The panel of experts at the event yesterday
By Noimot Olayiwola/Staff Reporter
A group of high school students from two independent schools - Omar Bin Al Khattab Education Academy and Qatar Independent Secondary School - yesterday presented findings of their research efforts in the field of material science and technology to a panel of noted scientists and technology experts at the Qatar University.
The QU educational research programme “Al Bairaq” being organised by its Materials Technology Unit (MTU) within the Research Office, engages students from high schools throughout Qatar in science innovation and discovery.
The initiative launched on September 18 for secondary school students, with the aim to enhance their involvement in research activities and materials technology discovery, was held in co-operation with United Nations for Education and Scientific Organisation (Unesco), Qatar Petroleum and Northwestern University Qatar.
It will continue until December this year and another set of students will also be joining next semester beginning from February 2012.
Under the programme, different groups of students are encouraged to work together on a project in order to contest among themselves while the winning teams are awarded accordingly.
In all, seven groups comprising both male and female students from the two independent schools took part in the event and showed great enthusiasm for research and material science during their presentations.
The groups from Omar Bin Khattab Education Academy are Ibn Saud, AlKhawarzmy, Jaber Ben Hyyan and Ahmed Zowel while Qatar Independent Secondary School featured Al Harthi, Al Jaljal A, Al Idrisi A and Al Idrisi B.
The boys’ groups presented their project works on “Welding Quality Control: A Step Toward a Safe World” and the topics researched by the female groups were: “Laser Ultrasound Inspection: New Technique for Corrosion Measurement”, “Polythene Reinforced by Glass Fiber” and “Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer in Recycled Polypropylene”.
At the end of the presentations, projects by Al Harthi girls - Hanan Abdulla, Montaha Ghallab, Ameena Jumaa and Al Idrisi B group - Ahood Alajii, Alanood Abdulla, Halima Faisal Alamri were awarded first and second positions respectively while the third place went to one of the boys’ group - Al-Khawarzmy comprising Jaber Abdulaziz al-Jaber, Nasser Abdulla al-Suwaidi and Hassan Essa Abu-Holayqah.
Other participants in the female group are Al-Idrisi A group - Manal Ali, Hamda Ahmed and Sheikha Rushid al-Naimi and Ibn Al Jaljal group - Bassma Yousef, Noora Ali Yousuf and Noora Abdalsalam.
Others in boys group are Ahmed Zowel group - Talal Jassim, Mohamed al-Dosari and Khalid Abdulla al-Najjar; Jaber Ben Hyyan group - Abdulaziz Mohamed al-Khori, Mohamed Samy al-Shammari and Hassan Ahmed Abdulhadi; Ibn Saud group - Mohammed Abdulla Bukshaisha, Ahmed Abdulla Bukshaisha and Hashim Abdulhadi.
Speaking to Gulf Times about the research, QU Social Sciences associate professor Dr Kaltha al-Ghanim mentioned that a QU disciplinary team from Education, Sociology, Material Science and Chemistry, have conducted a pre-research test on the participating students two weeks earlier before embarking on the project to determine their attitude, skills and knowledge about science experiment.
“After they finished working on the projects, we also re-evaluated the students with the help of their teachers to know whether they have a change of attitudes and skills as well as interest to take up professions in science or engineering in the future,” she explained while mentioning that efforts were being made to write a scientific article based on the findings of their studies as well as get it published in an international journal.
All members of the judging panel comprising officials from state institutions and leading industrial companies including Qatar Science and Technology Park’s executive chairman Tidu Maini, who was the chairman of the event, commended all the students for their efforts and courage to prepare as well as present the research works.
“This is an amazing initiative by QU because it takes great efforts to co-ordinate programme like this one and everyone who has participated is a winner. All of you students did a good job and I hope the organisers can expand the initiative a bit to cover more fields,” Dr Maini noted.
Other panelists were Unesco Doha Office director Dr Hamad al-Hammami, Seimens chief executive officer Martin A Porta, Tasweeq acting administration executive director Abdulla Abdul Malek, Shell Technical Services vice president Rafi Baghdjian and RasGas representative M Ayman Abdul Salam.
