The 10th National Student Research Exhibition kicked off at the Qatar National Convention Centre yesterday.
It will last until Thursday.
Talking to reporters after the opening, HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohamed Abdul Wahed Ali al-Hammadi said that the exhibition is evolving from year to year in terms of ideas and results.
He congratulated the students who won the competitions and research projects in the exhibition and those who participated  to develop their research skills to serve Qatar.
He said the number of participants in the exhibition is increasing every year, while the quality of research is characterised by excellence and creativity, pointing out that  the current edition of the exhibition deals with research linked to the siege of Qatar and its impact on the development of students’ talents and their focus on self-reliance and self-sufficiency.
He said in a related context that most research projects focused on agriculture, food, energy, environment and water production, through natural materials and resources available.
The minister said that researchers were inspired by the speech of His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani when he said that Qatar deserves the best from its citizens, encouraging students to undertake new initiatives, ideas and research that truly deserve care and development.
He said that the achievements of the students and their research contribute to the pillars of the Qatar National Vision 2030 in terms of promoting human development, pointing out that many students rely on this when presenting their research and ideas.
He said that many of these pioneering and winning researches will participate in international scientific competitions as the Qatar National Research Fund is interested in registering patents and property rights for research involving scientific achievement.
In response to a question concerning scientific research and sponsorship for long periods to become a reality for the benefit of the State, the minister said that the idea of research in school and in public education is to encourage students to develop the skill of research, but said that the issue of contributing to scientific research comes after public education stage, ie at the undergraduate and postgraduate level.
For his part, HE the Minister of Municipality and Environment Mohamed bin Abdullah al-Rumaihi praised the exhibition and what it achieves in terms of number of participating students and schools and the quality of research itself which will provide Qatar a generation with a different vision and achievements in the future.
Speaking on the sidelines of the exhibition, he said that the research projects are related to many issues that Qatar needs such as food, soil, trees, agriculture, recycling, water and its production from the air by withdrawing moisture and converting it into useful water, in addition to producing solar energy and its various uses in cooling and heating.
The exhibition aims at enhancing the students’ scientific research skills, spreading the spirit of co-operation and competition among students.
It also aims at highlighting the projects of the students dealing with current issues and providing the necessary support, co-operation and co-ordination with partners in the state institutions concerned with student research, along with granting the opportunity for distinguished research projects to participate in regional and international competitions.
The exhibition has 210 innovative research projects presented by 459 students, including 60 from the primary stage and 150 from the preparatory and secondary stages.
The projects cover biomedical, computing, engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry, materials science, energy, earth sciences, botany and behavioural sciences.
The primary stage students between grade five and six compete in the design for change contest, where as the preparatory and secondary stage students compete in scientific research and engineering design, enabling them to participate in regional and international competitions.
This gives the Qatari students the chance to compete with an elite group who represent the brightest minds in the world.
The Ministry of Education and Higher Education will announce tomorrow the 42 research winning projects, which include 12 from the primary stage in science and humanities, equally divided between girls and boys.
It will announce the 27 winners from the preparatory and secondary stages, where three winners from each of nine categories as well as the best three winners from the preparatory stage.
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