High school students attending a workshop on ‘What do Engineers do?’ on the sidelines of the World Congress on Engineering Education 2013 at the Qatar National Convention Centre yesterday. (Salim Matramkot)
DOHA: Engineers from the five continents gathered yesterday to launch the World Congress on Engineering Education (WCEE 2013), the one of its kind to take place in Qatar. The event aims to generate interest in engineering in students, while discussing career development opportunities for young engineering leaders.
The event, sponsored by Maersk Oil Qatar, is being held at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC). However, the opening session will take place today, with the attendance of the Dean and CEO of Texas A&M University at Qatar, Mark Weichold, the Managing Director of Maersk Oil Qatar, Lewis Affleck, and Sheikh Dr Abdulla bin Al Thani, President of Hamad bin Khalifa University and Vice-President for Education at Qatar Foundation.
The first day of the congress featured workshops on issues such as career development for engineering leaders and lines of work. Dr Mark Holtzapple, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, spoke to students about his career and various fields of specialisation.
Holtzapple referred to engineers as “problem solvers, a task that an engineering student can perform over 20,000 times during his or her education.” He talked about the use of these problem-solving skills to deal with the top 10 human problems, an approach applied by Richard Smalley, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996.
Smalley and two colleagues discovered a new form of carbon, buckminsterfullerene, known as buckyballs. The Nobel Prize winner evaluated the impacts of energy on water, food, the environment, poverty, terrorism/war, disease, education, democracy and population.
Weichold, Congress General Chair, said: “Our goal is for WCEE to perform as a comprehensive voice of engineering education and innovation and address important issues from foundational support in primary education to industry research and many elements in between. The workshops support just that and run the gamut between evoking an interest in engineering for high school students, engineering’s global scope and career development for young engineering leaders.”
Affleck said that “Maersk Oil Qatar recognises the importance of nurturing and developing local talent and is pleased to work with Texas A&M University on the WCEE 2013, which will help share good practices in engineering education, and therefore, benefit educational institutions, and future engineering students here in Qatar.
“This event also supports Qatar’s goal to become a knowledge-based society with world-class academic institutions. It will also provide a platform to exchange ideas about effective techniques and pedagogies to prepare the new generations of engineers for the global challenges,” added Lewis.
The Peninsula
