A huge fraction of students participating at the annual Qatar Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (Qatar STEAM) had further improved in doing their projects, a senior official of Qatar Foundation Research and Development (QF R&D) has said.
“Students are reaching out to us, asking for assistance, they are really doing experimental work in universities and research institutes,” QF R&D’s Research Training and Outreach manager Dr Ayman Bassil told reporters.
“We can see already that there is a tremendous improvement,” he added, referring to more than 400 students who submitted their R&D projects for this year’s competition.
Dr Bassil stressed that science and research should be instilled in the minds of students in a light way, adding that lessons and learning experiences in endeavours such as the Qatar STEAM cannot all be taught in universities and schools.
An important part of the competition’s objectives, he noted, is to learn more about the research methodologies.
“This is something that you will keep with you even if you decide not to pursue a career in research,” the QF R&D official said. “When one performs in any project or presentation in any university, these are skills that will remain.”
QF, which hopes to attract more students to pursue careers in R&D, has vowed to continuously support “students with bright minds,” hosting them in different programmes available at the Foundation.
Besides the official awards, Dr Bassil also announced that they added special awards this year in co-operation with six partners.
These awards, he noted, will be relevant to the business of their partners such as those in energy, biomedicine and engineering, among others.
Grand winners will receive QR15,000 while category winners will receive QR5,000, QR4,000 and QR3,000 for the first, second and third places.
“It is a pleasure to welcome everyone to share in the excitement as Qatar STEAM 2016 empowers Qatari youth to become the thought leaders of tomorrow,” Dr Bassil said.