BLOG

Published 29 June 2020 by Benjamin Skuse

Sciathon Winner in “Capitalism after Corona”: Samar Abdelmageed

Together with her group Samar Abdelmageed suceeded in the Sciathon.

Samar Abdelmageed is an assistant lecturer at the British University in Egypt. Just over a week ago, she was one of a number of Lindau Alumni and young scientists and economists who participated in the Online Sciathon 2020, a 48-hour hackathon-style event that focused on three topics: Capitalism after Corona, Communicating Climate Change and the Lindau Guidelines. Of the 48 teams that participated, three from each topic were selected as finalists. And on Monday 29 June, Team Abdelmageed was announced as the winner of the Capitalism after Corona Sciathon.

How did you come up with the idea for your project?

When I saw the topics for Sciathon I was particularly interested in ‘Capitalism after Corona’ and the changes in economic systems that would happen due to the ongoing crisis. Throughout my project’s idea, I focused on creative destruction, which is an essential fact about capitalism, in labour markets. I addressed the digital transformation in labour markets, which I believe is accelerated as a result of the crisis, and how governments can help in labour restructuring and support the vulnerable low-skilled labour. Moreover, I tried to come up with an idea to build a database about workers who lost their jobs during the crisis of COVID-19 and establish a partnership between the public and private sectors to restructure this labour force.

How big was the team and how did you arrange work during the Sciathon?

My team consisted of five members besides myself from different countries and different backgrounds. We gathered as a team through the online platform of Online Science Days and engaged in discussions for long hours to develop our project’s idea and prepare a solid report and video about our work. We arranged our workflow in a series of individual offline tasks and group online discussions to come up at the end with our project outputs.   

The Video of Group Abdelmageed

Was the Sciathon intense? Did you run all the way up to the midnight deadline?

In fact, the Sciathon was really intense. We worked nonstop during its days with barely any sleep! We spent long hours together in discussions and research to formulate our project. We had to run all the way up to the deadline to be able to write our project’s report and produce a presentable video that summarised our main results.

Were the outcomes what you expected?

Actually, the outcomes met and even exceeded my expectations. I am very proud of all my team members who effectively and efficiently cooperated together and all contributed to our project. They complemented each other’s work and all did their best to produce our main project’s outputs. I am very honoured to work with each one of them and hope to extend our work in the future. 

Do you wish to share any other stories about the Sciathon?

I believe that the Sciathon was a great experience that I wish would be repeated in the future. It is a chance for researchers from all over the world to meet, work together and exchange their ideas. These ideas could be the start of further collaborations and great projects in the future.

Benjamin Skuse

Benjamin Skuse is a professional freelance writer of all things science. In a previous life, he was an academic, earning a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Edinburgh and MSc in Science Communication. Now based in the West Country, UK, he aims to craft understandable, absorbing and persuasive narratives for all audiences – no matter how complex the subject matter. His work has appeared in New Scientist, Sky & Telescope, BBC Sky at Night Magazine, Physics World and many more.