Children participating at a workshop on robotics.
After successfully conducting workshops for students on robotics during school vacations, Qatar Robotics Club is set to expand the ambit of its initiative to schools from next month.
Qatar Robotics Club was formed in 2016 to promote and encourage robotics and related activities in Qatar. The main founder of the Club is Assim Hussain who is currently working as Research Associate for a robotics research project for Kahramaa to design an underwater tank inspection robot for large reservoirs.
The Club was launched by professionals actively working in the robotics and related field. “We are doing robotics as profession and also as a hobby. Our interest in this field encouraged us to start a Robotics Club in Qatar and trying to bring more robotics related projects to Qatar,” said Assim while talking to The Peninsula.
Qatar Robotics Club is currently conducting a hands-on robotics workshop for students to help them learn real robotics and automation. “The workshop is designed by the engineers with their professional and academic experience in the field. These are two-week workshops which are being carried in multiple batches further divided into morning and evening shifts. They started from July and will continue during school vacations till September,” he said.
Assim said the Club had received very good response from the residents. “Currently our sixth batch is underway. We are busy with our workshop schedule at the moment and the Club will start visiting schools after August. We have contacted some schools in Doha and all of them are happy to cooperate with us,” he added. He said that in July the Club had provided training to around 50 students.
On QRC’s future ambitions, Assim, an Indian expatriate, said that they were working with local partners to work for more interesting projects like Robotic Barista & Automated Restaurant. “We are also trying to partner with some malls in Qatar to bring some interactive automated entertainment systems and virtual reality projects with the support of local Qatari partners. We hope to work with centres like Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC) to get more support and funding in future,” he added.
Qatar Robotics Club was also set to release some kits in near future to help kids and families learn real robotics, electronics and programming. “This material is not just designed for students but for the whole family to learn and do robotics and electronics projects. We are currently designing the kits and will be releasing in September. We also plan to give free newbie sessions and release online resources and sessions to get them started with the kits.”.
Regarding curriculum of ongoing workshops, Assim said that the curriculum was very unique because the workshop was imparting training to students with the use of actual electronic hardware and devices. “We use the same level of hardware that we use in our real robotics projects. We train them to use such hardware, how to use sensors, how to make connections, basic electrical and electronics, how to program it etc.”
Before moving to Qatar, Assim was working as an automation and robotics engineer in the UK and has worked in several major automation projects. He holds Masters from Newcastle University, UK.
“The programming package we use is called “SCRATCH”, which is developed my Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) media lab to help children learn programming. This is an easy to learn graphical programming language and has been very popular recently.” The workshops are being held at Global Education Centre, Matar Qadeem and Kalanilayam Arts and Music School Luqta.
After completing workshops, he said, the students would be able to develop their own robotics or electronics projects outside the workshop curriculum. “They would have acquired knowledge how to use programmable controllers, electronics, lights, buzzers, sensors, motor or any related peripherals,” he said.
Those who are interested to join Qatar Robotics Club workshop program can contact them on [email protected] or check their Social media page.
