Canadian Award Holders: Erfan Nouraee

About Erfan:
Erfan Nouraee is a 20-year-old inventor and speaker, born and raised in Tehran, Iran. He is a Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award recipient and Silver Award participant. At 16, Erfan won the Khwarizmi Youth Award at National Science Fair, the 23rd  RoboWorld Cup in 2018 for designing an Olympics Robot, and recently the UN’s International Federation of Inventors’ Associations (IFIA) Inventions Award with his solution to the worldwide optical communication. 

“Since then, I joined more community charities and mental health organizations, like CAMH and CMHA to advocate youth mental health in Toronto city. I hosted the Youth Mental Health Awareness Summit with more than 300 participants to normalize the discussions surrounding youth mental health.

It’s been an amazing experience participating in the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Canada. I loved achieving my Bronze Standard, and I learned many important skills, such as time management, setting SMART goals, how to make a difference in society and being actively engaged within our community to make positive contributions.  

The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award- Canada has been a driving force to help me take on challenges that exist in inventing and inventions. It has changed my outlook on goal settings and the importance of taking on new experiences and helped me acquire leadership, teamwork and communication skills. ” – Efran.

Erfan is a second-year electrical engineering student at York University. In 2020, Nouraee was selected among a competitive pool of applicants as Economic Club of Canada’s Young Leader Delegate to participate in a conversation with President Barack Obama.  

He invented a unique, low-cost optical communications sensor that saves optical signals’ quality and power and in 2021, the invention won the Bronze Medal at the United Nations’ International Federation of Inventors’ Associations (IFIA) Inventions Award among 35 countries and 1000 inventions. He received a recognition letter from Her Majesty The Queen’s representative in Ontario.  

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