Six students from the United Arab Emirates had a chance to look behind the scenes at the IAEA when they visited Agency’s Headquarters and the Seibersdorf laboratories as winners of the UAE’s national ‘Nuclear Science for Development’ student competition. During their visit, from 27 to 29 November, the students met Agency staff and experts, as well as counterparts from the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates.
The six competitors, students of the Al-Heera and the Al-Hudaibah Secondary Schools, were declared the winners of the national competition at an October 2019 event held at Khalifa University. The competition was organized by the UAE Permanent Mission to the IAEA, under the umbrella of an ongoing technical cooperation project[1] designed to expand and sustain interest in the nuclear field among secondary school students
First launched in 2018, the UAE’s National Student Competition targets secondary school students between the ages of 13 and 17, aiming to inspire them to explore how nuclear science can support sustainable development. Students are invited to develop a project which showcases how nuclear applications might address the Sustainable Development Goals. This year's competition focused on the following Goals: Zero Hunger, Climate Action and Life on Land.
“The UAE Permanent Mission is proud to have launched this dynamic project, which already has had a proven impact nationwide, and in the region,” said Ambassador Hamad Al-Kaabi, UAE Permanent Representative at the IAEA. “In two years, with the support of the Ministry of Education, and national partners, we reached a thousand students, from all over the Emirates, mostly girls. We raised awareness of the IAEA’s work and its contribution to the SDGs.”
