A team of middle-school Pakistani students won the first prize in the Social Innovation category at the Teknofest aerospace festival held in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on Saturday.

Teknofest is Türkiye’s first and only aerospace and technology festival organised in partnership with many organisations that play a critical part in the development of national technology in Türkiye, according to the information available on its website.

Last year, the competition took place in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, hosting tech competitions spanning 41 categories, all aligned with the focal points of the future. These competitions attracted applications from over 333,000 teams and more than 1 million individuals from all 81 Turkish provinces and 96 countries.

“Asma Fatima and Inaya Khan, along with their teacher Gohar Khursheed, met Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan to receive their first-place award at Teknofest 2025,” Pak-Turk Maarif International Schools and Colleges announced in a post on Instagram.

Their project ‘Emotion Detector Gadget for Quadriplegic’ won the Social Innovation competition for middle-school students.

“During the award ceremony, winners were announced among 268 finalist teams and 1,083 competitors from six countries, selected from over 47,000 applicants across 22 countries,” the competition’s website stated.

Speaking to Dawn.com after their win, Inaya said: “My experience at Teknofest was phenomenal. There were so many brilliant projects, and the competition was fierce.”

She added that they “poured their our hearts into their project and it paid off”.

“All the challenges, the moments we thought we’d never get through, were all worth it.

“This is a huge win for us, for our team, school and for our country. We’re not just celebrating a victory; we’re celebrating the power of innovation and the impact we can make on Pakistan’s young generation.”

Their teacher, Gohar, speaking about the victory, said, “It’s a reminder that with hard work, determination, and a little bit of innovation, anything is possible.”

Gohar continued that their winning project focused on helping linguistically paralysed people to understand their feelings.

Last year, a Pakistani students team had won three bronze medals in the 54th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), held in Isfahan, Iran, from July 21 to 28.