Loay Khaled Radwan is from Egypt and he is a Senior Environmental Engineering student at Zewail City of Science and Technology (ZCST). His passion for preserving the environment, combined with his analytical and leadership skills collide to shape his entrepreneurial mindset. He has actively been involved with organizations and conferences leading conscious societal transformation, such as YouthThinkGreen and the Youth Climate Action Summit, and aspires to become a renowned entrepreneur that has dedicated his career towards solving environmental challenges.

Loay is the CEO & Cofounder at G-Beetle, one of the rising startups in the AgriTech Field. G-Beetle is based in Cairo and is currently in the prototyping phase. The idea is to help farmers rationalize the usage of water in irrigating their fields. G-Beetle is a rover that is equipped with various sensors that enable it to manoeuvre the fields while monitoring the soil’s water content, in addition to the plants’ temperature. This collected data is combined together with global weather forecasts and data on climate change effects in the region. The resulted data is useful for measuring the efficiency of the irrigation systems, and the discovery of which areas are in need of extra care to protect the plants from damage due to water stress. This is essential for the farmer as water stress affects the crop yield significantly and also, if not caught early, can lead to the death of the plant. The data also indicates if a certain plant or area is in danger of an infestation and therefore, quick actions can be taken in order to save the crop. The results of the analysis are then sent to the farmer, through a mobile application, in the form of recommendations and warnings to provide the farmer with the ability to preserve his crops by taking effective measures.

The Project is currently incubated by the United Nations Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL Egypt) and was presented in the Youth Climate Action Summit last September as one of the promising solutions that tackle the water and climate problems throughout Africa and the MENA region.

Loay Khaled Radwan was selected as one of the 22 finalists of the MENA innovation challenge in 2020 for the idea behind his startup G-Beetle.