Sony announces winners of creative science award

The final awards ceremony of the eighth edition of Sony Creative Science Awards was held at Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Science and Technology Center (SCITECH) in Alkhobar. 
It took place with the support of Prince Mohamed bin Khaled Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal and Sony Middle East and Africa (SOMEA), Fze, Dubai.
Prince Mohammad bin Khaled Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal, president and CEO of Al-Faisaliah Group,Bader Al-Swailem, MD, Modern Electronics Company Ltd. (MECL), Karim Manssour, CEO, Extra (United Electronics Company, UEC), Khaled Al-Sultan, director, King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Hassan Al Ahmadi, GM, SCITECH, Kaz Makiyama, Sony’s chief representative in Saudi Arabia, SOMEA, Khaled Al-Zahrani, acting GM, Modern Electronics Company Ltd. were also present.
Prince Mohammad Khaled Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal said: “Nothing gives me more joy than encouraging the pursuit of scientific curiosity and creativity amongst children to make the exploration of the principles of science fun and entertaining. The Sony Creative Science Award supports this mission and it is very heartening to know that this year a record of over 1530 students have participated in the training sessions from various private and public schools in the Eastern Province.”
For the Arabic medium Schools, this years’ first prize winner was Mohammed Naser Mohammed Al-Khanfari from Al-Dahran School, who received a gift cheque of SR 10,000.
The second prize winner was Khaled Majed Al-Mahbashi from Ajyal Al-Mawaheb School, who got a gift cheque of SR 7,000.
The third prize winner was Mosaab Fathi Al-Daqqa from Al-Khaleej School who got a gift cheque of SR 5,000.
The award for the best school (a gift cheque of SR 4,000) also went to Ehsan Charity School for the most number of projects submitted.
The best teacher award (a gift cheque of SR 2,500) was presented to Hatem Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Ghamdi for having trained and helped the highest number of students to submit their completed science project work.
From the International Schools side, (for the English medium schools), this year’s first prize winner was Mohammed Samer from Al-Sharq International School.
The second prize winner was Prem Kalyana kumar from the Indian International School.
The third prize for the science project in the English International Schools category went to Hani Samhan from Aspier International School.
Their prizes were gift cheques of SR 1,000 each.
The Sony Creative Science Award is an initiative launched by Sony Gulf Co. and Modern Electronics Company Ltd. that was first initiated in 2005.
It is the only contest in the Kingdom that requires participants to build a scientific project that reflects at least one scientific principle, such as gears, gravity, magnetism, buoyancy etc.
The purpose of the contest is to encourage innovation and awaken creativity and invention skills among young students, and make scientific education more fun.
The competition targeted intermediate school students (boys and girls) aged between 9 and 15 years.
Interested students, or interested parents, register by calling provided mobile numbers or registering through the website.
Following the registration process, students are assigned training days and they (boys and girls) are trained by trainers for 3 days on scientific kits imported from Singapore.
On the completion of the training, they are given a time frame to prepare and submit their projects. Upon submission, the projects are sorted, the best ones are selected, and the students are called upon for evaluation. Evaluation is then done by a select impartial jury committee.
“Since 2005 the Sony creative science program has helped to train an impressive cumulative entry of about 7,000 students! In this year, the total of almost 1,530 students benefited from the training sessions,” said Makiyama in his speech at the award ceremony.