Mohamed Larri, a first-year student at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), won a gold medal at the 11th International Invention Fair Middle East (IIFME) that took place in Kuwait recently. 
Larri, who is studying information systems, was the youngest inventor to win a gold medal in this year’s competition.
He is part of the Qatar Scientific Club (QSC), which sent a large contingent of inventors to the competition.
Larri was awarded the gold medal for inventing an offside detector for football matches. The system detects the position of the players and sends an automatic notification to the referee when a player is offside.
A competitive football player himself, Larri joined the QSC in 2016 and developed his idea with the help of QSC experts. “My plan is to use it here in Qatar in the 2022 FIFA World Cup,” says Larri, who continues to develop and refine the system.
Now in his second semester of study at CMU-Q, Larri is also tapping into the talent and expertise at the university. “It’s my first competition and I won the gold medal, which motivates me to participate in more competitions. I talk to my fellow students about the possibility of teaming up in the future, as well as email my professors to get their opinions.”
In addition to the Information Systems Programme, CMU-Q offers undergraduate degree programmes in biological sciences, business administration, computational biology and computer science.