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McMaster Engineering Student on New Arab Reality Show
May 28, 2009
They filmed him in the lab, walking on campus and visiting Hamilton tourist sites. Now Mohammed Khalaf, a 25 year-old master’s engineering entrepreneurship and innovation student at McMaster University, and resident of Hamilton, Ontario, will debut on an inventors reality show to be broadcast across 18 Arab television channels starting May 29.
Stars of Science is a new Qatari reality television program that features 16 contestants of Arab origin aged 21 to 31 competing to turn their ideas into a marketable product and win (US) $300,000. The 16 competitors, representing 11 countries, were chosen from 5,600 applications by a panel of expert judges.
Khalaf, who was born in Kuwait and is of Palestian decent, moved to Canada in 1994 with his family settling first in Mississauga and then moving to Hamilton in 1997. He graduated with a B.Eng. in electrical and biomedical engineering from McMaster in 2006. In September 2008, he began the master’s program offered through the Xerox Centre for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation at McMaster.
The premise behind Stars of Science involves the 16 competitors working to develop their projects at a workshop in the Qatar Science and Technology Park in Doha. Competitors are tutored by experts in business and technology and attend courses to improve their skills.
Over the five weeks of the program, contestants present their projects to a three-member jury. Half the projects are eliminated in each of the prime-time episodes until two remain. Unlike other reality shows, those whose projects have been eliminated stay on the show and become members of one of the remaining projects.
Viewers throughout the Middle East will then vote for their favourite contestant from the remaining two projects during the final episode scheduled to air June 26.
Stars of Science will broadcast five 90-minute prime-time episodes on Fridays, and 20 daily shows of 45 minutes Sunday to Thursday. Khalid Al-Jumaily in the show’s host.
The three jury members are: Sadeg Faris, a Libyan engineer who holds more than 600 patents; William Sawaya, a Lebanese designer; and Mona Zaki, a businesswoman and marketing consultant from Egypt.
Stars of Science is an initiative of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, the Arab States Broadcasting Union and Qatar Television. The aim of the show is to “endorse a healthy competitive spirit, encouraging creativity, team-building and innovative careers amongst the youth in the Arab world.”
More information can be found at: www.starsofscience.com
