A team of Qatari high-school students who designed an innovation to be employed in extracting oil from reservoirs took the top prize in the second annual Summer Engineering Academy (SEA).
SEA is a 10-day science, technology, engineering and math enrichment programme organised and hosted by Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq) and Maersk Oil Qatar. 
The winning team was composed of six students: Fajer Almarzooqi, Fatma al-Abdulghani, Fay al-Sulaiti, Moza al-Kuwari, Saoud al-Abdulla and Muneera al-Sulaiti. 
The Summer Engineering Academy is part of the Dhia: Engineering Leaders partnership between Tamuq and Maersk Oil Qatar.
During the programme, 24 academically outstanding grade 11 Qatari students who were named Qatar National Vision Scholars worked with Texas A&M faculty members on real-life, relevant, hands-on research projects related to Qatar’s research challenges in autonomous vehicles, petroleum production, water desalination and wireless energy. 
The programme introduced students to advanced topics in engineering and science while teaching important problem-solving skills. The students also learned how to communicate technical ideas and put these lessons to the test when they presented their individual projects and research findings to the faculty members.
Hassan Zaki Abdulaziz, a Summer Engineering Academy participant, said joining the academy and working with the Mechanical Engineering faculty helped identify all the requirements and needs to become a successful engineer. 
Dr Nayef Alyafei, a graduate of Tamuq who is the first Qatari faculty member of the branch campus, mentored a Summer Engineering Academy team this year. He said he is proud of the students he mentored during the academy. 
SEA ran concurrently with the Future Engineers Programme in which more than 30 Qatari students rising into grades 10 and 11 worked on projects related to space, including the design of a near-space weather balloon that the students launched from the Texas A&M Engineering Building. 
Students learned about atmospheric sciences from the Meteorology Department at the Civil Aviation Authority, which co-ordinated the balloon’s launch. The balloon took measurements, photographs and observations as it rose into the outer atmosphere. The project teaches students about data relationships while demonstrating that scientific inquiry can be fun. 
The Future Engineers also designed tools that an astronaut might use in space, and the tools were 3-D printed in Texas A&M’s facilities. In designing the tools, the students met  and interviewed retired Nasa astronaut Duane “Digger” Carey about his experiences in space and the kind of tasks an astronaut might perform in zero gravity.
Carey spoke to the students about his humble beginnings and the value of his engineering education, and encouraged the students to never give up on their goals.