Interview with BTU Alumnus Abdullah Zeyn Hassan (Heritage Conservation and Site Management)

Abdulla Zeyn Hassan comes from Egypt, where he studied Egyptology and tourism and spent years giving guided tours of the country's rich culture in museums and cultural sites. He came to Cottbus in 2018 for a Master's degree and then worked in the start-up and digital sector in Berlin. He now lives between Cottbus and Berlin and is the founder of the museum application Museful, which uses augmented reality and AI technologies to make museum visits more informative and interactive.

Hello Mr. Hassan, where does your personal interest in museums, history and cultural education come from?
I was brought up in Giza, when I was a kid I used to see the pyramids from my window, it was an amazing scene seeing the sun sets behind the pyramid everyday, it is something that I can not forget. That scene created a huge curiosity inside of me for ancient Egyptian culture and history. And I remember when I was 13 years old, first time going to the Egyptian museum in Tahrir square. I told my parents I want to be an archaeologist. And the rest was history.

How did you come to study in Cottbus and what experience have you gained here?
I came to study Heritage Conservation and Site Management in Cottbus through a Gerda Henkel scholarship, I applied the first time in 2016. I was rejected, but I managed to get in after I reapplied in 2017. The studies in BTU were interesting. I have to say in some modules I gained more experience than when I was in Egypt, I gained more of theoretical knowledge than practical in Cottbus. This was a good addition to my skills, but I find that there is need to more practical studies in Heritage Conservation and Site Management.

You are the founder of Museful, please tell us more about the museum app. What is the idea behind it and who is the target group?
As someone who studied Egyptology in bachelor, my idea at the beginning was to create and augmented reality app that can translate ancient egyptian text. My goal was to have this to the topic for my master thesis. As much as it sounds like a great idea, it was really hard to pitch to my supervisors and I totally understand why it was meet by rejection as it would require a computer science professor to validate the idea. But as I had passion for mix reality technology since the first time I heard about it in 2019, I decided to pivot the idea in my master thesis, and to use augmented reality to develop a framework to create a mobile app to enhance the visitor experience in museums.  Two years later after learning how to code and being a part of a startup in 2022, I started to navigate my master thesis so that it could have a business potential. After I surveyed over a hundred museums visitor, pitched my ideas a couple of times, I started working on it in May 2023. The target audience for Museful is families, we understand that kids get bored really fast in museums as it is non-interactive and most of the time uses a very elite language in their interpretation signs.

You and Museful are in the Microsoft Founders Hub, which offers especially support in the field of artificial intelligence. What is your experience there and what would you say to other BTU founders with an interest in AI?
From my experience it is really helpful to be part of this program, it offers a lot of perks that I know it would benfits early stage startup at the beginning of their journey. It can accelerate your startup growth as AIMicrosoft for Startups Founders Hub provides free access to OpenAI models, up to $150,000 in Azure credits, one-on-one guidance from Microsoft experts, and much more.

What other tips do you have for BTU founders?
Your team is the core of your startup, not your idea, not your experience not anything else - unless you want to go solo. But if you decide to have a team make sure that it is a team that you can rely on.

You live in Cottbus again, how did this come about and can you recommend the location to other founders?
I came back to Cottbus last summer to discover the potential of support that I can get from BTU and to be honest I was not disappointed at all. BTU have offered me some essential help when it comes to mentoring and support. One of the advantages is that Cottbus is a small city and you can get more attention and support way faster and easier than in Berlin.

You know many museums and cultural sites in Cairo, which is also a popular destination for many BTU alumni. Do you have a favorite museum or exhibit there as a recommendation?
There are a lot of a really nice and rich museums in Greater Cairo, I would recommend to anyone to visit the newly opened Grand Egyptian museum in Giza. Another of my favorite museums is Gayer anderson museum in Old-Cairo, the architecture and the story behind the museums says a lot about how Cairo inhabits visitors.