Saud Abdulaziz Ghani, director of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Qatar University
By Ross Jackson/Staff Reporter

Qatar University yesterday launched the third ‘Life is Engineering’ competition, where 16 schools are competing for the opportunity to build a car that will race on the Lusail Circuit.
Every Saturday in the coming months, the teams will meet at Qatar University for lessons and lectures on vehicle dynamics, combustion, vehicle transmission, road safety awareness taught by Frank Williams, as well as other important aspects of vehicle engineering.
The teams will be judged on punctuality and attendance as a team at these sessions.
The teams will be expected to compile a report on everything they’ve learned from their instructors as well as a design report for the vehicle.
The final element of the first round is a competition to assemble a model engine where the teams will also be assessed on their communication and leadership skills, before the judges make their decision based on their performance in all of these criteria.
The best six schools will be allowed into round two where the teams must be able assemble and dismantle their kit cars, which will be fully documented. Last year one school spent 24 hours streaming this endeavour live.
There are points in this round for communication, dissemination of knowledge and ‘soft-skill’ values to team-mates, which will also include use of social media, and how well the car was assembled.
Points will also be assigned for cleanliness and organisation of the student’s workspace.
The final six schools will also take part in other competitions such as Arabic language, Qatari history or Islamic culture competitions, and the total grade based on all events will be brought forward to the final day on the track.
Student drivers and a co-pilot observers will then race their car in a time trial on the Lusail Circuit.
All the cars are expected to be capable of speeds of up to 240kph, but these will be capped at 120kph, making driver skill the determining factor in this competition.
Awards will be given to the best teams in communication, best in design and the overall winner.
Saud Abdulaziz Ghani, director of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Qatar University, explained the importance of this competition to the development of Qatar’s workforce capability.
“Right now in Qatar we’ve got a big drive to get good engineers to the industry because the future of this country lies in its own people, especially in engineering, the powerhouse of the whole economy lies in engineering…So we need a good quantity and high quality of Qatar engineers to go and work in the industry,” Ghani said.
“The problem is, like in Europe, like in the US, like anywhere, now people don’t like to go into engineering, they think its dirty, takes too long, its hard - there’s a misconception about engineering.
“So we thought we would go to the grassroots, go and talk to the students, and while they are making the decision of which career to take, we would try to latch them onto engineering, and what is better than a car.
“In the car you can demonstrate a lot of engineering disciplines, you can demonstrate mechanical engineering - you’ve got the power train, vehicle dynamics, vehicle aerodynamics, you can do electrical, you can do instrumentation, you can do chemical engineering, you can do road engineering, the car as itself is a complete product to show all the disciplines.”
The teams will work with their sponsors at Qatar Motors and Motorcycle Federation under the patronage of Nasser al-Attiyah, as well as with Shell and QAPCO.
Frank Williams will not only speak to the students on certain topics, but they will also have access to the state-of-the-art simulator at the Williams Technology Centre at Qatar Science and Technology Park.
Rakam al-Ibrahim, a physics teacher at Doha Independent Secondary School for Boys, explained: “The most important part of the programme is that it motivates the students, makes them really understand the relationship between science, engineering and our life – make them need to learn, love to learn, make them understand what’s going on around us, give them experience with how to deal with things logically.”
Speaking to Gulf Times on the sidelines of the launch event, Abdulaziz al-Hothi, a student at Omar bin Alkhottob School, explained the challenges ahead, but is not concerned as the experience will be rewarding.
“I’m planning to study either physics or mechanical engineering. If I’m going to study mechanical engineering, this is going to aid me in my CV,” he said.



 

Related Story