Doha: The Section of Oasis of Manufacturers and Innovators at the Qatar Scientific Club (QSC) recently organised a scientific competition titled "Solutions Makers Challenge" in collaboration with the young adults' section of Qatar National Library.
The competition, targeted at students of preparatory and secondary schools, was intended to attain innovative solutions from the participants while escorting them through a journey of scientific thinking and engineering design followed by implementation.
A total of 19 students (male and female) from five schools: Qatar Science and Technology Secondary School, American School of Doha, Qatar Academy Doha (QAD), Doha College, and Qatar Academy for Science and Technology (QAST), participated in the event.
The attendees generated innovative thoughts to solve specific problems, which were augmented by the essential skills, tools, and resources required by them to further upgrade their solutions. They were subjected to numerous preliminary sessions to get familiar with design thinking.
Afterward, came the phase of thinking and planning through setting a scientific and determined approach. They then entered into the phase of implementing the prototype and the phase of building and testing to evaluate these models, which continued through September. The projects that made the final would then be evaluated based on clear and determined criteria.
The Head of the Oasis of Manufacturers at the Qatar Scientific Club, Eng. Salman Ghanem Al Sulaiti, said that such a competition is intended to train the students on the methods of dealing with problems scientifically and methodically by pursuing a number of sequential steps.
"As scientists, they are being trained to understand that one problem could have more than one solution, which precipitates differentiating between these solutions via several criteria, including the easy application of the solution, the economic cost of the project, and compliance with the security and safety standards," he said.
Al Sulaiti added that all the essential support and technical knowledge were offered during the competition, in addition to providing the training halls equipped with the essential devices to further implement any prototype, such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and electronic measuring devices.
