Science festival to help prepare trained cadres

Oman Monday 04/November/2019 17:15 PM
By: Times News Service
Science festival to help prepare trained cadres

Muscat: Oman Science Festival 2019 began its second edition on Monday under the patronage of Sheikh Al Fadhl bin Ahmed Al Harthi, Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers.
The festival will continue for five days at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Sheikh Al Fadhl stated: “We are delighted to participate in the opening ceremony of the Oman Science Festival 2019, and we have seen promising institutional and student projects and programmes that reflect the government’s orientation with regard to enhancing the innovation system and keeping up with the latest technologies, which will contribute to the preparation of qualified national cadres.”
He thanked the Ministry of Education for the excellent preparation and organisation of this festival. He also thanked all institutions for their active participation and said:“It is a model partnership between the public and private sectors and we aspire to increase this partnership further, as we count on it to push the national economy forward.”
The first scientific session of the festival began with a presentation by Professor Charles Al-Elachi, the main speaker of the festival, and an honorary professor of electrical engineering and electrical sciences at California Institute of Technology, and a key researcher in a number of studies and aviation projects sponsored by NASA. In his presentation, he touched upon the latest techniques in space discovery. He said: “Among the planets we have discovered, is Saturn, which took us nearly 13 years to reach. It is composed of parts and a layer of snow and dust with 90 planets around it, including the planet Titan, which consists of a number of sand hills, lakes and rivers. Its atmosphere contains hydrocarbons, and is characterized by very low temperature, and a large proportion of oil. Its geological nature is similar to the nature of the planet Earth, but it depends on hydrocarbons, and there is a moon orbiting it.”
During the first day of Oman Science Festival 2019, the Ministry of Education and PDO signed a Memorandum of Understanding to launch the second edition of the PDO Renewable Energy Award for School Students. On behalf of the Ministry of Education, HE Saud Al Balushi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Educational Planning and Human Resources Development signed the MoU.
Following the signing of the agreement, HE Hamoud Al Harthi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Education and Curricula, said: “We are celebrating the launch of PDO Renewable Energy Award which focuses primarily on encouraging students to innovate on topics related to alternative energy in general and biofuels in particular. It targets students from the seventh to the twelfth grade and extends for six years, after the successful application in the first version, which was for two years, has had a great resonance in schools.”