Mustafa Alsumadi and Muan Alshaar from Nasser Al Attiya Secondary Independent School for Boys have won the first prize in Computing Contest 2013 of Qatar University’s College of Engineering.
The annual contest was organised by the department of computer science and engineering (CSE) and sponsored by ConocoPhillips Qatar. The first prize winners, mentored by teacher Muatasim Alkhateib, received QR10,000 and a scholarship each to the CSE department.
The second-place team comprising Bedour Fakher and Sarah al-Jarrah from Al-Ieman Secondary Independent School for Girls, mentored by Nahed Abdel Azim, won QR6,000.  The third spot went to Malkan Khatib and Abdullah Doleh from Tariq Ibn Zeyad Secondary Independent School for Boys, mentored by Ali Hamad. They won QR4,000.
As in previous years, this year’s contest was based on the time it takes for a LEGO NXT 2.0 robot to complete certain tasks. These included an added engineering component in which the robot selects a ball of specific colour and drops it off at a certain location.
The contest organisers were impressed by the quality of the submissions they received.
Department head Prof Sebti Foufou said the contest is designed to offer students across Qatar the opportunity to interact with each other and demonstrate their creativity and teamwork skills.
The contest also provides a platform for the department and schools to address the growing market demand for computing professionals such as software engineers, system administrators, system developers, network designers, security consultants and teachers.
ConocoPhillips Qatar government affairs director Salem al-Halbadi expressed delight at being the main sponsor for the second year. “Teamwork is possibly the most important value that participants have learned from this experience. It is one of our company’s values as it is the key to professional success,” he added.