The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), in cooperation with global educational technology leader Creative Robotics (CR8), has launched a 12-week interactive training programme involving 180 male and female students across the emirate, with the aim of stimulating innovative creative projects across various fields.
The unique programme, hosted at libraries in Abu Dhabi city, Al Ain, Al Bahya, Al Wathba, and Al Mirfa, involves training workshops powered by STEAM – a movement to enhance innovation by adding Art and Design to the traditional STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. The course will help to diversify the educational sources available in libraries, complementing traditional learning with programmes based on STEAM teaching platforms and future technologies.
Aiming to boost technological capabilities and kickstart creativity, workshops focus on such areas as robotics, 3D printing, enhanced virtual reality, helicopters, and more. Thinking outside the box is encouraged, as students are expected to come up with creative solutions to challenges presented in each workshop.
Workshop subjects are designed to enhance the students’ understanding of the complex systems around them, emphasising the contributions of innovation and invention to environmental awareness, scientific research in space, and intelligent transportation. At the end of the programme, each team will pick one of these subjects – Transportation, Environment, or Space – and provide engineering solutions for that field, designing and coding a final project and presenting it to a group of top engineers and academic figures from various disciplines during the programme’s closing ceremony. Twelve of the projects will then be featured by DCT Abu Dhabi at the upcoming Abu Dhabi Science Festival 2019, which takes place from 31 January to 9 February.
The STEAM workshop programme falls in line with DCT Abu Dhabi’s broader efforts to provide students with cutting-edge technical and practical skills. These initiatives support both the public and private sectors by developing skilled graduates able to help build a knowledge-based economy, actively contributing to research and entrepreneurship.
