Erfan Nouraee, a 19-year-old York University student has won a bronze medal at the annual International Invention and Innovation Competition by the International Federation of Inventors’ Associations (IFIA) in Geneva for developing a sensor that can detect particles of light, and it solves a major issue in the optical fiber industry. 

Nouraee designed a new method for the extraction of noises from optical messages, or messages that are carried by light waves, as part of the International Invention and Innovation Competition, an online competition open to inventors around the world held by the Geneva- based International Federation of Inventors’ Associations (IFIA). 

Nouraee hopes that the results of his experiment will connect rural and remote communities to the high-speed, reliable Internet.  

After seeing how the lack of internet access has prevented many children and young people in his home country from using health services and education to staying in touch with their friends and family, he wanted to create a new and low-cost device which can increase the quality of messages sent through light waves and reduce the waste of fiber optic cables that are harmful to the environment. 

“What inspired me mainly was to make something to help people in our rural and remote communities to have access to a low-cost, high-speed Internet,” Nouraee said.

According to UNICEF, 28% of Iranians had no or limited internet access which makes distance learning and accessing important public services like health care and education impossible. In some provinces, only 40% of students had access to the Internet.