ABU DHABI // Teams hoping to take part in next year’s Think Science competition have until the end of today to submit their proposals.
The annual competition aims to promote learning in science and technology among young Emiratis, producing a home-grown generation to lead science-based industries instead of relying on expatriates.
“Education institutions and many young people are simply not aware of the career opportunities,” said Clare Woodcraft-Scott, chief executive of Emirates Foundation, one of the event’s organisers.
“They don’t know that if you become a petroleum engineer, you can make a very impressive starting salary as a graduate because there are so few of them.”
For the competition, teams of three or four members aged between 15 and 35 will design, develop and build innovations.
Judges from industry and academia will evaluate proposals to select 220 teams to compete, with the final winners to be announced at the four-day Think Science Fair in Dubai next April.
“It’s only been going on for a couple of years but in five, 10, 15 years we’d like to see that it’s trending upwards, that there are a lot more people studying Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] and the number of young Emiratis in Stem jobs in the private sector is increasing,” Ms Woodcraft-Scott said.
“We discovered a gap among youth studying science and technology, and wanting to have a career in that area.”
She said private-sector partners, particularly in the energy industry, often spoke of the need for young engineers and people who are “tech savvy” with an “innovative mindset”.
Despite increasing interest recently among young people, Ms Woodcraft-Scott said the diversfied economy would demand more suitably qualified workers.
Former participants, who were encouraged to come up with ideas that dealt specifically with the UAE such as water scarcity or energy efficiency, have gone on to win global competitions, said Ms Woodcraft-Scott.
“This is innovation coming from indigenous talent that is potentially commercially viable and deployable,” she said.
Amna Alhosani, now a reservoir engineer with Adnoc, took part in this year’s edition while studying as an undergraduate electrical engineering student at The Petroleum Institute.
Her team presented a nano-magnetic tagging and monitoring system that uses tiny particles as temperature sensors, and may be used in oilfields to measure the temperature in wells.
“I encourage students to participate and experience it,” Ms Alhosani said. “They are going to learn all kinds of things.”
Last-minute proposals to have the chance to participate in Think Science will be accepted until today’s deadline and can be submitted by visiting emiratesfoundation.ae/thinkscience.
Think Science is being run by the foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the Abu Dhabi Education Council, and private-sector partners.
esamoglou@thenational.ae
