WCMC-Q contributes to Qatar Physics Conference
Anas Ahmad, Anas Abou-Ismail, Professor of Physics
Dr. Roger Hinrichs, Suzan Skef, Mazin Hussein and
Senior Lecturer in Physics Dr. Marco Ameduri discuss
their presentations at the first Qatar Physics
Conference in December.
Faculty and students from WCMC-Q joined in celebrating the World Year of Physics 2005 by presenting papers at the first Qatar Physics Conference on December 14 and 15.
Hosted by the University of Qatar, the conference was attended by physics professionals, teachers and students, and marked the 100th anniversary for the year (1905) that had the largest number of important discoveries in physics, including Einstein's theory of relativity.
Professor of Physics Roger Hinrichs, Ph.D., and Senior Lecturer in Physics Marco Ameduri, Ph.D., each gave presentations; while, second year pre-medical students Anas Ahmad, Anas Abou-Ismail, Mazin Hussein and Suzan Skef, presented their final projects for the Fundamentals of Physics (PHYS208) course.
Dr. Hinrichs said that students in PHYS208 selected a project on an application of physics to medicine, then designed and carried out an experiment in the area using equipment from the laboratory.
"This was far from a cook book experiment, as they had to decide on their own what to measure, interpret the results, and tie them into previous works," he said.
Ahmad and Abou-Ismail’s project involved simulating nerve potential using standard capacitors and resistors. They built a circuit that simulated the voltage changes that take place in nerve cells, and constructed a small device that models the knee reflex.
Meanwhile, Hussein and Skef investigated the force on a muscle in a frog when different electrical signals are applied. Hussein said: "The project was a great opportunity for us to learn by the means of experiment and observation."
Before speaking at the physics conference, students presented their papers to their class. Dr. Hinrichs said the standard of presentations was impressive.
"These papers and projects are like mini-undergrad theses in some respects. Questions are answered by investigation and research - which students will hopefully be doing in the real world of medicine in the near future."
He added that the conference gave students a chance to hear about physics education in Qatar and make contacts with other like-minded students that they might interact with professionally in the future.
"It exposes them to the character of professional meetings as well, and they get to hear some interesting discussion about the state of physics in Qatar."
Ahmad said the conference was very relevant to him and his classmates as the WCMC-Q pre-medical curriculum covered all sciences basic to medicine.
"We were offered the opportunity to present our results both to our colleagues (at WCMC-Q) and at the University of Qatar conference by our professors — we saw in it an interesting opportunity that we had to take," Hussein said.
The conference followed a series of events coordinated by the University of Qatar over the past 10 months, to mark the World Year of Physics 2005.
