Qatar University’s (QU) Young Scientists Centre (YSC) has won seven awards in the 8th International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada, iCAN 2023, a statement said on Sunday.
The YSC's award sweeps includes two gold, a silver for projects submitted by the students, another silver for the centre itself, in addition to three special awards. This win came after stiff competition with 621 other projects from 50 countries around the world.
The iCan 2023 competition, organised by the Toronto International Society for Innovation and Advanced Skills (TISIAS), aims to encourage inventors and researchers by providing a global platform for scientific competition, serving as a gateway for linking innovative ideas, technologies and solutions.
During the competition, Khaled al-Kubaisi, Khaled al-Midfa, Saeed al-Kuwari and Mohammed al-Khulaifi, from Hayat Universal Bilingual School, won a gold medal for their project ‘Innovative Football to Analyse the Players Physical Performance.’
The high school students developed a football that evaluates player performance by utilising artificial intelligence techniques, to be used in training evaluations. This project was made possible through the student’s participation in the Science in Sports programme offered by the YSC.
Nouf al-Emadi and Naeema al-Fakhro from Al-Arqam Academy for Girls also won a gold medal and a special award, for a project titled ‘LiMn2O4-MXene as a new composite material to improve the performance of lithium batteries,’ under the supervision of Dr Abdel Shakour and the YSC.
Their project helps in developing sustainable energy systems.
Students Yousef al-Enezi and Mohammed al-Kuwari from Qatar Academy for Science and Technology won a silver award and a special award for a research project titled ‘Generating green energy from nanocomposites made of polylactic acid,’ under the supervision of Dr Diba and the YSC.
The project aims to use a new, environmentally friendly source of energy by reducing the emission of toxic gases that contribute to the phenomenon of global warming.
The YSC also won a silver medal and a special award for its adoption of developed methods and principles for teaching scientific research methodologies, in a project titled ‘An ingenious approach for teachers professional development based on innovative research-based practices towards promoting the scientific research culture in education.’
YSC director Prof Noora al-Thani, congratulated the winners and said, “At the Centre, we are keen to provide a stimulating environment for creativity and innovation. We also encourage our students to develop, search, and disseminate their ideas and experiences at all levels, since it has a major role in developing the knowledge-based economy of Qatar as well as achieving Qatar National Vision 2030.”
