Nada Sultan

Egyptian edtech pioneer revolutionizing STEM education for girls

Nada Sultan is the visionary behind STEM Girls, an Arabic-language edtech platform that has taught coding and robotics to 200,000+ girls in the Middle East since 2020. Her platform's gamified learning system incorporates regional cultural contexts, using storytelling about historical Arab scientists like Al-Jahiz and Banu Musa to engage students. The program's success led to a partnership with UNESCO in 2022 to expand to 10 African countries.

Sultan's 2023 launch of the Digital Madrasa initiative provides solar-powered tablets with offline access to STEM content, addressing connectivity challenges in rural areas. Over 30,000 devices have been distributed through mosque-based learning centers. Her work tackles critical gender gaps - only 14% of Arab engineering students are female, and 60% of girls discontinue STEM studies by age 15.

In 2024, Sultan was featured in Forbes Middle East's 30 Under 30 list for her creation of the Arab Girls in AI competition. The initiative has produced solutions like an Arabic dialect recognition app and a diabetes prediction algorithm. Her TED Talk "Why We Need an Arab STEM Revival" has become a cornerstone for regional education policy discussions.