand prize $50,000 college scholarship.

The three 14-year-olds attend a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school located at Aska Refugee Camp in Nablus where their project was developed from concept to prototype with the help of their science teacher Jamilah Khaled. It was selected from among 52 projects at the Palestine Science and Technology Exhibition to participate in the Intel ISEF. It began as a simple idea, born of necessity, in a region where streets and sidewalks are seldom smoothly paved and obstacles such as holes and debris pose significant challenges for the visually impaired. The girls developed an electronic obstacle-detecting walking stick which senses the terrain ahead and informs the user by various non visual signals. The wooden cane uses two infrared ground sensors to detect and identify different surfaces, from steps to holes and even liquid, and sends a different signal, either by sound or vibration, to help the blind navigate the difficult terrain.

They were rewarded for their hard work and dedication by being given a "special award in applied electronics" at the Intel ISEF. They are the first Palestinians in history to win an award at this competition. Mark Uslan, a Director at the American Federation of the Blind said “Although various types of 'laser canes' have existed since the early 1970s, the girls’ design resolves a fundamental flaw in previous models by detecting holes in the ground”.