National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity honors 40 Saudi innovators

Forty talented Saudi students were crowned with grand prizes in the 2022 National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity — Ibdaa 2022 — on Saturday by Madinah Deputy Gov. Prince Saud bin Khalid Al-Faisal, on behalf of the governor Prince Faisal bin Salman.

The event, which was held for the 12th time by King Abdulaziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, also known as Mawhiba, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, is billed as “Saudi Arabia’s largest pre-college science and engineering competition.”

More than 150 Saudi students participated in the competition — out of more than 103,000 who applied to take part. The finals were held over four days at the King Salman International Convention Center in Madinah.

Dr. Saud bin Saeed Al-Mathami, secretary-general of Mawhiba, said that Saudi Arabia is witnessing an exceptional and comprehensive renaissance and that Mawhiba implements its mission to create an environment that stimulates talent and creativity in search of talented people to participate in the comprehensive renaissance of the nation.

This is part of the effort to build generations of future leaders and creators to achieve the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030 reform plan.
He said that the outcome of Mawhiba during the past 11 years is a testament to its efforts in discovering, nurturing and empowering the talented.

Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, a student from the Eastern Province working in the field of materials science, won first prize. Two students shared second prize: Elaf Al-Ahdal, from Jeddah, in the field of earth and environmental sciences, and Mohammed Al-Mulla, from the Eastern Province, in the field of cellular and molecular biology.

Six male and female students won third prize for their work in the fields of plant sciences, chemistry, mechanical engineering, translational medical sciences, energy science, and environmental engineering.

Fourth place was shared by seven students in the fields of materials science, botany, mechanical engineering science, and energy science. Twelve students also took fifth place, and 12 came sixth.
The winners said that they spent months of hard work studying scientific books and experimenting in science labs to take the challenge of proving or denying scientific hypotheses and produce innovative ideas.

The Ibdaa Olympiad is an annual scientific contest based on competition through the submission of individual scientific projects in accordance with the standards and controls of the project. The projects are judged by a group of academics and specialists, according to specific scientific criteria, to nominate distinguished projects for the highest competitive stages, and to nominate the best of them to participate in International Science and Engineering Fair in 2022.