Young engineers in Uzbekistan have presented inventions ranging from a glove that converts sign language gestures into speech to a rapid health-screening device and industrial technology designed to reduce energy consumption.

The projects were among the winners of Kelajak muhandislari (Engineers of the Future), a national competition organised by Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation. The event received 1,925 applications, with 90 finalists selected. The winners were honoured in Tashkent on September 29.

The inventions are at different stages of development, with some still being tested as prototypes and others reportedly already in use at clinics and industrial facilities.

One of the winners, engineering student Abduqodir Latifjonov, took second place in the student Best Idea category with ImoVox, a sensor-equipped glove designed to help sign language users communicate with people who do not understand their gestures.

Latifjonov said the idea came from seeing the communication difficulties faced by people who use sign language. The prototype, adapted to Uzbek sign language, tracks hand and finger movements in three dimensions. Sensors record gestures and match them with assigned meanings before converting them into speech. Artificial intelligence helps combine individual signs into more natural sentences.

Another project focuses on health screening. Asadbek Urunov, a master’s student at Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent, won third place in the student Best Project category for Body Tester, a device his team describes as a “robot doctor”.

The machine measures height, weight, pulse, blood oxygen levels, body temperature and blood pressure in about 90 seconds. It stores the results digitally and provides preliminary recommendations.

Urunov said the measurements could take 20 to 25 minutes when carried out separately using conventional equipment. He stressed that the device was intended for initial assessments rather than definitive medical decisions. According to him, it is already being used in around 30 organisations, including clinics and public institutions.

Industrial efficiency was the focus of another winning invention. Bekzod Gafforov, a student at the Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship, developed a redesigned lining for industrial ball mills used to grind ore. Working with specialists from Navoi State University of Mining and Technologies, he combined wear-resistant steel and cast iron to improve performance.

Gafforov said the lining was already in use at facilities operated by Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Company. He reported that its service life had increased by 1.5 to two times, grinding efficiency had improved by 30% to 35%, and energy consumption had fallen by 5% to 10%.

Other winning projects included BARLOS, a hybrid unmanned ground vehicle developed by Dilmurod Rustamov of Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent. The platform can run on electricity or petrol and has a modular design for different tasks. Rustamov said his team had produced nine vehicles and had been tasked with manufacturing 100 units in 2027.

Biloliddin Ismoilov, a second-year student at Tashkent University of Information Technologies, won first prize in the student Best Project category for Shunqor-8, a drone interceptor that he said had undergone eight rounds of field testing.

Davron Polojanov, who placed third in the student Best Invention category, developed the Hand Control Mouse K10G. The device allows users to control computers and other electronics through movements in the air along three dimensions, potentially allowing teachers to navigate presentations while moving around classrooms.

The projects highlight efforts by young Uzbek engineers to develop practical technologies for communication, healthcare, manufacturing and computing.

The malicious use of artificial intelligence and nuclear conflict are among 17 major threats to global health that could put humanity at risk of extinction by 2100, according to a new assessment published in The Lancet.

The study, conducted by the Lancet Commission on 21st-century global threats to health, examines risks ranging from nuclear war and antimicrobial resistance to climate change, pandemics, income inequality, obesity, tobacco use and mental health problems.

The commission brings together 37 experts in health, economics, security and technology. Researchers assessed the potential impact of the threats across 204 countries and territories between 2025 and 2100, using disability-adjusted life years, or DALYs, to estimate the loss of healthy human life.

The measure accounts for years lost through premature death and years lived with illness or disability. The researchers used best-case and worst-case scenarios to examine how much harm each threat could cause and how preventive action might reduce the consequences.

The estimated burden across the 17 threats ranges from 1.02 billion to 23.1 billion DALYs. For comparison, the COVID-19 pandemic caused an estimated 500 million DALYs. Obesity represents the largest cumulative burden that could potentially be reduced through intervention.

The researchers warned that nuclear conflict could cause widespread destruction beyond the immediate effects of weapons, including nuclear famine resulting from the disruption of food production and supply. The malicious use of AI could also create severe dangers, including the development or deployment of biological weapons.

The commission stressed that the assessment is not intended to rank threats or prescribe a fixed order for government action. Instead, it provides a framework for understanding their potential effects, recognising that the findings will change as new evidence emerges.

The experts said the threats are closely connected and require coordinated responses rather than separate efforts focused on individual problems. They called for a comprehensive approach based on scientific evidence, human rights and international solidarity.

One key recommendation is for governments to build health systems capable of responding quickly to major emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of preparedness, adequate resources and effective coordination when confronting a global crisis.

The commission also urged greater investment in potentially transformative technologies, including nuclear fusion, carbon removal and vaccines, which could help address climate change, infectious diseases and other major risks.

Regular monitoring and updated risk assessments are another priority. The researchers recommended sharing findings with international bodies, including the United Nations and the G20, to encourage governments to cooperate before emerging threats develop into full-scale crises.

According to the commission, the current competitive approach to tackling global challenges is limiting the prospects for effective action.

The findings were presented on Sunday at the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany. The assessment is due to be updated annually to reflect new evidence, changes in existing risks and the emergence of additional threats.

The researchers said early action could help governments limit the potential damage and reduce the likelihood of the worst-case scenarios identified in the report.

Denmark is set to introduce legislation on Thursday that would prohibit the sharing of realistic deepfakes depicting people’s faces or voices without their consent, as governments around the world seek to address the growing risks posed by artificial intelligence.

The proposed amendment to Denmark’s copyright law would give people greater control over digital versions of their appearance and voice. The protections would apply to ordinary individuals as well as artists whose performances could be digitally copied or manipulated.

Deepfakes are digitally generated or altered images, videos and audio designed to make people appear to say or do things they did not. They have increasingly been used to spread false information, damage reputations and create humiliating or abusive material.

Denmark’s Culture Minister Zenia Stampe said the technology allows manipulated content to be produced and distributed on social media with little effort.

One of the government’s key aims is to ensure that major technology companies remove harmful manipulated material quickly, reducing the potential damage to people targeted by such content.

The legislation follows a broad political agreement reached in June 2025 under the previous Danish government. That agreement was aimed at protecting people from unauthorised digital imitations.

The proposed rules would not impose a blanket ban on digitally altered content. Exceptions would cover satire, parody, caricature and criticism of politicians, institutions and society.

Those protections would not apply where misinformation creates serious risks to other people’s rights, essential interests, lives or property.

The Danish government hopes the legislation will come into force at the beginning of 2027.

The move comes as countries and international institutions introduce new measures to address the misuse of synthetic media.

EU member states covered by the bloc’s directive on violence against women must implement the legislation by June 14, 2027. It requires countries to criminalise the creation of sexually explicit manipulated material and its subsequent public distribution without the consent of the person depicted when the material is likely to cause serious harm.

Denmark is not bound by that directive because it has an opt-out from EU justice and home affairs rules.

France already prohibits the distribution of AI-generated images or audio depicting another person without consent when the artificial nature of the material is not obvious or clearly disclosed. French law also prohibits the non-consensual sharing of sexual deepfakes regardless of whether they are labelled as manipulated.

In England and Wales, creating or requesting non-consensual intimate deepfakes became a criminal offence in February. Sharing such material can result in a prison sentence of up to two years.

Denmark’s proposed law would add to a growing set of national measures aimed at giving individuals greater protection as increasingly realistic digital impersonations become easier to create and distribute.