Students during a session at the week-long Qatar Invents camp presented by Texas A&M University at Qatar and Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd.
DOHA: More than 25 students from middle schools and high schools across Qatar brought their inner inventors to life through a week-long engineering camp designed to encourage innovative solutions to real-world challenges in Qatar.
Qatar Invents, an intensive engineering invention and design experience, engaged students in hands-on projects that pushed their innovation, creativity and communication skills.
Students developed their own novel solutions to engineering challenges in energy, environment and health care, and then they built prototypes to demonstrate their inventions. The programme was designed to motivate students in science and engineering while teaching skills essential to becoming leaders in engineering and innovation.
Participant Saud Abukishk said he learned a lot from the program, such as communicating as a team and what engineers do. “I used to think that engineering and science were boring until I joined this program and was taught that the world needs engineers. This has had a huge impact on me, teaching me about what engineers do, and inspired me to be a very successful scientist or engineer.”
Qatar Invents was presented by Texas A&M at Qatar and sponsored by Occidental Petroleum of Qatar Ltd. (Oxy Qatar). Occidental has joined the branch campus’s strategic educational outreach efforts that aim to motivate young Qataris to choose educational pathways for careers in fields related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The initiative supports both teachers and students through a broad portfolio of programs and workshops.
Dr. César O. Malavé, dean of Texas A&M at Qatar, said outreach programs help young students understand the importance of engineering in Qatar.
