International Youth Day with CERN Alumni | Rayane Belaid, Pratyush Anand and Alforat Faiz Nooraldeen Al-Sakkaf

On the occasion of the International Youth Day, we feature three CERN alumni who have focused their careers on different SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) after their time at CERN. 

Rayane Belaid

Which SDGs are you working on?
"I am working on Emovo device, a hand exoskeleton for assisting the hand impaired patient, it is a light and easy to attach robotic device for people unable to grasp objects following a stroke or accident. The device was jointly developed at Emovo Care and EPFL Biorobotics (BIOROB) Laboratory."

How is your work making an impact?
"My task is to design and develop the firmware for the Emovo hand exoskeleton then verification and testing. By adding new features to the device, it will improve its functionality and help people who suffer from hand impairment regain capabilities needed for independence in daily life they had lost since their disabling accidents, such as grasping and holding glasses and bottles for autonomous drinking, writing with pens and manipulating the environment. The neurologists and therapists have noted its benefits while successfully testing the device in several hospitals and rehabilitation centers in Switzerland."

What was your role at CERN?
"I was a Summer student at CERN, I worked in the IT department inside the CDA section. This section provides over 100 engineering applications used by the technicians, engineers, and physicists at CERN to design and implement the different components that are used to carry out the accelerators and experiments work. Such a large number of applications also entails a large set of licenses that need to be monitored. Thus, I designed and developed a prototype of a monitoring tool to manage these software licenses."

What skills did you develop during your CERN work experience which have been particularly useful in your subsequent career trajectory?
"I developed my software engineering skills during my work at CERN, I learned about deployment using some software engineering tools as well as working efficiently with team members."

Pratyush Anand

Which SDGs are you working on?
"Quantum Sensing, Quantum Network: healthcare solutions, safer communication platform which is resistant to the threats that will arise after the quantum computing era"

How is your work making an impact?
"Advancement in the development of quantum sensors involves a major activity in building quantum magnetometers for magnetoencephalography and geophysical surveying. Magnetoencephalography is a ground-breaking non-invasive technique for brain imaging, which is used in the diagnosis of neurological conditions, such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Disease, and for fundamental research in brain connectivity. Applications of Quantum technology could be far-ranging, from rapid simulation of chemical reactions, supporting the development of medicines, revolutionizing healthcare, automating scientific experiments, to addressing climate change through far more accurate forecasting, to better batteries, and financial modeling, and logistics optimization, all the way to potentially making general “strong AI” possible. Even under conservative assumptions, quantum technologies are expected to significantly support our efforts toward sustainable development."

What was your role at CERN?
"I worked as a summer student with the ATLAS collaboration. My work was related to the Cesium and Laser calibration of the ATLAS Tile calorimeter, which is used to measure the energy deposited by hadrons in the ATLAS detector."

What skills did you develop during your CERN work experience which have been particularly useful in your subsequent career trajectory?
"Detector Instrumentation, Electronics, ROOT: Data Analysis Framework."

Alforat Faiz Nooraldeen Al-Sakkaf

Which SDGs are you working on?
"Climate action"

How is your work making an impact?
"By creating a technology to simulate carbon emissions that works by obtaining and structuring seamless data sources, which aims to measure and report the carbon footprint in addition to preparing reports."

What was your role at CERN?
"Summer Student 2021"

What skills did you develop during your CERN work experience which have been particularly useful in your subsequent career trajectory?
"I had a unique experience at CERN. I developed many skills, the most prominent which were related to my career path were those related to the web. I was part of the "Centralized Elasticseach" team. My project was focused on using one of the Elasticsearch side products, Kibana, as well as the knowledge gained about the hydrogen collider and the techniques used in it."