A group of middle school students from Pakistan won the first place in the Social Innovation category at the Teknofest aerospace festival in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Turkey’s leading and only aerospace and technology festival, Teknofest is realised in cooperation with many institutions which contribute to the development of technology in Turkey.

The last year's event in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir hosted 41 separate competitions on future-focused tech.

TEKNOFEST 2025, Türkiye's premier aerospace and technology festival, has drawn remarkable global interest, with over 1 million individual applications and more than 333,000 team submissions from participants across 96 countries and all 81 Turkish provinces.

In a notable achievement, Asma Fatima and Inaya Khan from Pak-Turk Maarif International Schools and Colleges secured first place in one of the competition categories. Accompanied by their instructor, Gohar Khursheed, they were honored by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who personally congratulated them and presented their award.

Their winning concept, an "Emotion Detector Gadget for Quadriplegic," secured them the top position in the middle school children's Social Innovation competition.

The competition's website announced that the winners were selected from 1,083 contestants and 268 finalist teams representing six nations, who emerged from over 47,000 applications from 22 countries.

Their instructor, Gohar, stated that this victory is significant for their team, country, and school, highlighting the potential of innovation and their ability to positively influence future generations in Pakistan.

Gohar emphasized that their accomplishment demonstrates that dedication, hard work, and creativity can make anything achievable.

Their winning idea is designed to help 'those who are languageparalyzed to relate their emotions,' he added.

During the last year, another team of Pakistani students bagged three bronze medals at the 54th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) held in Isfahan, Iran, from July 21 to 28.