Khalifa Secondary School, Qatar Science and Technology Secondary School, and Ibn Taymya Secondary School were named first, second and third place winners in their category at the recent closing ceremony of the 6th ChemE Car Competition for High Schools.
The competition was organised by Qatar University's (QU) College of Engineering (CENG) Department of Chemical Engineering (DChE) in collaboration with its American Institute of Chemical Engineers student chapter. A total of 10 high schools in Qatar participated.
The competition aims to enhance creativity and innovation among high school students, encouraging them to enter chemical engineering programmes.
The participants had to design and race a small car operated through chemical processes and carrying a load of water (0-500gm) for a distance of 15-30m. Teams were given information of the load and distance about two hours before the competition. This year the load was 150g and the target distance was 15m.
In the lead up to the competition, which started in October 2022, the DChE team offered several sessions for participating schools to guide them on the guidelines, rules, and safety regulations in addition to the main phases they need to go through to accomplish their car designs and calibration tasks.
The DChE head Prof Majeda Khraisheh said: “It is exciting to see that almost 70 students participated this year. One of the main aims of the competition is to see how students overcome the technical challenges they face as they prepare for the race. All student teams worked well together to address these challenges.”
