Qatar University (QU) announced winners of the Global Sustainability Space Challenge 2022. The competition was organised alongside the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, with the aim of leveraging the momentum of the event, and is co-organised with global partners Metavisionaries, ICE Cubes, Space Applications Services, International Space University and Club of the Future founded by Blue Origin and is supported locally by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) in Qatar. It is also sponsored by Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa), Blue Salon and Microsoft. The closing ceremony was held on on November 17 with the competition organized by the College of Business and Economics at Qatar University in partnership with Metavisionaries bringing together students from around the globe with the aim to come-up with innovative solutions that tackle pressing issues related to one or more areas of Sustainability Development Goals.
The closing ceremony was attended by Dr. Hassan bin Rashid Al Derham, President of Qatar University, Dr. Omar Al Ansari, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Qatari Businessmen Association, and Dr. Sheikha Hessa bint Hamad Al Thani, Dean of the College of Education and Dr. Rana Sobh, Dean of the College of Business and Economics, and professors of the College of Administration and Economics, in addition to many Qatar University affiliates and stakeholders. Dr. Hassan Al Dirham, President of Qatar University, “This initiative was a unique opportunity for students to learn about space and sustainability and challenged them to come-up with impactful entrepreneurial solutions that would help in addressing pressing sustainability issues on earth.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia team won in the category of sustainable consumption and supply chain track. The project of this team was based on Se-Explores, Self-Deorbiting CubeSats. In which new passive mechanism was created to self-deorbiting CubeSats after finishing their active life in low earth orbit and reuse the re-entered material. Team from Brazil won for Sustainable Food and Agriculture track. The project of this team was based on Ocean Micro plastics. Micro plastics: determining the future of seafood production; by collecting satellite and land-based data related to micro plastic concentration and water properties, this project aims to create a prediction model for the concentration of micro plastics, fish quality, and production in different fishing areas, having as the main goal to improve the fish quality and quantity delivered to the world population. In the category of Art, Fashion and 3D Technology track, team from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Palestine and USA won. The project of this team was based on 3D printing food in space. In the category of Climate Change, two teams won.
