Ashghal announces winning students in the Concrete Excellence Competition held with ACI Qatar Chapter

Public Works Authority ‘Ashghal’ has announced winners of Student’s Competition that was held in collaboration with the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Qatar Chapter, in the presence of HE Dr. Eng. Saad Bin Ahmed Al Muhannadi, President of Ashghal; Eng. Khaled Al Emadi, Manager of Quality and Safety Department, the supervising faculty members of the Engineering College of Qatar University, besides the winning students in the first competition for Excellence in Concrete Construction.

Mr. Mohammed Khairi Abdussalam and Mr. Khaled Al-Sayed Adam were declared as winners and were awarded with air tickets to Las Vegas, the United States for attending the ACI Conference.

The competition was held in March 2018 at Ashghal’s Research and Development Center of the Quality and Safety Department. Seven teams of students from the College of Engineering of Qatar University have competed to win the prizes that support students' progress and enrich their practical experience in the field of engineering. Ashghal's award to the winning students also aims to encourage the students to participate in the International Concrete Excellence Award under the auspices of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) through the Institute's branch in Qatar.

The competition included testing the structure designed with high quality, to be subjected to shocks from a certain weight and the structure should withstand the shocks at multiple heights before collapse of the concrete platform that is expected to protect an egg placed under this platform in order to measure the success of the project, with the option to repeat the free falling more than once until the egg is crushed, whereas the egg represents the life of people who use the concrete construction that must be built ensuring the beneficiaries’ protection.

HE Dr. Eng. Saad bin Ahmed Al-Mohannadi, President of the PWA, asserted during the announcement, saying, “Ashghal is always keen to improve the skills of youth and to involve them in its work because they are the most influential groups in the society. Ashghal supports potential engineers and opens options before them for practical experiments, including this option for testing the first competition for excellence in concrete construction, which is held in collaboration with ACI Qatar. " Ashghal President added saying, "Ashghal spares no effort in supporting researchers and students, and training the emerging cadres in all fields concerned, with provisions of various consultations, as it is ultimately in the interest of the state."

On his part, Eng Khalid Al-Emadi, Manager of Quality and Safety Department of Ashghal and Chairman of ACI Qatar Chapter, commented that such competitions enhance students' skills, boost their competitive spirit and encourage them to excel, as they increase the chances of cooperation between Ashghal and Qatar University in implementing the MoU that has been accorded between both entities. It also highlights the role of the State of Qatar in international forums and fosters communication between the students of Qatar with their counterparts in the world, providing them with the best international expertise through this workshop. He also urged participation of competent companies in such community awareness activities that ensure great benefit for the individual as well as the state.

As part of the competition, Ashghal President has launched a link named “Ashghal Certification Programme”, which combines the works of two Ashghal departments - Quality and Safety Department and Information Systems Department. This link is an Ashghal initiative to provide international training to the technicians who work with Ashghal projects, including contractors, consultants or lab technicians.