According to the Global Innovation Index (GII) report published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Iran has been the fastest-rising economy in the world, reaching from 113th place in 2013 to 62nd in 2023.

India (40th), Iran (62nd), and Kazakhstan (81st) are ranked first to third respectively in Central and Southern Asia, IRNA reported.

The global innovation and technology indicators include the index of creative outputs, knowledge and technology outputs, human capital and research, and business sophistication>

Iran is second within the region once again at 62nd position, following Turkey.

Also, in terms of the number of patents registered by WIPO, Iran ranks 51st in the world, next to the United States of America, Japan, and South Korea.

Among Islamic countries, Iran is ranked 5th with 1768 patents submitted. Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates ranked first to fourth with 17088, 8116, 5765, and 2942 patents respectively.

2023 edition of GII

According to the GII report, the Islamic Republic of Iran ranked second among the countries of the Central and Southern Asian region, unchanged compared with last year.

The report ranked Iran 19th, 43rd, and 55th in “Market sophistication”, “Creative outputs”, and “Knowledge and technology outputs”, respectively.

The GII 2023 used 80 indicators to track global innovation trends in 130-plus economies, guiding policymakers and business leaders in stimulating human ingenuity. This year, the report’s findings were unveiled against a background of slow economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, high-interest rates, and geopolitical conflict.

The 2023 edition identified an increasingly uncertain outlook for venture capital (VC) that helps transform human ingenuity into new products and services, with the global value of VC funding marking a significant plunge last year.

According to the GII 2023 rankings, Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore are the top countries. China, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Iran are the middle-income economies making the most headway in innovation over the last decade.

In the 16th report of the GII, which was announced at an event hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), it is stated that Iran ranks 62nd among 132 countries in the world and 6th among 37 countries in lower middle-income countries.

In knowledge and technology outputs, creative outputs, market sophistication, human capital, research, and infrastructure, Iran’s performance is above the average of the lower middle-income group.

On the other hand, Iran performs above the regional average (Central and South Asia) in all these indexes, except for the infrastructure.

Under the 6.2.2 index, which was presented in the 2022 report under the title of “New Businesses” and in the new report under the title of “Unicorn Valuation”, Iran’s rank has risen from 90 in 2022 to 48 in 2023.

Iran is the regional leader in Market sophistication (19th), and Creative outputs (43rd). It performs well in Intangible assets (13th), ranks 1st globally in Trademarks(1st), and in the top 15 worldwide in Graduates in Science and Engineering (3rd), Market capitalization (5th), and Industrial designs (11th). /T.T/

The team of Iranian researchers won a gold medal in the Invention Expo for Smart Sport Tourism with Marketing UAVs, which was held in Dubai from December 7-9.

With the support of the World Invention Intellectual Property Organization (WIIPA), the event was held in the eight fields of energy, medicine, information technology, aerospace, chemistry, physics, marketing and advertising, and art, IRIB reported.

More than 150 designs, inventions, and ideas were presented from 21 countries, including Iran, Germany, Croatia, Romania, South Korea, Singapore, England, Indonesia, China, and Poland.

The Iranian team consisted of tourism and tourism management students from Tehran and Shiraz universities.

Reza Heydari, Amirhossein Payandeh, Saman Keivannia, Mostafa Raftari, Amir Arghvan, and Amirhossein Lotfi, were the members of the Iranian team.

Their design is called “Smart Sport Tourism with Marketing UAVs” which uses a combination of aerospace sciences and technologies, tourism, and artificial intelligence.

The idea of Iranian researchers has been designed and tested in regard to the restrictions on access to sports tourism destinations and different sports events in the world due to economic, political, physical, and health restrictions.

It was evaluated by the jury of the festival in terms of innovation, practicality, design, affordability, social and economic effects, and market opportunities.

Thanks to being recognized as the best in its group, the design received the gold medal in the international competition.

Dubai Invention Expo

DIS, International Invention Show 2023, provides a business platform for inventors, manufacturers, and dealers to present their latest products and innovations and exchange information. For this occasion, delegations from more than 32 countries came to Dubai to present their patented inventions and new ideas, the competition brings together many participants and inventions in many diverse areas.

The renowned international contest is first and foremost a propitious place for professional exchanges where partners and contacts mingle in a convivial and positive atmosphere.

At DIS, excellence in innovation is highlighted through the Invention & Innovation Award, it brings recognition to the best inventions, innovations, and trade, adding onto its merit is supported by many international delegates.

This event offers a platform for innovation, a professional meeting place that gathers different players from the world of innovation, research, development, and financing, it covers areas such as energy, medicine, information technology, aerospace, biochemistry, and many more.

Developing AI on the agenda

President Ebrahim Raisi has issued an executive order for the establishment of the ‘National Steering Committee and the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center’.

Creating a complete and stable chain of ideas to market in AI, benefiting from AI for the economic progress of the country, planning to achieve a leading and sustainable position among the countries of the world, as well as identifying and nurturing talents in the field of AI are among the most important tasks of the national AI center, IRNA reported.

“Iran ranks 17th in artificial intelligence in terms of scientific production and publication of articles in the world, while ranks 78th in terms of its application in the world,” Rouhollah Dehqani-Firouzabadi, Vice President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-based Economy, has said.

The Vice Presidency has prepared three comprehensive plans to develop artificial intelligence in different sectors.

Currently, artificial intelligence is the first priority for the development of technology and is pursued with three programs, IRNA quoted Firouzabadi as saying

Artificial intelligence is a comprehensive technology and affects all other areas of technology, he highlighted.

“The plans in the field of artificial intelligence include scientific development programs that are mostly pursued in universities. The second plan is technology development programs that are pursued in companies that work in the field of artificial intelligence. And the third plan is the creation of a national technology hub in the field of artificial intelligence.” /T.T/

Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology Issa Zarepour has said that the Islamic Republic of Iran will launch astronauts into orbit with indigenous bio-capsule by the end of 2028.

Referring to the successful test fire of an indigenous bio-capsule, Zarepour said on Sunday that according to the 10-year plan of the country’s space industry, Iran will launch astronauts into orbit with indigenous bio-capsule by the end of 2028.

Iran’s newest biological capsule was successfully launched with the domestically-built Salman launcher on December 6, 2023.

The launch of the bio-space capsule is in line with the realization of the plan to send humans into space. It was launched to a height of 130 km from the earth’s surface to develop and acquire the technologies needed in this regard.

/MNA/

An Information Technology team from Iran has been awarded at the Second WorldSkills in the United Arab Emirates. In the prestigious vocational skills competition in Abu Dhabi, an Iranian team was awarded in the IT and Network categories.

In the 2nd WorldSkills Asia (WSA) Competition, an Iranian squad was awarded a medallion in the IT section.

Also in the Network category, the team received a prize named Best of Nation.

As many as 128 participants from 28 countries competed in the event which took place from 27th-29th November 2023. /MNA/

An Iranian knowledge-based company developed an injectable drug used in the treatment of a broad range of cancers. The pharmaceutical product, named “cyclophosphamide”, has been unveiled by an Iranian company based in the province of Alborz.

The unveiling ceremony was attended by the Iranian Vice-President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy Ruhollah Dehghani Firouzabadi.

Speaking at the ceremony, the head of the Science and Technology Park of Alborz pointed to the effects of injection of the newly-developed medicine in the treatment of a wide spectrum of cancers, saying the drug is used to treat many diseases including ovarian cancer, breast cancer, blood cancer and eye cancer.

Since recently, 100 percent of Iran’s demand for this widely-used drug was met through imports, Mahdi Abbasi stated, noting that the mass production and supply of the homegrown drug will settle the problems facing cancer patients and prevent the high exchange rate used for importing the product.

Provision and supply of anti-cancer drugs have always been one of the major concerns of the health officials and patients in Iran, he added.

The production of cyclophosphamide inside Iran and the patients’ sustainable access to this anti-cancer drug will be facilitated optimally from now on, he stated.

Cyclophosphamide is used to treat cancers of the breast, blood and lymph system, and nerves (mainly in children). Cyclophosphamide is also used for retinoblastoma, a type of eye cancer mainly in children, and multiple myeloma, a cancer in the bone marrow. /MNA/

The researchers of the Sharif University of Technology won first place in the 15th International Social Robotics Conference (ICSR) 2023.

ICSR 2023 took place in Doha, Qatar, as a face-to-face conference on December 3-7, IRIB reported.

This was the first time that the conference was hosted in West Asia and North Africa region.

Professors and researchers in social robotics fields from 20 countries including Iran, America, Canada, Japan, England, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Qatar, Italy, Australia, Singapore, the Netherlands, France, South Korea, and some other countries participated in the prestigious conference.

In different parts of the conference, in addition to presenting the latest findings in the form of scientific articles, a competition is held to evaluate the best ideas and designs in the social robotics field.

This year, the social-cognitive robotics research core of Sharif University of Technology had active participation in the conference, 3 accepted essays in the articles section, and a design in the competition section.

‘A Tablet-Based Lexicon Application for Robot-Aided Educational Interaction of Children with Dyslexia’ was one of the three designs nominated for the best design.

Alireza Taheri (a faculty member of the Mechanical Engineering and the director of the social and cognitive robotics laboratory), Ali Qorbandaipour (an engineer holding an MS degree), and Omid Amiri (a BS student) took part in the conference on behalf of the members of the research group.

They presented their articles and designs and grabbed first place in the social robotics competition for ‘T-Dyslexia: Taban 2 Social Robot Package Assisting Dyslexia’.

The ICSR

The International Conference on Social Robotics aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers, and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of the Social Robotics Conference.

It also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners, and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Social Robotics Conference.

The 15th ICSR 2023 brought together researchers and practitioners working on the interaction between humans and intelligent robots and on the integration of social robots into society.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Human-Robot Collaboration: Sea, Air, Land, Space, and Cyberspace”, highlighting all physical and cyber-physical domains where humans and robots collaborate.

Social and Cognitive Robotics at Sharif University

The line of research focuses on designing/using Social and Cognitive Robotics, Virtual Reality Systems, and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) platforms for the education and rehabilitation of children with special needs e.g. children with autism, children with hearing problems, and children with cerebral palsy.

The research includes robots’ design and fabrication, serious games’ design, artificial intelligence and control, conducting educational/clinical interventions for children, developing cognitive architectures for social robots, mathematical modeling of participants’ behaviors during HRI, and empowering robots to analyze users’ behaviors automatically and then react adaptively.

Recent academic rankings

In October, The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2024 listed 36 Iranian universities among the world’s top 1,000 institutions, compared with 29 universities in 2023.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 include 1,904 universities across 108 countries and regions.

The ranking is based on 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

Sharif University of Technology ranks first among Iranian universities with a rank in the range of 301-350.

According to an early release from the 2023 edition of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Global Innovation Index (GII), Tehran ranks 34th among the top 100 Science and Technology (S&T) clusters in the world.

In September, Iranian higher education institutions once again demonstrated their global prominence, with 18 universities making their mark in the prestigious “Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities,” also known as the “Taiwan Ranking,” released annually by the National Taiwan University.

The University of Tehran has emerged as the torchbearer of Iranian academia, securing an impressive global ranking of 286 in the 2023 Taiwan Ranking. This distinction cements the University of Tehran’s reputation as a world-class institution committed to research excellence.

In August, the second edition of the Webometrics ranking 2023 of the World Universities ranked 440 Iranian institutions among 30,000 top universities worldwide.

Tehran University, ranked 305 in the world, is the top among Iranian institutions on the list followed by Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

The first edition of the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities 2023, in June, ranked 457 Iranian institutions among around 32,000 top universities across the world.

Universities (ARWU), also known as Shanghai Ranking, placed ten universities from Iran among the top 1000 universities in the world in the Shanghai Ranking, 2023, according to the head of the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC).

The University of Tehran is among the top 500 universities in the world with a rank of 401-500, the best among Iranian universities, the ISC head Ahmad Fazelzadeh said, IRIB reported.

Iran ready for scientific co-op

Vice President for Science, Technology, and Knowledge-based Economy, Rouhollah Dehqani-Firouzabadi, condemning unilateral coercive measures against Iran’s knowledge-based and scientific companies, announced Iran’s readiness for scientific and technological cooperation with other countries to make a better world.

Referring to the significant role of knowledge and innovation and their tremendous impact on the progress of nations, Firouzabadi said Iran’s civilization has honored knowledge throughout history.

“Our ancient teachings and the contributions we have made to the advancement of science and technology is a proof of that saying.”

He made the remarks at the 15th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Social Forum held from November 2 – 3, in Geneva, IRIB reported.

Iran’s developments in the field of science and technology, improving people’s welfare by using science and technology capacities, Iran’s strategies in dealing with the coronavirus, Iran’s technological solutions to improve the health of society, technological employment and solving social problems with soft technologies were among the most important topics of Firouzabadi’s speech.

“Since the establishment of the United Nations, Iran has remained committed to multilateral cooperation, including global cooperation through the United Nations.

“We are keen to engage with the international community and share our research with them while benefiting from the best practices, developments, and achievements of other countries in the fields of science, technology, and innovation,” IRIB quotes Firouzabadi as saying. / T.T/

Iran is one of the ten most successful countries in the world for acute stroke treatment, a member of the National Iranian Stroke Committee has said.

Stroke is the second leading cause of death in Iran. It is one of the big challenges in the world and one of the main causes of disability worldwide, IRNA quoted Ehsan Sharifipour as saying.

Stroke, also known as brain attack, usually happens when the blood supply to a part of the brain is disrupted. In this case, either vessels are blocked or they bleed, in both cases, there is an interruption of blood to any part of the brain.

Stroke cases usually occur in people aged 70 or older, while the average age is 10 years lower in Iran. The disease affects people aged 60 or older in the country,” Sharifipour said.

Unfortunately, the rate of stroke prevalence in Iran is 1.5 times higher than the world average, that is, if there are less than 100 strokes per 100,000 people in the world, according to the studies, this rate is 150 cases in Iran.

15th intl. congress on stroke

Sharifipour went on to say that the 15th international congress on stroke will be held in Tehran on December 13-14.

“The 15th international congress on stroke will be held with the presence of the best national and foreign professors from 10 countries, presenting the latest scientific achievements in the field of vascular diseases of the brain and spinal cord and the latest scientific, technical, and technological findings.”

There will be about 100 lectures; various scientific workshops and specialized panels; and interdisciplinary discussions between specialists in neurology, rehabilitation, neurosurgery, and radiology fields. The modern endovascular techniques and methods to treat patients suffering from strokes and the latest rehabilitation methods for these patients will be discussed as well.

Stroke second cause of death in Iran

Brain attack is the second leading cause of death in Iran as annually some 15 percent of around 550,000 people suffering from stroke die either on the spot or later, an official with the Noncommunicable Disease Office at the Ministry of Health, has said.

Alireza Mahdavi made the remakes on the occasion of World Stroke Day which was held on October 29 to emphasize the serious nature and high rates of stroke. The day is observed annually to raise awareness of the prevention and treatment of strokes.

The goal is to reduce premature deaths and disabilities under the age of 70. Unfortunately, at least one-third of deaths under the age of 70 are caused by non-communicable diseases, half of which are related to strokes, ISNA reported.

The severity of disability caused by stroke depends on the extent of ischemia and the intervention time, Mahdavi added.

He enumerated the symptoms of stroke as convulsions, confusion, neck stiffness, trouble speaking, not understanding what others are saying, numbness in the hands, face, and feet, double vision, blurred vision, blindness in one or two eyes, severe headache accompanied by nausea and confusion, trouble walking, etc.

These signs warn of the occurrence of a stroke, and each of them may appear alone in a person.

With the emergence of some symptoms such as the inability to raise the arms, lack of clarity of expression, and so on ask the person to smile to determine whether the two sides of his face are symmetrical or not. In this case, time is very important to call emergency immediately. Immediate treatment can minimize the long-term impact of stroke.

Regarding the prevention of strokes, he said: regular physical activity, a healthy diet, and avoiding tobacco and alcohol are among the most important ways to prevent strokes. /T.T/

Iranian players won five more medals at the 14th World Kurash Wrestling Championship on Tuesday. Saba Karamali in the women’s -78kg and Fatemeh Barmaki in the women’s +87kg won two bronze medals.

Majid Vahid Barimanlou claimed a silver medal in the men’s -66kg. Saeid Talebinia in the men’s -60kg and Ramin Ahmadzadeh in the men’s -81kg also seized two bronze medals.

Hamed Rashidi in the men’s -100kg, Abolfazl Torabi in the men’s +100kg, Pardis Eydivandi in the women’s -57 kg and Donya Aghaei in the women’s -70kg had claimed four silver medals on Monday.

Masoud Ghavibazoo in the men’s -90kg and Tahereh Azarpeyvand in the women’s -63 kg had also won two bronzes.

More than 100 best Kurash players from 12 countries are competing in the tournament in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. /T.T/