The competition starts Saturday, February 27, 2021, where 150 research projects by students from different regions of the Kingdom compete in preparation to qualify to participate with the international students in Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in the United States and to win Mawhiba’s major awards in Science and Engineering Fair "Ibdaa 2021”. The Ibdaa exhibit in its eleventh year, which is organized by the Mawhiba Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Education.
54 researchers and experts representing 19 governmental, research and academic bodies from the public and private sectors are responsible for arbitrating 150 projects at Ibdaa exhibit in Riyadh. It will be held remotely in compliance with the precautionary measures for Covid-19 pandemic.
The 150 projects selected during the last period were selected after to multiple stages from more than 51,000 student projects participating in "Ibdaa 2021".
HE. Dr. Saud Al-Mathami -Mawhiba Secretary General said that Mawhiba’s major awards, which are a training scientific program held in international research centers, will be granted to 35 projects out of these qualified projects. More than 12 local bodies will also offer more than 20 special awards. In addition, more than 25 special awards will be granted by international bodies.
The best 30 projects in the Ibdaa 2021 Exhibition in will participate in the name of the Kingdom with the remaining international students in the International Science and Engineering Fair (Regeneron ISEF), which will be held in the United States of America next May, in which the projects will be competed for awarding the major and special awards.
He declared, “The Kingdom had previously participated in the International Science and Engineering Fair 14 times, starting in 2007. The total awards received by the Saudi students at the Fair were 48 grand awards and 27 special awards, out of them 8 awards in 2020; 5 grand awards and 3 special awards.”
Each of the 150 research projects is scheduled to undergo 4 arbitration sessions, through 4 arbitrators, via a virtual meeting with the students who participate from 40 Saudi cities. After which there will be discussing and explaining of the projects on the table by a specialized arbitrator before all members of the arbitration committee, who share their views on each project to nominate all projects to compete for awarding Mawhiba’s major awards.
For the arbitration works, “Mawhiba” employs an international electronic system owned by the organizing body of ISEF Fair. The system was developed to suit the competition by exerting local and national efforts. The students participating in “Ibdaa 2021” uploaded their project files on the system. The students included a video recording, which explained the project, a presentation for it, and the scientific panel describing it, and each student explains his project and answers the questions of the specialized arbitrators, after which each arbitrator evaluate the student in the system.
The National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity (Ibdaa) includes six stages. First, registering the student information. Second, offering the training courses for students and supervisors. Third, registering the project information electronically and uploading them to “Mawhiba” website. Fourth, the electronic arbitration of the projects by a group of academics and specialists according to specific scientific standards, the announcement of the names of candidates for central fairs, and uploading the creativity models on the website. Fifth, organizing the central fairs and the accompanying training workshops, announcing the competitors for the final round, and updating the participants with the information of their projects. Six, the establishment of Mawhiba’s Fair for Science and Engineering, followed by the building capacity workshops for participating in the International Science and Engineering Fair.
"Ibdaa 2021" in its eleventh year where its first session was launched in 2011. It embodies the distinguished and successful partnership between “Mawhiba”, which is the first foundation in the world working in giftedness identification and sponsorship, and the Ministry of Education. It aims to promote the giftedness and creativity community in the Kingdom, support its development journey, and provide an attractive and stimulating environment for creativity. This Olympiad is held annually, where thousands of educational supervisors and educational districts of gifted students in the Ministry contribute, with researchers from different bodies, to supporting the students in their research projects.
