News & Event

HE Dr. Ahmed bin Salim Al Mandhari, Undersecretary of Ministry of Health for Health Planning and Regulation, patronized the concluding ceremony of Oman Science Festival 2024 held at Oman Convention and Exhibition Center for eight consecutive days filled with arts, creativity, and innovation attracting large audience of all categories of the society.

The closing ceremony included a speech of the Ministry of Education delivered by Dr. Maya Al Azri, Advisor to the Minister for Scientific Innovation and Head of Scientific Committee of the Festival. In the speech, she pointed out that the number of activities in Oman Science Festival reached 520 that varied between workshops, scientific performances and presentations, lectures and competitions, delivered by over 3500 participants of Civil and government, private and military institute in addition to scientific organizations and international institutions.

She added: “This unique scientific event that included knowledge, ideas and skills presented to all segments of the society, is astounding event that brought together diverse institutions from inside and outside the Sultanate of Oman to deliver sciences in interactive and untraditional ways.”

The events of this version of the festival focused on the resources of the earth and ways to utilize them in a way that guarantees its sustainability and protection of environment. We witnessed biodiversity and learnt about ways of protecting wild and marine life and learned about various natural resources and how to exploit them for economic development purposes. We also discussed how to reduce the environmental impact by achieving carbon neutrality and ensuring a sustainable environment, in addition to various activities in various branches and fields of science, such as space, health, security and military technologies, artificial intelligence competitions, sustainability hackathon, and others.”

The activities continued in the last day of the festival, where OmanTel corner presented the “Minecraft Cup” competition initiative to enhance creativity among school students and encourage them to design houses in the “Minecraft” game with Omani elements, through online training and workshops on information technology and programming curricula at the festival.

Al Safaa corner presented an activity titled: poultry production line and value-added products, explaining the working mechanism using simulators, a miniature model, and activities and events.

The PDO presented Interactive Wall activity in the field of renewable energy with the aim of enhancing the role of the company in this field. Children were to draw pictures on iPad devices to transform them into cartoons in the interactive screens.

Among the characters that received great interaction from the audience during their tour of the festival’s corners were the embodiments of the historical figures of three prominent scientists who have a number of contributions and research in various fields of science, namely: the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, the Omani scientist and physician Ibn Al-Dhahabi, who was included by UNESCO in the program of the fiftieth or centenary of important historical events and influential figures globally in 2015, as well as the Arab Muslim scientist Ibn Al-Haytham Al-Basri.