Tribune News Network
Doha
The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) and Qatar Scientific Club (QSC) have concluded the ‘Future Engineer 3’ Programme with the participation of 30 students from the ages of 14 to 18 years.
The programme provided 20 trainers from various engineering disciplines from Ashghal and Qatar Scientific Club.
Altogether 15 training workshops were held in addition to three field visits to Ashghal worksites.
The programme aims to provide an opportunity to learn about various engineering disciplines and the working environment closely and to support and enhance knowledge regarding the engineering discipline.
The students were also introduced to engineering planning and project management and linking engineering concepts to field experience as well as prepare students and qualify them for the requirements of the labour market.
The participants received beneficial and necessary engineering information through workshops and field visits to Ashghal laboratories and departments.
The participants viewed the latest devices (Drones) used in the Authority and they were introduced to the safety rules in addition to learning about the mechanism of inspection to measure the chemical and biological quality of treated groundwater.
A visit was also organised to the Rainfall Emergency Room and the Road and Drainage Networks Department Centres in Asset Affairs.
The students also received workshops under the supervision of Qatari engineers, explaining the concept and objectives of sustainability and help them to build ideas and innovation, how to plan projects and the mechanism of prototyping designs. The students participated in a Sustainability and Construction Hackathon in where the ideas were constructed and projects were implemented encouraging them to find innovative solutions to some of the problems resulting from the construction process.
The projects also qualified for the final stage of the hackathon in the Future Engineer programme were as follows: helmet cooling project, sustainable engineering building project in addition to roadblocks project, interlock formation project of recycled materials, air quality sensor project which ranked among the best innovative project, best engineering team, best engineering design, best project using recycled materials and best innovative project.
The jury composed of experts and engineers from Ashghal commended the work of Qatar Scientific Club on the level of completed projects and the quality of their implementation, which amounted to a professional level and reflected the outstanding scientific and practical content received by future engineers students as well as the advanced laboratory and practical equipment provided by the Qatar Scientific Club to participants from 3-D technological techniques, equipment and the provision of raw materials required for project implementation.
Dr Ali Al Marri, Quality and Safety Department manager at Ashghal, said: “The Authority is keen to cooperate with various educational and scientific institutions in order to enhance students’ knowledge of engineering disciplines, acquire the skills and experiences required for future engineers, allow them to engage in real life experiences at worksites and prepare them for work life after graduation.”
Speaking about the programme, Eng Abdulrahman Khamis, deputy executive director of Qatar Scientific Club, said the Scientific Club has put all its technical capabilities towards the success of the programme as it is considered a positive challenge and a way to determine the future for the participants, as engineering by definition is the construction, development and the ability to build the country while not overlooking the aesthetic aspect in all.
He said, “Due to the full cooperation and coordination with the Public Works Authority the programme has been exceptionally successful in terms of outputs, training subjects and participants who have shown great willingness, ambition and interaction with the programme.
“In this regard, we should like to thank the Public Works Authority for the technical and material potential it has provided to this programme, which clearly reflects its social responsibility towards our children and school students who chose the path of engineering. We all hope that in the near future we will see this group of young people as successful engineers contributing to the process of building our beloved country Qatar.”
Dr Abdulla Ali Albehaih, assistant manager of the Human Resources Department, said: “We are pleased with the success of the programme, and through the Future Engineer Programme, we have worked to train students by offering various programmes that will positively reflect on their performance in providing innovations and ideas which will keep pace with the advancement and development of digital, technological and engineering transformation in the field of construction. We are always pleased with these community collaborations with the Qatar Scientific Club and various entities in the country.”
Eman Al Obaidi, QSC Public Relations and Communications Section head, said she was pleased with the results of the Future Engineer Programme 3.
“These results are evident through projects produced and implemented by future engineers with great accuracy, professionalism and creativity in planning and implementation,” she said.
She expressed appreciation on behalf of Qatar Scientific Club to Ashghal for providing national expertise and support for this programme, which is necessary for student with prospects to enter the University.
She also noted that the Scientific Club’s management plans in the near future to implement similar programmes such as a future teacher, future doctor and a future entrepreneur.
In an interview with participant, Mariam Al Dirham stated that she was very happy with this participation, which significantly shifted her way of thinking regarding her future career, as she is already aspiring to become an engineer, but was confined to the social aspect only as the title that would help her attain a higher social status, however, after undergoing the future engineer’s programme, her desire to specialise in engineering became even more solidified and her ambition is to become an architectural engineer hoping that her dream will be realised and she will become an unconventional engineer who fuses cultural heritage and modernity while using the module of sustainability .
In another interview, participant Ali Al Haidose expressed his appreciation for the programme, which was as a key for young people gain a better understating of engineering specialisation and its prospects, thereby opening new paths for us as he decided to change his future plan and study the specialisation of electronic engineering in the university because of its wide modern fields of innovation.
He said, “All of us in the Future Engineer Programme would like to thank all those who are involved in this programme from Qatar Scientific Club and Ashghal. Through the programme, which was very exceptional, we witnessed a strong and clear diligence from officials who conveyed ideas to us in an innovative and practical manner.”
