QU launches ‘Engineering Education Week’

Qatar University (QU) College of Engineering (CENG) launched the ‘Engineering Education Week’ this month, for the first time to highlight the expertise of research and innovation in Qatar. The week-long activities expose professionals and researchers to the latest findings in engineering to relevant parties. It also involves a number of stakeholders with the concept of engineering education, which teaches knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering.CENG dean Prof Abdelmagid Hamouda said, “With reference to the main themes of Engineering Education Week, I think that we need to reframe the main concepts of studying and working in engineering, science, and technology fields within a broader context in co-ordination with stakeholders and partners. This conference is considered as one of the methods that CENG is pursuing to support the educational learning systems and mechanism, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.”“Universities need a higher didactic quality awareness nowadays. Industry and societies have an ever growing need for workers and citizens who can cope not only with domain and communicative skills, the need for conceptual skills for creative problem solving is greater than ever. As students need to manifest acquired expertise in teams, it is needed to let them study in teams and benefit from sharing expertise rather than solo actions,” Prof Piet Kommers, professor of Unesco Learning Technologies noted.“The whole week of events,  starting with the collaboration between the College of Engineering and the College of Education to jointly host the “Education and Instruction Technology Conference” sets a good example on the kind of multidisciplinary requirements to nurture quality future leaders and talents in engineering. The activities during this week, such as the Wooden Bridge Competition, forum held with industry leaders, as well as Workshop on 21st Century Learning for Engaging Millennials shows the commitment of the college to enhance engineering education,” Prof Khairiyah Mohd Yusof, director, Centre for Engineering Education added.