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The 1^st edition of the Maroun N. Chammas Recognition Award ceremony was held on the 23^rd of February where the winners of the 2 awards were announced.

Quadra, the Agrytech Alumni, won the Maroun N. Chammas Recognition Award for Technology Innovation including the $50K prize money and the much-coveted mentorship from Maroun Chammas.

As for the Sports Excellence Recognition Award, it was bestowed on young swimming athlete Rami El Ghaziri, 15, who received $25K as reward and encouragement for his sports career.

Maroun N. Chammas said, “This project is one of hope for people who believe in this country because every young person who stays in Lebanon is a hero and an achiever. Lebanon deserves to have success stories and the finalists this evening in both awards have raised our flag high.”

Kevin Boutros, founder of Quadra, commented, “We want to thank you Mr. Chammas for this incredible and generous award. We entered Beryrech’s Agrytech Program as engineers with no business experience whatsoever. Today, we are entrepreneurs, who had the confidence to apply to the Maroun N. Chammas Recognition Award and we couldn’t be luckier than to win and have the privilege to have him as our mentor.”

Chammas had previously announced that on a yearly basis, and for the next 10 years, he had committed the funding for the award with $50K to recognize technology innovation; and $25K to recognize and reward excellence in sporting accomplishments. The management of this award has been granted to Berytech, the ecosystem for entrepreneurs in Lebanon.

The evening was held in the presence of H.E. Mr. Adel Afiouny, newly appointed Minister of State for Information Technology and Investments, as well as former Minister of Interior H.E. Mr. Ziad Baroud, and Member of the Lebanese Parliament and Head of the IT Committee Nadim Gemayel, General Director of the Lebanese Presidency Dr. Antone Choucair, the jury members and the selection committees, colleagues, friends and family of Mr. Chammas as well as the finalists in both categories.

The finalists were evaluated by a judging panel consisting High Tech Product Executive Ramzi Haidamus, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Holding Alain Bejjani, Lebanese sportsman, mountaineer and explorer Maxime Chaya, ICT & Telecom Expert Antoine Fadel, and COO of Real Ventures Roula Zaarour. One of the voting voices was given collectively to Maroun Chammas’ children.

The finalists who pitched their business plan in front of the judges included:

Generics – who custom-makes eartips to solve for poor fitting, uncomfortable earphones through an App, photogrammetry, and 3D Printing;

Quadra – who is developing an optical fruit sorting machine, capable of sorting different types of fruits based on the international standards of size, color, and defects; it utilizes the latest Machine Learning and Computer Vision technologies, coupled with state-of-the-art manufacturing, to provide the best levels of accuracy in grading, defect detection, and fruit handling;

Modeo Systems - an early-stage Lebanese startup, developing a modular furniture solution based on a 3D mobile app that allows anyone to create custom furniture very easily, like playing Lego;

Spike Diabetes Assistant - a mobile assistant that helps diabetics better manage their diabetes. Spike monitors the patient's daily behavior and jumps in with reminders and tips when needed about insulin, food, activity, etc. In addition to that, Spike stores the patient's data for further analysis and/or sharing with doctors and caregivers.