You like cats, or at least tolerate them, given how many will be trying to sit on your lap while you sip your drink. You enjoy the simple things in life, like spending time sitting in the garden, and you don't mind stretching your lunch break just a teensie bit to enjoy the weather.
You enjoy the sweeter things in life. Never without a pastry or sandwich in hand, you strike a balance between the bitterness of your espresso and the sugar in your freshly baked croissant with the same poise that balances all things in your life. That being said, you have things to do, people to see! You take your coffee to go, balancing your teetering treat atop your steaming coffee lid as you head to your next appointment.
You are blessed with the gift of patience and understand that the best things in life are worth waiting for, which is why you visit the locale with the longest line. You're certainly a social butterfly; your friends spot you across Bartlett Plaza and pop over to chat while you wait. Like a caterpillar waiting calmly to receive its wings, your time is best spent relaxing while you wait for the aromatic experience of a fresh espresso.
As the name implies, you appreciate efficiency and embody self-efficacy. No need for a barista, you'll make the coffee yourself, thank you very much. With two clicks of a button, a quick peruse of the shelves and a no-nonsense conversation with the cashier, you are in and out with coffee and snacks in two minutes flat. You're a person who gets things done. As you stow your chips in your bag and sip your self-made coffee, you know you're saving precious time.
By Abigail Flynn
Transforming abandoned tires and old washing machine drums into living room furniture, Ibrahim Abougendy '14 turns trash into treasure with the startup he co-founded, Mobikya. Abougendy upcycles waste materials into colorful and comfortable handmade furniture, such as chairs, mirrors and couches.
Abougendy also co-founded two other startups that utilize eco-friendly and biodegradable designs. His water bottle line, Qarura, uses a special clay mix "pottery" that boosts the alkaline content in water and requires less energy in production, while his pottery-based coffee brewing tools from his company Gahawena require less energy than traditional copper.
Outside of the home, Abougendy's work supports local animals. He helped design shelters out of tires, or "Sheltires," which optimize the heat-trapping capacity of rubber tires to offer a warm retreat for stray cats.
"Waste is actually raw material," Abougendy said. "What keeps me persistent against all odds is my passion to be an accelerator for a paradigm shift to happen."
By Claire Davenport
In Youth in Egypt: Identity, Participation, and Opportunity (NYU Press, 2023), Nadine Sika '97, '00, associate professor of comparative politics, paints a picture of young people as Egyptian citizens in their own words.
"I wanted to investigate how Egyptian youth see themselves as a force for transformation and how they are passionate about making a positive change," she explained.
The book tells a new story about young people -- looking at them not just as an age group but as actors for change in the public sphere. Sika was inspired to explore this topic while conducting research on youth in the South Mediterranean. "We got a lot of insight into how young people participate and engage differently in the public sphere," she explained. "After the research project ended, I wanted to do more."
The book draws on qualitative and quantitative analysis with almost 100 interviews and focus groups and a survey analysis of 1,200 young people. Sika worked with AUCians, including undergraduate and graduate students as well as alumni, to conduct the qualitative analysis, interviewing youth and civil society actors from various sociopolitical and economic backgrounds over a three-year period. "AUCians are the backbone of this research," she said. "As a team we would sit together, think about what questions we wanted to pose, how to do the research and who to target."
Sika's research shows that youth in Egypt perceive themselves as members of society with agency and a desire to contribute to positive change.
"A lot of people think that youth aren't interested in public engagement, but the majority of young people we worked with see themselves as a force for development and impact," she said.
Sika also looked at what marginalizes and disenfranchises youth as well as the lack of economically marginalized youth representation in the public sphere.
"We always hear that education is the opportunity for upward mobility. However, educated young people coming from lower economic backgrounds are less likely to have better life chances," she said. "What we found through our research was that youth from disenfranchised backgrounds really need to have their voices heard."
Sika hopes that this book serves as a reminder that young people want to continue taking part in shaping the future of society in Egypt and the region at large.
"Youth in Egypt are actually vibrant, present and optimistic about their future," she said.
Nadine Sika
By Katie Marie
Ahmed Sameh (MA '18, MA '20) is on a journey to help himself and others get in touch with their authentic selves.
In the nearly 10 years since he founded his social enterprise Emmkan, it has grown from a career guidance hub for young people to become Egypt's first organization for developing social and emotional learning (SEL) workshops and tools that help people of all ages to better understand themselves and others.
Sameh at AUC New Cairo, photo by Ahmad El-Nemr"When you're connected to your true self, you are way more confident, more at peace when it comes to mental health and less fearful of judgment or failure," Sameh explained. "Better social and emotional awareness enables you to live more intentionally. It lets you have healthier, more harmonious relationships."
For much of the company's existence, Emmkan has focused on supporting and teaching Egyptian youth. Starting just two years after Sameh graduated with a bachelor's in computer engineering and an MBA in marketing, the company originally aimed to help students explore their personalities and make better career decisions.
Almost immediately, though, Sameh's focus began to shift.
"Instead of using the safe space we created to discuss career or academic choices, many of the students talked to us about stress and challenges in their lives. Some had experienced severe traumas and didn't have an outlet to deal with them," Sameh recalled.
Today, Emmkan offers workshops and retreats to K-12 and university students at schools across Egypt, including AUC. Through its free Student Ambassador program, Emmkan also trains and mentors high school students, empowering them to lead community development and volunteer projects.
In 2015, after several years as a practitioner, Sameh felt compelled to return to school -- this time to AUC, where he obtained two master's degrees in international and comparative education and philosophy.
"I only had a very basic introduction to the humanities in my own undergraduate degree, and felt like I needed to expand my own knowledge in order to be able to dig deeper in our work," Sameh explained.
"Better social and emotional awareness enables you to live more intentionally. It lets you have healthier, more harmonious relationships."
Bringing together educators from different fields, AUC's Department of Educational Studies (formerly the Graduate School of Education) provided Sameh with the opportunity to connect with and learn from other practitioners. "Many of the students are teachers or administrators working on the ground," he said. "This experience has given me one of the most powerful networks I have in my career."
During his master's studies, Sameh also learned the professional language needed to explain his passion. "At the Comparative and International Education Society's 2016 conference in Vancouver, I attended a workshop about social and emotional learning. I had never heard the term before, but I understood that it was exactly what I had been trying to do. I finally knew how to explain Emmkan's mission."
The card game, Share, photo by Ahmad El-NemrMore recently, Emmkan has sought to broaden the reach of its programs, sharing SEL knowledge via its Instagram, TikTok and YouTube channels. It has begun to develop learning tools for adults, the first of which is an SEL card game called Share. Several editions of the game have been published, including versions for friends, families and married couples -- the last of which has become a bestseller. Share is tailored to the Egyptian social context, and the decks are bilingual in both English and Arabic.
While anyone can purchase the game, it has become a popular tool among life coaches, psychologists and others working in SEL and mental health.
"Our pivot to focus on all ages is really aimed at amplifying the impact of SEL to the community level. Adults, especially parents, or couples with these skills can create a more supportive environment for children to grow in," Sameh explained. "If SEL is adopted more widely, this will create increasingly authentic and balanced communities. The change would be massive."
By Dalia Al Nimr
In his book, Age Is Just a Number, the late Charles Eugster recounted his experiences as a retired dental surgeon. He revived his passion for competitive rowing at age 63, ventured into bodybuilding at 87 and embraced sprinting for the first time at 95. His remarkable achievements include securing 40 gold medals in World Masters Rowing, claiming world championship titles in 200-meter indoor and 400-meter outdoor races, and setting world records for his age group in various sports. Eugster died in 2017 at age 97.
While not everybody can be record- breaking athletes at an older age, it's up to each individual to make the most of their time in this life. "Age is really just a number," said Mohamed Salama, professor at AUC's Institute of Global Health and Human Ecology. "Healthy aging is all in the mindset."
This year, Salama is launching "AL- SEHA [Health]: A Longitudinal Study of Egyptian Healthy Aging," the first nationally representative panel study on aging in Egypt. The first of its kind in the Middle East, the study aims to fill knowledge gaps to help set policies and effective healthcare strategies that improve the lives of the country's elderly population.
AUCToday spoke with Salama on AL-SEHA and what it takes to be happy and healthy.
What is healthy aging?
The word "health" in itself does not connote the absence of disease. Healthy elderly people still have illnesses. The true definition of health is improving one's quality of life. This notion of health is becoming correlated with the term "happy aging," whereby as people age, they are content, independent and engaged in community activities while maintaining a good physical quality of life.
A 2023 paper published in Cell journal argues that aging is a reversible process, based on experiments with mice. Can aging be reversed? Can the body "reset itself?"
Reverse aging is too ambitious. Such experiments have been successful with reverse aging in mice through gene manipulation in a controlled experimental setting. However, humans have different exposures and ways of living. So theoretically yes, the body can reset itself in a controlled environment, but realistically, this can't happen because you can't control all of the variables around you. This is the problem with basic research: oversimplification.
What's a more realistic approach?
Applied research, which is more accurate and aims to improve quality of life while postponing or slowing down the aging process. It's normal to have a decline in cognitive and other functions as you get older. Our role as scientists is to postpone this to 80 or 90 years of age, especially since life expectancy is increasing. So we're looking at a gradual, not sharp, decline that can be accommodated and doesn't hit elderly people hard.
How does that happen?
There are two tracks to study aging: purely biological, which ignores the complexity of human beings, and a social science path, where scientists study human experiences throughout life. The best approach merges both tracks, and this is where longitudinal studies come in.
How does the AL-SEHA study work?
Before getting into the aging phase, which begins at around 45 or 50 years of age, we follow up with individuals who are in good physical and mental health. We do this every couple of years for a decade or two. At age 60, we examine when the decline happens and identify possible contributing factors: Is it specific experiences they went through, such as work, diet, sports or marriage? Is it where they live or how much education they have completed? Embracing the complexity of human beings is a main pillar in longitudinal studies, and such determinants provide us with real-time data to analyze.
"We need to embrace aging and understand its determinants. It's a normal process."
How do you use this data to assess cognitive aging?
We identify modifiable risk factors. So far, there are 12: lower levels of education, physical inactivity, air pollution, excessive alcohol, smoking, head injury, infrequent social contact, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, depression and hearing impairment. If we can control them, we'll probably be able to postpone, decrease, slow down and, in some cases, eliminate the risk by up to 40%. We basically match each of these lifestyle aspects with biological factors.
Can you illustrate this from everyday life?
Take education, for example. The number of years of education is directly proportional to cognitive functions. The more educated you are, the lesser the chance of cognitive decline. Continuing education and graduate studies are even better. Also, people who are skilled in memorization have a high cognitive reserve, meaning their brains are resilient to new demands and damage and are therefore less likely to develop cognitive diseases later on. Family coherence, or the degree of love from primary caregivers, also affects cognitive functions among the elderly. Even coffee can protect against neurological diseases and cognitive decline. Studies have shown that four cups of coffee a day could help prevent Parkinson's and dementia. On the other hand, stress, trauma and pollution can negatively affect cognitive processes.
Why are aging studies important?
There has been a growing global interest in healthy aging studies because they reveal the challenges and opportunities that will face the world in the future, especially in low- and middle-income countries that suffer from a lack of data in this field. Aging studies can help prevent the development of major diseases, such as cancer and dementia, including Alzheimer's.
What is different about the study you're conducting?
AL-SEHA is the first to apply the U.S.- based health and retirement survey, which has been implemented on a global scale, to the Middle East. With longitudinal studies, it's important
to understand the human condition in one's own country versus others. For example, a study conducted in a war-torn country will be different from one where there is no conflict because human experiences and exposures stand in stark contrast.
Why start with Egypt?
Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the third in Africa. Although the country's population is relatively young, the number of elderly people is rising. Egypt is in an ideal position to prepare its population for healthy aging to help reduce access inequities and age-based discrimination while facilitating the evaluation of current health policies.
How big is the project?
It started in 2021 with a pilot study in coordination with AUC's Social Research Center and will expand to include about 20,000 participants aged over 50, representing all of Egypt's governorates. The study will span at least 10 years, with researchers following up with participants every two years to track changes in their health. We will collaborate with government agencies, civil society and nonprofit organizations in Egypt, in addition to the SHARE project, which researches the connection between policy and quality of life for European citizens and beyond.
What's the main message you wish to convey through this research?
Aging is not a disease. If people view aging as a biological problem or illness, their life expectancy falls back four years. There is still a misconception that the elderly should retire and stay at home. On the contrary, working reduces the chances of a sharp decline in health and cognitive functions. We shouldn't make the elderly feel like they have a problem. There will be some decline, of course, but one can remain healthy at 70, 80 and even 90 years of age. We need to embrace aging and understand its determinants. It's a normal process and shouldn't be accompanied by major morbidities or lethal diseases.
By Devon Murray
Step back in time to 1973, when, in the midst of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Egypt and Syria launched an attack on Israel on October 6, catching the world off guard. Known as the October War, this conflict and its results signaled a major shift across the region's political landscape and United States foreign policy in the Middle East.
Today, on the war's 50th anniversary, we look back not on the battlefield, but on Cairo -- and AUC -- to understand what life was like for AUCians in wartime. Drawing from a series of oral histories and clippings from The Caravan found in the University Archives, we explore the varied experiences of students, faculty and staff in October 1973.
What are the signs a country is headed toward war? Tim Sullivan, provost emeritus and former professor of political science, who landed in Cairo just before October 1973, sets the scene.
We arrived on September 16, 1973, which is obviously 20 days before the war. So we didn't have much time to get adjusted to Egypt before that. Most places had windows painted blue. That would mean you could have the light on at night, and it couldn't be seen by a plane that might drop a bomb on you. There were sandbags everywhere. ... The Sheikh Rihan entrance to AUC had a barricade in front of it..
Of course, we didn't plan to arrive in a war zone. You know, obviously, the Arab-Israeli conflict had been going on since the establishment of Israel. And one knew you were going into a place where conflict was, in a sense, endemic. But there was no inkling that war was imminent. It looked like something of a stalemate, actually.
For Jayme Spencer, librarian emerita who served as the director of public services at the AUC Library for more than 43 years, October 6, 1973 began as any other day.
It's a Sunday. And we are invited out. In those days, we did not work on Sunday.
She recalls going to a barbecue at the home of a colleague who lived by the Pyramids.
And at some point toward the evening, we got ... a knock on the door. The sun had already pretty much gone down. And some army people came in, and all started talking. ... Apparently, as it was translated to us, you know, "How can you be doing this? A day that you, your country is at war! And you have foreigners with you!" ... And they said, "Pack everything up and get out of here immediately. Go to your home."
I think they painted the headlights of the cars blue so that they wouldn't show ... because all of a sudden we were of course in curfew and darkness.
According to Spencer, the University remained open the following day, though not everyone showed up.
People were waiting for the University to make an official announcement. And we didn't know how long [this was] going to happen. Were we going to, you know, be defeated immediately, and that would be the end of it? But as it turned out of course, it lasted much longer.
Thoron at AUC Tahrir SquareWalid Kazziha, political science professor who has been with AUC since 1972, describes the community's initial reaction to the war.
In 1973, when the war broke out, students were up in arms, faculty were very much fired up with what was happening. And then we get this statement from the Vice President... [Ahmed Abdel Ghaffar] Saleh or something, who says, "Classes will be held as usual."
The faculty called for a meeting, and we met. [President] Thoron came personally to that meeting.
Thoron laid it out and said, "We're fully in support of Egyptian efforts to regain its land in Sinai, and the University cannot be opened as usual, you know. Now we will have to think of a way to support Egypt in its war effort. And the students are proposing [to] do some medical service ... and support here.
Of course we didn't have classes. We were listening to what was on the radio, and no one at that point could go and give a lecture. Let's face it. And then after the war, we came back and that was it.
Spencer recalls students immediately organizing to support the war.
[The students] quickly mobilized themselves, the ones who could, to support the war. I know I went in two or three days and rolled bandages.
Farkhonda Hassan (MSc '67), professor emerita in the School of Sciences and Engineering, took her students to Kasr El Aini Hospital to help with cleaning and gathering supplies.
We took four big wards in Kasr El Aini. ... The students were running around bringing sheets from the factories -- clean ones, clean sheets, pillowcases.
While at the hospital, Hassan ran into a number of celebrities, including Tahiya Carioca, an Egyptian belly dancer and film actress, whom she asked to bring a food processor to prepare meals for patients who were having difficulty eating.
I used to put the rice and the vegetables and the meat and have [the patients] drink it. ... This made them more healthy. And [the hospital] used to have visitors coming to us and reporters from all over the world to see. This [is] where AUC is. And [these were] the students, girls and boys. And teachers. So I was very happy. We stayed there for about two months.
Rescue team practices as part of custodians' civil defense training
1970s shot of Hill House, which at the time was AUC's main librarySullivan describes how Cairenes got their news about the battlefront during the war.
[At AUC], we had meetings during the war, no classes, and [I would] come in on the train. And people are excited, they're talking. I didn't know what the heck they're saying, but they've all got newspapers and they're pointing to stories and there are pictures. I can't read Arabic at the time, but they've got pictures of stuff that's going on in the war.
During the war, something happened [that] I was immediately made aware was unusual. ... Egyptians were getting news from Egyptian news sources. Now, let me explain what I mean by that. Up to that time, if, you know, the Egyptian, I will have to call it upper middle class or even elite -- they would have access to what was going on in the world and in Egypt by listening to the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] or the VOA [Voice of America] or Radio Monte Carlo. Radio Monte Carlo was a big hit, and the reason was simple: It was news that was actually news. It wasn't censored. It wasn't interpreted through some political screen. So if they want to know how their troops were doing, how the war was going, they would listen to Monte Carlo, they would listen to the BBC. They would also listen to or watch television news, what little there was. And if they found the BBC and Egyptian news were saying the same thing, they were thrilled. Because it [means] the government is telling us the truth.
Despite the war, many living in Cairo in October 1973 were able to enjoy hobbies and make connections with others. Spencer reflects on social life during this time.
We didn't have a curfew during the day, so if I didn't go roll bandages or do whatever else it was I was doing with the students and other faculty members, I had a group of people that I went out horseback riding [with].
And then as it started to get toward dark, we'd always make [our way] back home. However, within every quarter, I would say, Zamalek, Garden City, Maadi, people violated the curfew as they wished. Some of my closest friends happened to live just a block and a half away from me on Tolombat [Street]. We spent many a night till about 9:00 or 10:00, playing cards and just sitting around talking.
While out and about, Spencer and a friend discovered a group of stranded American tourists who were meeting at the Hilton in Zamalek every night. Most of them had been vacationing in Cairo when the war broke out and were now waiting to be evacuated safely from Egypt.
Because of course the embassy was trying to get them out. And I think they ended up going out through ... a boat from Libya. And they had to pay for it.
Spencer and her friend were invited for breakfast with a Catholic family one morning.
They noticed that we were taking the sugar out of the container at the table and they said "Why is that?" And I said, "Well, sugar is being rationed right now, and we don't have any." And so they started saving their sugar. I think it was about three, four days before they actually got away. So we had a huge stash of sugar from them, from the Hilton.
And for about the next two years, this family used to send like a little care package back to
Cairo. It would take months, several months to get here, and be full of sugar and just, candy, and well wishes, and maybe a book or two. I lost track of 'em many, many years ago, but it was just one of those kinds of things -- you bond with people in a certain way, you know, in a catastrophe, where you're swept up by the circumstances. But what was important for me was the fact that they were so positive about Egypt. And they had enjoyed their time here. They really didn't have an agenda ... They were curious to see how it was going to turn out.
For Sullivan, adjusting to life in Cairo during this tense period was a great way to get to know Egyptians.
It was actually a good introduction to the country and the people. A better introduction than AUC could have possibly organized because ... you could see people under stress. My father always said there are a couple of ways to really understand what people are like. ... So one test is what happens when you get in the wilderness? It's a Hobbesian test. What do you do when there is no law, when there is no order, when there is no government? How do people behave? And another one is when you're under great stress. Well, the whole country was under great stress. And they behaved well.
AUCians play football on campus, early 1970s
By Yasmin El-Beih
Today, more than 180,000 users in Egypt have replaced their short-distance car, cab or ride-hailing trip with an electric scooter or electric bike at least once, thanks to Rabbit Mobility, a clean-tech startup with the ambition to revolutionize how we take short-distance trips while bettering the planet in the process.
Co-founders Kamal ElSoueni '13 and Mohamed Mansoury '14 came up with the idea in 2019 after working for a couple of years in global management consulting firms based in Dubai and London, respectively. Returning to Egypt for vacation, they both noticed an increasing reliance on cars, even for short-distance trips.
Mansoury and ElSoueni hope to expand Rabbit's operations outside of Egypt"When you're traveling a lot and you come back home, you really feel the difference," ElSoueni described. "We started to notice a grayish black cloud forming over the city, which we had never noticed when we lived in Egypt, and we were always complaining about traffic. In 2018, while visiting the United States, I came across a massive electric scooter company, and that's when we started thinking about applying similar solutions in Egypt."
ElSoueni and Mansoury held focus groups through their own networks to tackle transportation-related inquiries that might aid their blossoming business idea. They found that regular cycling wasn't highly popular given the hot weather for much of the calendar year in Egypt, making it an uncomfortable option for commuters. "I myself used to cycle to AUC for a semester or two as a student, but I always had to shower once arriving to campus before heading to class, so I was able to relate to the feedback we got from the focus groups," said ElSoueni. "We thought that if we removed the element of effort, it would make life easier. We also learned through some of the ride-hailing apps operating in Egypt that around 50% of the trips are for a distance less than 3 kilometers, while 70% are for a trip that is less than 8 kilometers."
The data posed a tremendous opportunity for a business idea -- and for the environment. By mid-2019, ElSoueni and Mansoury had both quit their management consulting jobs to make Rabbit a reality.
"By replacing car rides with electric scooters or electric bikes, you're relying on electricity instead of fossil fuels," Mansoury said. "From this simple shift, you save a lot of carbon dioxide emissions. We estimate that we've saved more than 50,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions just this year."
Although their fast-growing userbase is mostly comprised of riders under 40 years of age, a reflection of the growing youth population in Egypt, up to 10% of their customers are over 45.
User segments also differ in every governorate or city where Rabbit operates. In Tanta, they found that nurses at the public hospital were taking a couple of rides every day between 1 and 2 pm. Through making a few feedback calls, the Rabbit team realized that the nurses were not only using Rabbit bikes and scooters for their daily commutes, they were also going back home for lunch using the eco-friendly vehicles, as they found them safer, faster and more cost-effective than taking a taxi.
Besides a relentless vision to become the go-to solution for any trip under eight kilometers, be it commutes, first-mile/last-mile or delivery services, Rabbit has other audacious goals on the horizon.
"For us to achieve this vision, it's going to require a lot of expansion into many locations, as well as development to our tech," said Mansoury. "Right now, we only have electric scooters and electric bikes, but our short-term plan is to also introduce electric mopeds. We've already brought in our first prototypes and are working on this."
The co-founders have shortlisted potential countries for expansion, with urban issues and infrastructure similar to Egypt. Rwanda, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and South Africa are new markets Rabbit has set its eyes on. In many of these locations, Rabbit has already begun securing international partners to support their process.
Mansoury and ElSoueni credit the milestones they have achieved to their supporters and mentors, a tight-knit community of fellow startup founders. From Ayman Ismail '85, '87, associate professor in the Department of Management and AUC Venture Lab founding director, to former AUC President Lisa Anderson, there are many who have assisted in their journey, along with the networks, resources, global experts, advisers, research papers and reports at their disposal -- much of which came through their access as former management consultants.
They also have a third co-founder, Bassem Magued, whom they call a "borderline genius." Magued helped in restructuring Rabbit as it took off and in nailing the app's geographic accuracy.
"We see a lot happening, with the potential for much more, not only in clean transportation but also clean tech across the Middle East and North Africa," asserted ElSoueni.
By Kara Fitzgerald Elgarhy
The video game industry is booming across the Middle East and North Africa. Playing on a console, PC or smartphone, there were more than 65.3 million gamers in the region in 2021, with revenues reaching $1.76 billion in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt alone, according to a 2022 report by Niko Partners. As the industry continues to ascend the leader boards, more opportunities arise every day for local talent to find their place in the game.
There's just one glitch in the code, observes Ahmad Saqfalhait, associate professor of practice and associate chair of AUC's Department of the Arts. "Most game design professionals in the industry are self-taught," he explains. "Because their training is primarily either technical or visual, they compensate for the design aspect of game development by wearing multiple hats."
To support the development process, AUC introduced a new game design minor in Fall 2022, bringing together students from different disciplines to learn the role of a designer in game development. A collaboration between AUC's graphic design program and Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the minor will equip students to join a flourishing industry that has surpassed three of the biggest entertainment-related industries combined: music, film and sports, according to Saqfalhait.
The perks don't stop there. "In addition to their economic value, game applications have expanded and evolved to cover various purposes, from educational and social to medical and psychological -- all playing on our need to have fun and engage," Saqfalhait said.
Much like the industry, the program is fast on the rise. Saqfalhait and students are working to further spread awareness and interest by holding gaming activities on campus, such as hosting group Nintendo Switch sessions. "Not only do students enjoy playing, they also reflect on Nintendo's success in the gaming industry," Saqfalhait explained. "Nintendo is a school of design. It maintains a DNA and philosophy in its offerings. I want to channel this in the minor."
Moreover, Saqfalhait believes that Nintendo's work offers important lessons for AUC students about cultural expression and identity.
"If Nintendo, a Japanese company, borrows ideas from the outside, it reinterprets them and makes them its own, with mutual respect for both cultures," he said. "This concept of thinking locally and regionally is emphasized throughout the semesters of the game design minor so that students are not just making copies of existing games."
For instance, Nintendo's famous Animal Crossing video game introduced many international players to Japanese culture. Originally developed for a limited audience in 2001, the playful village- building game now features an array of international flavors, from bamboo baskets and cherry blossoms to Arabian thobes and Moroccan dresses.
"Nintendo is a school of design. It maintains a DNA and philosophy in its offerings. I want to channel this in the minor."
Sophomore Tarek Kassab, a longtime gamer and fan, was drawn to the minor for this very reason. "I started to notice that such a powerful entertainment tool can be used to push forward political and cultural messages," he reflected. "For example, games made in Japan tend to portray Japanese society -- traditions, food, celebrations and culture. And because video games are highly interactive, these small additions naturally resonate with players. I wanted to learn game design to create games that are entertaining while also spreading my Egyptian and Arab culture."
The locally grounded character of game design at AUC was always intentional, according to Saqfalhait. However, one unexpected outcome has been the resulting buy-in and support from the Egyptian community. Outside of their coursework, game design students have had the opportunity to work directly with community and creative partners on the design and development of games for local impact.
Last semester, students worked with UNICEF and Karim Aboul-Enein of Largelabs game development studio on an arcade game prototype that makes children indirectly associate healthy snacks with fun activities through play. A separate student group has been working since July 2022 in collaboration with Megawra - BEC to create a game for children that will strengthen their sense of neighborhood ownership and connection to their communities by presenting them with their rich culture and history.
These extracurricular projects reflect a guiding principle of AUC's approach to game design: integration within the industry. "It's difficult to gain hands-on experience in game design in Egypt because the industry is not yet thriving here. AUC's practical approach is a substitute source for direct experience in the field," said Kassab.
Still, AUC's game design project is far from final. The pioneering minor program, itself an organic result of feedback and learning from a smaller seed, is poised to blossom into a fully fledged major -- addressing more skills, reaching more students, and building more industry and community connections.
"A few years from now, AUC will graduate students who are equipped and ready to join and reinforce game design in Egypt," Saqfalhait affirmed.
By Abigail Flynn
A simple, colorful and addictive puzzle game that swept nations in the 1980s and 1990s, Tetris is known today in households from Moscow to Mexico City and is among the most played games of all time in the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Organizing falling blocks into complete lines, the game can quickly jump from relaxing to panic-inducing in a matter of seconds. Entertaining as that may be, Tetris can also provide us with more than just temporary bursts of adrenaline.
Jacquelyn Berry, assistant professor in AUC's Department of Psychology, is exploring the ways that humans learn through Tetris in hopes of understanding how people learn to do complex tasks and improve their performance over time -- an important component of human cognition.
"My goal is to change how people learn through what is called 'reinforcement learning,'" Berry explains. "By providing live feedback to people while they do complex, multifaceted tasks, in this case Tetris, I can track how their performance improves. I hope this will help us understand how complex skill learning works."
So how does it work? Berry's research design uses artificial intelligence to provide live feedback to the player, which informs them if the move they just chose was good or bad. If the participant sees a green light, that means they made a good move; if the light is red, they chose poorly. The level of feedback varies: Some participants receive only results-based feedback, while others receive live AI feedback for each move they make. Some receive both AI feedback and general feedback. By comparing these three learning conditions, Berry is able to see which level of feedback is teaching people to perform the best.
"There are a ton of things we could use this information for -- virtual reality, medical surgery, robots."
Berry's preliminary findings show that live AI feedback improves performance, particularly when paired with results- based feedback, but the research is still in progress. She hopes that the eventual results can be applied to many fields.
"There are a ton of things we could use this information for -- virtual reality, medical surgery, robots -- basically any complex task that includes a human using a computer to interact with their environment," she says.
"Why not Tetris?" Berry responds. "First, the game is very popular with hundreds of millions of players. It's also perfect because a participant's native language won't affect their ability to play and anyone can easily learn to play, which makes it much more accessible."
According to Berry, accessibility is an important consideration in any research project. She explains that the field of psychology has had a long history of "convenience sampling," or choosing participants who are easy to locate. Since most psychology research is conducted at universities, much of the findings are skewed toward the demographic of psychology college students who join a study for class credit. It's also heavily Western-centric, she says.
"While the data from these types of studies is still valuable, conducting research with this limited demographic makes it more difficult to generalize findings to the rest of the world's population," Berry explains. "As a researcher in Egypt, I hope to remove some bias from research by including individuals outside traditional educational circles, going beyond a student population to represent people from different socioeconomic backgrounds."
Adding to accessibility, Berry's research can be conducted with the tap of a smartphone using a research app. Since participants do not need to come into the lab, she can reach players from all over, allowing more diversity among participants than she would have studying AUC psychology students alone. From this, she gains a more comprehensive understanding of human learning.
While Berry's goal is to examine populations beyond AUC, the University is still an integral part of her research process. Berry began her research in Egypt as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in 2019 and developed her Tetris study after COVID-19.
"Working at AUC has given me the opportunity to make the Tetris AI tool a reality," she says. "Cognitive psychology is fairly new to this region, so there is a lot of growth potential. I'm excited to see what the future holds."
