DOHA, Qatar: Middle and high school students from around the country showcased their programming skills at the Alice Middle East computer science competition at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q). This was the first Alice event under the umbrella of the Hamad Bin Jassim Center for K-12 Computer Science Education. Jassim & Hamad Bin Jassim Charitable Foundation,ExxonMobil Qatar and Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) partnered with CMU-Q for the event.
The competition was the culmination of weeks of preparation by the teams, who used the Alice Middle East educational software to create interactive games and animations. The original Alice software was developed at Carnegie Mellon University and adapted for Qatar by CMU-Q, with support from a National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) grant from QNRF. With the support of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Alice Middle East is now part of the curriculum at all Qatar government schools that teach information communication technology.
A total of 132 students from 13 schools created animations in the categories of space exploration, global warming, FIFA World Cup 2022, health, social responsibility, or video games. They were judged for programming skills, creativity, oral presentations and teamwork.