Qatar University (QU) celebrated the achievements of its Al-Bairaq programme recently, which attracted hundreds of students from 19 schools in Doha who produced 107 innovative ideas and products in the field of material science during the spring of 2018.
The feat has been achieved by the end of the 4th cycle primary stage and 3rd cycle preparatory stage of the “I Am Discovering Materials” programme, which involved 414 male and female students from schools in Al Khor, Al Shahaniya, Al Wakrah and Rawdat Rashid.
In addition, QU said the “Problem Solving” programme was reactivated this year with a new curriculum that suits the early stages of the 3rd and the 4th primary grades.
The new curriculum was successfully designed within six months, attracting 80 male and female students from different schools.
Several research projects conducted by Al-Bairaq students won seven awards in the National Students Research Fair 10th cycle.
The research project on “Leidenfrost effect drops as a reactor for direct methanol fuel cell catalyst” won the second place in the overall awards, which was nominated to represent Qatar in “Intel ISEF 2018”exhibition in the US.
The same project won first place in the Special Awards, honoured by Shell Qatar Company, and second place in the Chemistry and Material Science category.
The research project on “Auti-LightT; a product specially designed for children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder)” won first place under the Special Awards, honoured by Texas A&M University at Qatar and second place under the Biomedical Engineering category.
The research project on “Performance of Novel Electroless Plated Ni-P-C3N4 Nanocomposite Coating” won second place in the Special Awards, presented by Shell Qatar Company and third place in the chemistry and material science category.
The Al-Bairaq programme also won in ITEX interschool competition (Qatar), organised by Qatar Science and Technology Park while the winning project was nominated to represent Qatar in “ITEX 2018” exhibition.
Al-Bairaq also won the second place in “ITEX 2018” exhibition in Malaysia for the research on “Marine Degradable plastic based on soybean by-product”.
QU Centre for Advanced Materials’ outreach and communications section head Dr Noora al-Thani expressed her appreciation of the great efforts made by the Al-Bairaq team, which was honoured by many schools, citing its participation in the “I Am Discovering Materials” programme.
She also thanked the team members for their keenness to continuously develop and improve the programme, which applies STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) curriculum.
She noted that Al-Bairaq has recently attracted a larger number of students who participated in the programme’s research projects and highlighted the innovative ideas and research outcomes produced by Al-Bairaq students.
Al-Bairaq students doing research.
