Qatar University (QU) launched on Monday, the Global Sustainability Space Challeng Competition, the first-of-its-kind at the global level, in co-operation with international partners and with the support of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, to synchronise with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, QNA reported. The competition comes within the framework of the vision of College of Business and Economics at QU and its intention to adopt a broad range of initiatives and steps that promote the sustainability culture locally and globally.
The competition offers the opportunity for the participation of a bunch of teams of youth who are associated with schools and universities worldwide in the 16-26-year-old age-group. It enables them to team up from several countries and various disciplines and backgrounds to further explore innovative solutions that essentially remedy one of the exigent challenges that pose a threat to planet Earth, and seeks to achieve an array of UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030, through adaptation of groundbreaking technologies and space exploration as a momentum in the global dedicated efforts to overcome challenges facing life sustainability on earth.
The preliminary phases of the competition in Metaverse will be implemented during September 2022. It will be followed by the teams who have qualified for the final stage in Qatar in mid-October 2022 to further engage in the Hackathon phase, since the challenges intend to promote the issue of sustainability regionally and internationally through educating the young generation and to build capacities to achieve a sustainable future on Earth, in addition to highlighting the methods of capitalising on the unlimited resources of space and the feasibility of building space economy, as well as conserving the earth.In his remark during the opening ceremony of the competition, HE QU President Dr Hassan bin Rashid al-Derham said that the competition comes in recognition of the instrumental role of education and educational institutions in bringing up generations of leaders and officials who are capable of finding out a sustainable and prosperous future in Qatar and better world for all, and elucidated that the competition comes within the framework of QU's contribution to achieving sustainable economic and social growth in Qatar. He pointed out that QU has adopted several initiatives and vital steps to promote sustainability culture and to upgrade the knowledge and improve erudition and capabilities through focusing on sustainability's relevant topics in the educational curricula, focusing on scientific research and encouraging practices that primarily achieve resources sustainability and conservation for posterity.He added that such a competition encourages the exploration of innovative solutions that largely remedy one of the exigent challenges threatening sustainability on Earth, deeming it as a qualitative and unconventional opportunity that empower young generation to acquire skills of adapting the groundbreaking technology, in addition to identifying the importance of space exploration to overcome sustainability challenges.The QU president pointed out that such a global challenge represents a great significance in promoting Qatar's posture on the list of countries that work to disseminate the culture of sustainability, and to upgrade the knowledge of the young generation in a way that space exploration and its sciences contribute to finding solutions for these challenges. He pointed out that Qatar has taken significant and advanced steps in the area of clean energy and sustainability, indicating that the competition and its supporting programmes included would highlight what have been accomplished in this field, in addition to promoting the reputation of Qatar regionally and internationally, proclaiming, during his delivered remark, that College of Business and Economics intends to establish a laboratory for space sciences innovations to be a core of establishing the pillars of space economy. He added that the work on this project would be initiated once the global competition wraps it.Vice President for Academic Affairs at QU Dr Omar al-Ansari said in his statement to QNA that the competition offers a unique and unconventional challenge opportunity for the young generation, by utilising the space environment and sciences to attain innovative solutions for the challenges facing sustainability on Earth.Dean of the College of Business and Economics at QU Dr Rana Sobh said that the competition, with its entire supporting programmes, would essentially highlight the accomplishments of Qatar in this field, in addition to promoting its position regionally and internationally, pointing out that the competition is organised in co-operation with Metavisionaries, European Space Agency, US Blue Origin, LLC and other global partners supported by local entities.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) Chief Scientist Dr James Green, one of the supporters of this competition, indicated that the competition is unique and offers the opportunity for posterity to take the lead and change the world for better prospects.e CEO of Metavisionaries Waseem Ahmed affirmed that the objective of the competition is to inspire the young generation and to empower them to acquire the abilities to deal with the groundbreaking technology and to further explore the space for the sake of a more sustainable world for all.