Qatar - Winners of QU's engineering design competition honoured

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula

Doha: Qatar University (QU) recently concluded the first edition of the 'Green technology Competition 2021' which was organised by the College of Engineering (CENG) in coordination with the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE) and the student branch of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) at QU. 

The competition was launched in the first semester of the current academic year 2021-22, to engage secondary school students in enhancing their technical and basic programming skills through designing a“solar energy tracker” and exploring the aspects of engineering design.

The number of participants in the competition reached 50 students from 10 different teams of Qatari independent schools. The closing ceremony of the competition was preceded by specialised workshops for the participants to aid them in their engineering design process, including basic workshops in Arduino microcontroller, and 3D-printing. 

The teams presented their solar tracker models to the jury whose evaluation process was based on predefined criteria, such as design complexity, system response time, creativity and originality of the design, and explanation of the difficulties that the teams faced and how they were mitigated. The jury consisted of four members affiliated with the College of Engineering, including Prof. Rashid A Al Ammari, faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering and former Dean of CENG, Prof. Nader M Meskin, faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Engineer Abdulrahman H Abunada, R&D Engineer at Barzan Holdings, and Engineer Yahya M Alhomsi, general manager and co-founder of Voltaat.

The top three winners of the competition were announced and honoured with Prof. Abdelmagid Hamouda, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at CENG, in attendance. Jassim bin Hamad Secondary School ranked first, followed by Abdullah bin Ali Al Misnad Secondary School in second place, while third place went to Al Wakra Secondary School.

Prof. Hamouda said the competition is evident of the Qatari schools' system following the latest international standards and developments, and the impacts of this advancement were reflected in the presented models. 

Moreover, Dr. Mohammed A Al-Hitmi, Head of the Electrical Engineering Department, and Prof. Nizar Zorba, a faculty member in the Department and the advisor for the student branch of IEEE, expressed their happiness and satisfaction with the success of this competition in achieving its purpose, of exposing participants to the engineering design process, and spread engineering culture which the community and the Qatari labour market needs. The programme also encourages the high school students to join the Department of Electrical Engineering at QU.

Eng. Mohammad Murtaza, Head of Student Branch of IEEE at Qatar University, said,“The competition was a success, as the students showed great motivation in their presentations, and their hard work was evident through their designs and models. Although the main theme of the design was unified, each school created its own unique design. This confirms to us the success of the competition in conveying a glimpse of what engineering design really is to the participating students.”

Eng. Tamim M Al Mulla, Vice President of the Student Branch of IEEE at Qatar University, assured that the branch will hold more activities similar to this competition with new and diverse topics to unleash the capabilities of the participating students, but with the same goals as in the current version of the competition. 

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