Medicine with reduced side effects, vehicles with lesser carbon emissions, Omani plants’ potential in curing numerous diseases — the focus may be vast but an Omani inventor is looking into these areas to put Oman on the map as a country that drives innovation.
Young inventor Imad bin Abdullah Obaidoun is one of the young Omani cadres who want to challenge the country and push the innovation potentials to even greater heights.
Obaidoun wants to fully exploit his talents which is why he has been participating in numerous internal and external scientific and innovation competitions bringing glory to the Sultanate. His latest achievement was landing second place in the invention competition that was held in Lebanon.
Imad, a chemical analyst at Okiyo Salalah Liquefied Gas Group, said that his passion for inventions began when he was still in the university. He was very interested in the field of chemistry and this eventually led to refining his skills in the subject and paving the road to joining different competitions. With the full support of his parents, he was able to draw inspiration not only from people around him but by the needs of individuals that have the potential to change how society does things.
Imad shared that during his participation in the 12th International Exhibition of Inventions in the Middle East held in Kuwait last year, he won first place — something he considers a very important achievement that propels him to move forward. The idea of his innovation came during his studies at the undergraduate level, and it aimed to create a technology that treats contaminated water without any chemical intervention.
Obaidoun registered in the Falling Walls Laboratory, which is supervised by the Scientific Research Council of the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, and he looks forward and is gearing to participate in contests in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Imad has already swept awards in different competitions including the 2019 Vision Award for the organic solar energy project, through which he achieved first place for the Renewable Energy Department, while he achieved the second prize for the electrochemical treatment project. He also got the second prize in the Salalah Sanitary Services Competition in 2020 for a water treatment project using the electrochemical method.
Other than working on projects like reducing medicinal side effects and reduction of carbon emissions, he is also working on three projects in electrochemical water treatment, silver nanoparticles, Omani tree extracts and their role in the medical field.
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