Cornel Amariei

Cornel Amariei grew up in Bucharest in a family shaped by disability: both parents lived with locomotor challenges, and his sister had a cerebral disability. That early exposure to the limits of existing technologies sparked in Cornel a lifelong instinct to solve problems through engineering. When he joined JA Romania as a student, he discovered a framework for turning that instinct into action. JA’s hands-on approach to entrepreneurship and innovation gave him his first structured experience in identifying unmet needs, designing solutions, and working in teams to bring ideas to life.

One of those early after-hours projects would eventually chart his future. “I was discussing a problem with a friend, and by the end of our discussion we came up with the idea of inventing glasses for the sight-impaired,” he recalled. What began as a thought experiment soon revealed a staggering gap: nearly 40 million blind individuals worldwide, and only about 20,000 trained guide dogs. The question became unavoidable: what might be possible if technology could deliver the essential benefits of a guide dog?

From that question emerged .lumen, Cornel’s deep-tech company that now uses advanced robotics, Pedestrian Autonomous Driving (PAD AI), and haptic feedback to support safe mobility for the visually impaired. The .lumen glasses replicate the key functions of a guide dog while remaining scalable, affordable and adaptable across environments. In the past year, the company secured an €11 million grant to accelerate deployment and was named a CES® 2026 Innovation Awards Honoree in Accessibility & Longevity. Hundreds of visually impaired users across several countries have already tested the system.

Cornel often says that improving mobility unlocks far more than movement; it opens access to education, employment, dignity and community. His path from JA participant to global innovator exemplifies the purpose of JA’s work- and tech-readiness programs: equipping young people not only to succeed in the future of work, but to shape it.