X Prize chief tells Abu Dhabi Crown Prince majlis how group helps to inspire innovation

ABU DHABI // The entrepreneur who helped bring about the world's first private manned spaceflight was guest speaker at the Crown Prince's majlis tonight.

Dr Peter Diamandis spoke of the remarkable feat at the majlis of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

As the chairman and chief executive of the X Prize Foundation, he told the audience how he helped bring into being the first non-government piloted spaceship by offering a US$10 million (Dh36.7m) prize to anyone who could build it.

He did not actually have the money when he offered it in 1996, but by September of 2004 the funds had been raised and the winning craft, SpaceShipOne, had blasted off into space 16 times, carrying its pilots more than 100 kilometres from Earth.

"Let me start by talking about what I am passionate about," Dr Diamandis told the majlis. "In the 1960s I was passionate about outer space. The idea that anything is possible."

People were initially sceptical about his idea of trusting engineers to build a reliable spaceship in response to a competition - but it worked. Thousands made up the 26 teams who entered the challenge.

Dr Diamandis said that history had proven repeatedly that incentives "lead to great innovations".

He pointed to the former French leader Napoleon, who after losing men to starvation offered a prize to anyone who could devise a cheap method of preserving food, leading to the invention of canned goods.

The American aviator Charles Lindbergh - one of Dr Diamandis's biggest inspirations - flew from New York to Paris for a $25,000 prize in 1927, proving for the first time that a transatlantic flight was possible.

"He inspired so many people after he crossed," he said. "This set me out to ask questions: where are the world's biggest problems?

"No challenge cannot be solved. It is a magical time to be alive. Anything is possible."

Dr Diamandis expanded the X Prize to seek solutions for other global issues, and today it offers rewards in the fields of exploration, life sciences, energy and environment, and education and global development.

"We are working on developing a hand-held diagnostic device that any mother or father can speak to and have a cough or saliva analysed," Dr Diamandis said. "The diagnosis will be better than that of a board of certified doctors."

So far they have received 300 entries from 37 countries, he said.

"We expect to announce a winner in the next three years," he added.

The organisation's future goal is to hold an X Prize for literacy software that can be used on any phone or tablet, a programme for autism, one for childhood obesity, and a way to mine asteroids for natural resources.

"I think of abundance in my work," Dr Diamandis said. "Earth is a crumb in a supermarket of resources."

osalem@thenational.ae

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The Saga Continues

Wu-Tang Clan

(36 Chambers / Entertainment One)

The story in numbers

This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens

450,000

More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps

1.5 million

There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m

The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association

18,000

The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme

77,400

The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study

4,926

This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee

THE DRAFT

The final phase of player recruitment for the T10 League has taken place, with UAE and Indian players being drafted to each of the eight teams.

Bengal Tigers
UAE players: Chirag Suri, Mohammed Usman
Indian: Zaheer Khan

Karachians
UAE players: Ahmed Raza, Ghulam Shabber
Indian: Pravin Tambe

Kerala Kings
UAE players: Mohammed Naveed, Abdul Shakoor
Indian: RS Sodhi

Maratha Arabians
UAE players: Zahoor Khan, Amir Hayat
Indian: S Badrinath

Northern Warriors
UAE players: Imran Haider, Rahul Bhatia
Indian: Amitoze Singh

Pakhtoons
UAE players: Hafiz Kaleem, Sheer Walli
Indian: RP Singh

Punjabi Legends
UAE players: Shaiman Anwar, Sandy Singh
Indian: Praveen Kumar

Rajputs
UAE players: Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed
Indian: Munaf Patel

LILO & STITCH

Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders

Director: Dean Fleischer Camp

Rating: 4.5/5

Key facilities

Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
Premier League-standard football pitch
400m Olympic running track
NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
600-seat auditorium
Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
Specialist robotics and science laboratories
AR and VR-enabled learning centres
Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills

COMPANY%20PROFILE

%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Alaan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Parthi%20Duraisamy%20and%20Karun%20Kurien%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%247%20million%20raised%20in%20total%20%E2%80%94%20%242.5%20million%20in%20a%20seed%20round%20and%20%244.5%20million%20in%20a%20pre-series%20A%20round%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A