QF helps young innovators turn tech ideas into reality

Inspired by their innovation experiences within Qatar Foundation, two young change-makers who are getting a taste of technology in a university setting while still at school are determined to follow their dreams after shining in an international competition for aquatic robotics.

Bissan Abdelghany and Mahi Sharma both believe technology is the future. They say that the STEM education they have received as Grade 10 students at Qatar Academy for Science and Technology (QAST) – part of Qatar Foundation’s (QF) Pre-University Education – has helped them to transform ideas into realities, and paved the way for them to become technology innovators rather than consumers.

As they continue their school studies, they have also become members of the robotics team at QF partner university Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ), which has seen them get an early chance to show their talents and represent Qatar on a global stage. It’s the opportunity to attend and participate in training and workshops within the QF ecosystem that both students say has helped them create a vision for their future.

“I became interested in robotics as soon as we started learning about them at QAST,” said Abdelghany. “The school uses visual learning as the primary teaching tool, so we learn based on what we see. And, not only that, but we – as students – also contribute to our own learning by trying to figure out solutions to problems.

“This meant that I had the chance not only to work on robotics using technology, but also to build robots – which involved coding and programming.”

Although her passion was never engineering-based, Sharma now believes that the training and workshops she had access to at QAST changed her perspective, teaching her how to take an idea from the early stage of planning to execution.

“Myself, Bissan and other students were chosen by Dr. Mohamed Gharib, a STEM education specialist from TAMUQ, to represent Qatar in the International SeaPerch Competition 2021,” she explained. “It is a global challenge for underwater robotic, about how to use resources to develop a ROV – or Remotely Operated Vehicle – for a specific purpose.

“Our team created an ROV that records and monitors underwater pipelines to check for rust and cracks to see if any oil spills could happen preemptively.”

Explaining what it took for the Qatar team to win third place in robotics at the competition, where they were up against 800 participants from around the world, Abdulghany said: “The process that led to this achievement was commitment

“We researched, sketched, built, made videos, and wrote up the engineering notebook for the ROV. Every element required a lot of focus and detail to ensure it was almost perfect.”

Abdulghany says having the opportunity to form an innovation mindset within both the school and university environment at QF has empowered herself and Sharma to demonstrate their potential at a young age. “I believe that every lesson and workshop contributed to the knowledge I have today,” she said.

“At QAST, there is a subject called innovation, where we come up with new ideas and work on projects. It was this subject that enabled us to participate in and qualify for the SeaPerch challenge; we were then asked by TAMUQ to join their robotics team to prepare for the competition – and we went on to win third place.”  

The Innovation Center is a special 2-hour daily class that is unique to QAST’s award winning authentic problem-based learning model called “CRISP’. It is a cyclical process of Challenge, Research, Investigate, Synthesize and Prototype; which helps boost students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills by engaging them in real-life scenarios.

As she looks ahead to university life, Abdulghany is now choosing between majors. “I’m really interested in robotics and technology, but am still deciding between majors in engineering, such as mechanical or computer engineering, or even medicine,” she says.

Meanwhile, Sharma hopes to become an orthopedic surgeon in the future, and one day also hopes to develop an affordable cure for diabetic patients. “I want to ensure that people don’t die because they can’t afford medication to cure them,” she said.

“I look back at the incident that sparked my passion with science in Grade 2, when we received the Magic School Bus books, and I remember being fascinated by everything that happens around me. I remember reading all of them over the span of a week. From that day until now, I always keep a lookout for science related books to feed my curiosity - and I look forward to a future filled with opportunities.”