A neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by impaired social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted and repetitive behaviour, autism is estimated to affect more than 21.7mn people globally. 
As part of the continuous research being done to find out the causes of the disorder and how to prevent it worldwide, Pakistan Engineers Forum (PEF-Qatar) recently organised a seminar here on ‘Autism; How technology can assist.’ 
Eminent speakers from Shafallah Centre Qatar, Awsaj Academy and Qatar University shared information with a large audience in how technology is being used to make the lives of autistic children better. “We at Shafallah are trying to introduce all kinds of new technology to enable the disabled children interact (with people) normally in their lives. We are always looking for new technologies to bring them to Shafallah,” Mohamed Badr al-Saada, Chairman, Shafallah Center, Qatar, told Community. 
“For example, Mohamed al-Ali is using a new technology called the eye-detector. Using this device, Mohamed has been able to communicate with society more than 90% like a normal person,” he added. 
When he had arrived at Shafallah, said al-Saada, he could do only 10% communications with his eyes and his head. And this was just one example. They graduated last October some 194 students from our centre and 114 of them are already working now in different sectors in Qatar and the remaining cases are similar to that of Mohamed. “So we are using different technologies to make their lives better and to make sure that they are able to communicate better,” said the Shafallah Chairman. 
He said they have full services for any child such as educational, medical and psychological besides rehabilitation. Now, they are focusing on another service which is looking into reasons why such disorders are happening. “We have Shafallah Genetic Centre, where they are trying to find the causes of these disabilities and try to prevent them before they happen,” said al-Saada. 
Wajid Hashmi, Deputy Head of Mission, Pakistan embassy, who was the chief guest at the occasion, in his address to the audience appreciated the PEF’s efforts in spreading awareness about the issue. “We stand more enlightened than we were an hour ago. I ran a bit of research on the topic and I came across this beautiful quote, ‘If they can’t learn the way we teach, we teach the way they learn.’ I am grateful to the organisers of this forum for spreading awareness about this issue,” said Hashmi.
PEF for the past many years, he added, has been continuously spreading awareness about the scientific developments and we must commend their efforts. “I sincerely hope that all the efforts in the direction of research on autism (to find causes and solutions) achieve great success and people everywhere in the world can benefit from it,” said the chief guest.
In her presentation, Michelle Gaddy, Science Co-ordinator, Awsaj Academy, Qatar, elaborated on the programme the academy was undertaking to help the children with disabilities lead a normal life. She emphasised on the efforts being done at the academy to bring the children with disability at par with normal children in the society through the use of robotics and other scientific developments. 
In her presentation, Gaddy showed different aspects of the comprehensive development programme through which they are preparing their students to achieve the same goals as they are achieved by the normal students. “The aim is to make sure that the playing field becomes level of these children when they step out. Our students secured 3rd place in the National Science Research Foundation Competition and the important thing was that they achieved this on merit,” said Gaddy. “Nobody knew that they were children with disabilities and they were marked just like the other normal children like them,” she added. 
At Aswaj Academy, she added, they are putting an increasing rigour in LEGO Robotics. Awsaj Academy is a grade 1 to 12 school that addresses the needs of students with learning challenges, and an outreach centre that provides evaluation and professional development services to the community.
In his presentation, Dr Uvais Qidwai, Associate Professor of Computer Engineering, Qatar University and Manager, KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University, demonstrated how robots could help children with autism learn and interact with the society better.  He practically demonstrated two robots designed by his university to help children with autism learn different ways of communication in a fun yet effective way. 
He brought children actors on stage and made them interact with the robots. Dr Qidwai said these robots are designed to address the specific needs of the autistic children. He said further research is underway to improve the robots technology to make them become normal part of the society. 
PEF president Tahir Jamil thanked the speakers and the participants to help in spreading awareness about this important issue through the seminar.


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