As part of Qatar University’s (QU) Young Scientists Center (YSC) efforts to support Qatar’s National Vision, in building an economy based on innovation, the Center continues to launch various research programs and activities to help develop students’ competencies in research and innovation. The Center recently held a closing ceremony for its third session of the ‘Design Thinking and Innovation Program’, in the presence of participating students, parents, and researchers from QU.

The number of students participating in the program reached 159 from the primary and preparatory stages from six schools, namely Qatar Primary School for Boys, Saad bin Moaz Primary School for Boys, Al-Manar International School, Saeed Bin Zaid Preparatory School for Boys, Ali Bin Abi Talib Preparatory School for Boys, and Salah School Al-Din Al-Ayyubi Preparatory School for Boys.

The program includes various scientific experiments and research activities related to STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) to stimulate creativity and innovation in students. It aims to develop the student’s research capabilities and provide them with 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and innovation.

During the final ceremony, the qualified groups designed innovative prototypes by following the steps of design thinking: Empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Students performed excellently in applying the design thinking principles to build their prototype. Additionally, students from the preparatory schools designed a prototype to reduce heat loss according to the competition criteria.

Primary school students applied all stages of design thinking to build a safe and environmentally friendly model for protecting and packaging a food product, considering cost, quality, innovation, and durability criteria.

Finally, the panel of judges evaluated participants’ performance and their final prototypes to choose the winner in each stage. At the end of the ceremony, the honored winning groups were ‘Edison Group’ from Saeed Bin Zaid Preparatory School for Boys and ‘Shabab Al-Ilm’ Group from Qatar Primary School.

The Director of the YSC, Prof. Noora Al-Thani, praised the students and their innovations. She mentioned in her speech that the students reaching this stage of cognitive awareness, is an essential step in preparing them to face various challenges which would contribute to enrich human resources and build the research and scientific capabilities of the emerging generation to benefit the community. Dr. Noora Al-Thani thanked the Center’s partners, Qatar National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, and the UNESCO Office in Doha – Qatar.

Source: Qatar University