Student participants of the  “Shell Ideas360” competition.

Shell is inviting all university students in Qatar to participate in the “Shell Ideas360” competition, an event that encourages students around the world to create, share, and collaboratively develop game-changing ideas to help tackle global challenges associated with energy, water and food availability.
Shell is collaborating with local universities to launch the global competition for the second year in Qatar, it said in a statement.
The competition provides participants with the opportunity to develop their ideas into a “potentially investment-worthy” business case with the support of mentors and subject matter experts. Students can submit their ideas until December 15, 2015.
This is the third season of the competition but the second time in Qatar. Last year, “Passive House” team from Qatar University (QU) was selected as one of the top five finalists from thousands of ideas submitted from around the world to participate in the finals for “Shell Ideas360” global competition in The Netherlands.
The team comprising Fatma Fakhroo, Hadeel Salh, and Sarah Tariq from QU’s College of Engineering competed against four other teams in the finals. Their idea looked at solving a problem, which is close to home and affects all regions with a similarly hot climate.
The team designed a “passive house,” which uses less energy. The objective of their design was to redefine urban living by merging new technologies while adopting old architectural techniques to achieve a new level of sustainability.
The process for “Shell Ideas360” involves three key stages. In stage one, participants share and submit their initial concepts. These will be evaluated by a team of Shell experts and up to 100 ideas globally will be selected to go through to stage two.
At stage two, participants will further develop their ideas with the help of Shell mentors and subject matter experts. In stage three, five teams or individuals will be invited to Shell’s Global Fuel Challenge Race and the Shell Eco-Marathon Europe in London, to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges.
The winning students will embark on a “once-in-a-lifetime” journey: a National Geographic Expedition. In addition to this, the best ideas will be considered for funding by the Shell Game Changer programme, which has invested over $300mn to date.
Gamechanger has worked with over 1,500 innovators, turning more than 100 ideas into reality. Last year, 668 teams from 44 countries entered “Shell Ideas360,” making the global student competition a huge success.
Maha al-Mannai, university collaboration manager at Qatar Shell said: “The ‘Shell Ideas360’ competition is a great platform that enables university students in Qatar to collaborate with their peers around the world, to be creative and innovative on important global issues, and demonstrate strong leadership qualities and communication skills.”
“Shell Ideas360” was launched in September in Qatar. It started with a visit to Texas A&M University at Qatar, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, and QU.
Participating students in Qatar will be part of an online student community set up to allow students from around the world to create teams and discuss ideas. All students in Qatar are eligible to join the competition by registering at www.Shellideas360.com.