07 May 2019

Young La Salle pre-university students from Spain, Portugal, Palestine and Turkey win the prize at the ninth edition of the LSdreams International Competition in Rome

Once again, the La Salle Generalate hosted the award ceremony of the LSdreams competition.

This key event of the contest’s 9th edition, which was included among the activities of the 300th anniversary of St. John Baptist de La Salle’s death, was presided over by Brother Jorge Gallardo, Vicar General of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

During his speech, Brother Jorge Gallardo congratulated the winners and emphasized that especially during this 300th anniversary of La Salle and now more than ever before, we must all feel compelled to renew our dreams every day and always find Jesus in our hearts.

Other speakers were also Brother Miguel Àngel Barrabeig, team member of the Europe and Middle East Lasallian region, RELEM, Mrs. Marta Martínez, President of ASSEDIL and Mr. Josep M. Santos, General Director of La Salle Campus Barcelona and Director of the IALU French-speaking Europe and Africa region.

The students who won presented their projects during the event. The efforts made to enter the final stage of the competition led them to spend extra time supplementary to their studies.

All works have been rigorously designed and developed in teams, in order to foster reflection and provide solutions to social problems and, above all, with an attitude of respect for the environment and sustainability for the planet. These are innovative research projects, which were developed in teams in the areas of architecture, engineering, health, business management, life and Earth sciences.

The teams of the centers Saint - Michel Fransiz Lisesi, Istanbul (Turkey) and La Salle Beit Hanina of Jerusalem (Palestine) have received the extraordinary LSdreams Prize for the best collaborative project, from the hands of Brother Jorge Gallardo. This innovative UltraVision technology - based project, developed jointly by Eda Güçhan, Şila Polat, Asli Ünlüer, Jennifer Fairhurst and Amro Imad Sinokrot, Omar Khaldon Abu Saoud, and supervised by their tutors Milena Kuyumciyam and Amer Qaysi, aims at facilitating blind people’s mobility.

Brother Miguel Angel Barrabeig presented the First prize for Engineering to José Nuno Correia Campos, Hugo José Campos Martins and Pedro da Silva Pereira and their tutor, José Eduardo Correia Roque, from the La Salle Barcelos of Portugal school for the "Body Buble" project. This work consists of an inflatable full body suit for moto-bikers, which provides protection to the whole body, and it activates in milliseconds, thus preventing injuries and death.

Likewise, the students Idoia Gondra Pérez, Arrate Jace Izaguirre and Itziar Arrillaga Gonzalez, as well as their tutor Martxeli Mugica Jauregui, from the La Salle School of Bilbao, received the First Prize and the ASSEDIL prize for the "Social Empathy Site Franchisee" business management project from the hands of Mrs. Marta Martínez.  This project is rooted in two areas: a welcoming network of socio-educational support with the aim of equaling the different training levels, in order to foster student and family inclusion.

In the area of health, Mr. Josep Santos awarded the first prize to the students Issam Shihabi, Christine Yousef Sabat and Omeros Samara and their tutor George Amireh Afif, from La Salle Jerusalem school (Palestine), for their "Eduevolution" project. This project aims at finding a more economically viable alternative, enabling Human Resources departments in companies to handle tasks, which may actually confer greater importance to them.

On his part, Josep M. Santos, in his closing speech for the event, highlighted the importance of constant dialogue and close relationships among La Salle University higher education centers and schools, which allow us to offer our students the opportunity to continue dreaming and creating a bright future full of hope. The fact of being a single network helps us to understand the profile of the entrepreneur student, who wants to change the world by looking for practical solutions to real problems.

About LSdreams

LSdreams is organized by La Salle Universities, the international Lasallian university network composed of seven European university centers: UniLaSalle Beauvais, Ecole Catholique d'Arts et Métiers (Lyon), Groupe ESAIP Enseignement Supérieur (Angers), La Salle Mounier (Paris), La Salle Campus Barcelona - URL, La Salle Campus Madrid and the Open University La Salle (UOLS).