Community Fair, during which stalls we re set up throughout the campus to showcase WCM-Q’s many different educational facilities, student clubs, interest groups, hands-on lab activities and more. Attendees had the chance to try performing cardiac compressions on medical manikins provided by the WCM-Q Clinical Skills and Simulation Lab, watch practical demonstrations
of key principles in physics, see a 3-D printer at work, try DNA fingerprinting in the biology lab, and don VR goggles to try out the latest human anatomy teaching software, among
scores of other engaging activities. The morning of the second day also featured the qualifying round of the High School Research Competition, in which 18 teams gave presentations before a judging panel comprised of WCM-Q faculty, researchers and medical students. The top teams were selected to compete in the final round in the closing session of the conference, which was one of the highlights of the conference.
The research competition began with a preliminary round in December 2023 with an initial field of 54 teams. Ultimately, first prize went to the team from ACS International School Doha for their poster titled ‘Optimising water consump tion with the usage of an automated planting system’. Second place went to the team from Omar Bin Al-Khattab Independent School for Boys for their poster titled ‘The RoboWorm: A game changer’, while third place went to the team from Doha College for their poster titled ‘Reduce, Reuse, Qcycle’.
The members of the team in first place each received the Doctors of the Future Scholarship, which is a one-week fully funded research and academic trip hosted at Weill Cornell
Medicine in New York and Cornell University in Ithaca, upstate New York.
Grade 12 student Maryam Al Thani attends Vision International School Qatar.
She said, “The conference has been a very interactive experience and I’ve gained a lot of insight into the curriculum at WCM-Q. Overall, it has been great to see what life as a medical
student is like and to feel how welcoming the community is here.”
Her cousin, also named Maryam Al Thani, is in grade 11 at American School Doha.
She said, “I’m interested in medicine because I’m curious about physiology, psychology and the different biological processes that make life possible—I also like the fact that it is a
career which allows for a lot of interaction with people. The conference has been really enjoyable and useful.”
Noha Saleh, director of Premedical Administration, Student Outreach and Educational Development, said: “We are very pleased t o say that the newly expanded Doctors of the
Future Conference truly built upon the success of our previous events, once again giving students from all over the world with an interest in medicine a wonderful opportunity to
engage with WCM-Q.”
Dr Rachid Bendriss, associate dean for Foundation, Student Outreach and Educational Development Programmes, said: “We were extremely gratified to see so many enthusiastic,
talented young people at the Doctors of the Future Conference clearly enjoying learning how they can realize their dreams of building careers in medicine with WCM-Q.”