JEDDAH: The King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology on Sunday launched an intensive training forum for Mawhiba gifted students. Held at the university, the launching ceremony was attended by Prof. Tony F. Chan, KAUST’s president; Prof. Faisal Al-Duweesh, Mawhiba’s chairman of the board of directors; and Dr. Amal bint Abdullah Al-Hazzaa, acting secretary-general of Mawhiba. The intensive training forum, in cooperation with KAUST, stems from the role of the Mawhiba in nurturing gifted male and female students, and providing them with training programs that develop their skills as well as qualify them to compete in international competitions. The forum will be implemented in three phases and will continue until July 31 in the fields of mathematics, informatics, science, physics, chemistry and biology. HIGH LIGHT The intensive training forum, in cooperation with KAUST, stems from the role of the Mawhiba in nurturing gifted male and female students, and providing them with training programs that develop their skills as well as qualify them to compete in international competitions. With 185 male and female students, the forum is considered the largest training forum for international Olympiad students. It includes many levels of both theoretical and practical training. It also includes diagnostic and candidacy tests. The participating students were distributed among the targeted disciplines, with 45 students in mathematics, 35 in informatics, 31 in chemistry, 27 in physics, 25 in biology and 25 in science. Participants will be trained by 23 skilled Saudi and international trainers, under the supervision of six supervisors, with 312 training hours for each selected field of study and 1,872 total training hours. Dr. Najah Ashry, vice president and senior associate to the president for strategic national advancement at KAUST, welcomed Mawhiba’s selection of KAUST as a venue for the intensive training forum, stressing the university’s pride in previous programs that contributed to the participation of 16 students — and eight prize winners — at ISEF 2022. Speaking to Arab News, Al-Hazzaa said that Mawhiba is keen to qualify the country’s talents and develop their skills in all the forum’s scientific fields. “The successes that the Saudi talented students, trained at Mawhiba, have achieved over the last 10 years were all a result of the qualitative and continued training programs that the foundation offers to the students throughout their educational journey,” she said. Al-Hazzaa added that all factors related to scientific knowledge as well as individual skills will be taken into consideration when offering courses to ensure that students continue to stand out in international competitions. She said that talented Saudi students have won more than 500 awards and letters of appreciation in 20 competitions and Olympiads since 2010. With 22 major awards, Saudi students made history last month with impressive success at the Regeneron International Scientific and Engineering Fair 2022 in Georgia, US.