Saudi Aramco, as part of its strategy to become the global
leader in energy and petrochemicals as well its adherence to Saudi Vision 2030,
announced the Training & Development’s General Educational Partnerships
Division’s (GEPD) continued support of a Maker Movement within the kingdom.
The GEPD participated in the Maker Expo, which brought
together more than 400 Saudi fifth through 12th-grade students, along with educators and 600
company visitors. Participants in the expo used advanced and novel technology,
such as robotics, Google Cardboard and 3-D printing, to solve everyday problems.
One participant, Samir Bakir, used a Lego system that lets
young people build robots and develop the code that controls them to create a
Rubik’s Cube Solver.
“He worked on it for over four weeks in between his school
homework and weekends,” his mother said. “He encountered many problems forcing
him to modify the tilt arm from the original design so that the cube would not
slip when being rotated.”
In another case, students at Dhahran’s Bayan Garden School
developed 60 pairs of Virtual Reality (VR) goggles. The students made them out
of Google Cardboard, an inexpensive product.
Saudi Vision 2030 calls for sustained economic growth,
diversification and job creation for future generations. Saudi Aramco’s
participation in the Maker Movement is a step toward that vision.
