2017 WISE Awards
The 2017 WISE Awards projects have been selected. The six winning projects were selected from a pool of 15 finalists for their creative approach to crucial education challenges and demonstrating positive impact on society. They originate from the USA, UK, Tanzania, France and Spain.
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About the Winning Projects
PhET Interactive Simulations developed over 130 research-based simulations that engage students and transform the teaching and learning of science and math, along with extensive teacher resources. The simulations are translated into 90 languages and were ran over 330 million times since 2002.
Learner Guide provides an 18-month life skills course for 15-17 year old secondary school students with focus on girls. The volunteers were previous students at Camfed schools and now act as role models for next generation of girls. 971 Learner Guides have so far reached over 100,000 secondary school children in Tanzania.
Speed School enables out-of-school children to catch up to their grade level in government schools through an intensive, child-centered pedagogy for teaching basic literacy and numeracy. Since the mid-2000s, the model has been implemented in four African countries, and to date has benefitted over 100,000 children and their families.
Ubongo delivers engaging learning content such as stories, animations and music across platforms including radio, TV, SMS and smartphones, and adapts it to local context and language. It provides guidance to schools and communities to support their children’s learning and development. Over 5 million households in Africa access Ubongo each week.
42 is a free of charge computer-programming training program and is open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 30 whether they possess an academic degree or not. There are no classes and no professors at 42. Students learn by tackling a specific project in groups.42 welcomes 2,500 students who train themselves every day to become the best developers of tomorrow.
Lights to Learn is a previous WISE Awards finalist, it provides schools mainly in Latin America with electricity through the installation of photovoltaic solar systems, Internet, IT equipment, teacher training and community development. 556 rural schools and 26,000 students in Latin America benefited from the program.
 PhET Interactive Simulations |
 The Learner Guide Program |
 Speed School |
 Ubongo Edutainment |
 42 |
 Lights to Learn |
2017 WISE Awards Keynotes’ Replay
Jury
 Ms Carolyn Acker, Founder, Pathways to Education Canada |
 Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Horr, CEO, Qatar Finance and Business Academy, Qatar |
 Mr. Essa Al Mannai, Executive Director, Reach Out To Asia (ROTA), Qatar |
 H.E. Aïcha Bah Diallo, Former Chair, Forum of African Women Educationalists (FAWE), Guinea-Conakry |
 Dr. Claudia Costin, Senior Director, Education Global Practice, The World Bank Group, Brazil |
 Mr. Cairui (Arnold) FU, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Hujiang, China |
 Ms Mervi Jansson-Aalto, CEO, Omnia Education Partnerships, Finland |
 Mr. Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, University of Central Asia, Pakistan |
 Mr. Jacob Kragh, General Manager, LEGO China, Denmark |
Pre-jury
- Dr. Gabi Lombardo, Director, EASSH, Belgium
- Mr. Marwan Tarazi, Department Director, Birzeit University, Palestine
- Mr. Kamel Brahman, Lead Education Specialist, The World Bank, Tunisia
- Mr. Wei Wei, Head Of Asia, UBS Optimus Foundation, China
- Dr. Noora Al Thani, Manager, Al Bairaq, Qatar
- Mr. Ross Hall, Director for Education, Ashoka, UK
- Ms Naadiya Mosaji, CEO, WomEng, South Africa
- Ms Safeena Husain, Executive Director, Educate Girls, India
- Ms Ana Raad, Professor, Catholic University of Chile, Chile
- Ms Caroline Aebersold, CEO, The Song Room, Australia
Contact us at awards@wise.org.qa if you have any questions.