When ideas bloom into future solutions

From drones designed to aid disaster response to sensors that detect faults in machines, students at Indian School Al Ghubra are turning ideas into working projects. At the launch of The Forum, the school’s new innovation centre, they offered a glimpse of the problems they hope to solve.
The projects ranged from the practical to the ambitious. A ten-year-old pitched disaster-response drones, while Grade 5 students demonstrated light sensors. Other students presented object detection models, a robotic arm and a bipedal robot, reflecting the range of ideas taking shape within the school.
The launch unfolded on a morning that felt more like a festival than a school day, with students sharing their projects and exploring what they could develop next. The space was described not as another tech lab, but as a place “where design, technology and human values converge to address real-world challenges”.

Launched by Dr Badr bin Hamoud al Kharousi, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Education for Education, the centre aims to ignite children’s imaginations and give their ideas room to develop, with a simple promise: no idea has to stay an idea.
Built around eight pods, covering activities from reading and research to simulation and presentations, the space is designed to be loud, messy, collaborative and joyful. As ISG President Ahmed Rayees put it, the goal is to move students from consuming technology to creating it, one prototype at a time. For a school whose project began with one “what if” nearly four years ago, the corridors now sound like the future arriving early.

Dr Badr’s message to the students was simple and direct: “Keep learning and asking questions. Keep dreaming bigger and bigger as that makes our learning journey joyful and beautiful”. He added that, in line with Oman Vision 2040, the goal is to raise students who can “speak the language of the future” and use technology responsibly to improve quality of life.
The idea for The Forum came from ISG President Ahmed Rayees nearly four years ago, with continued support from Founder Dr P Mohamed Ali, whose belief was articulated as “Innovation is a process, not a product”. Principal Papri Ghosh said the team deliberately moved beyond the concept of just an AI or robotics lab.

“As learning moved beyond textbooks, we envisioned a space where students could question, research, collaborate, design, experiment and create”, Rayees explained, adding, “We began with one simple question: What if an idea did not have to remain just an idea? Today, The Forum gives that vision a physical form”.
That process runs through eight interconnected pods: Presentation; Collaboration; Innovation; Simulation; Mentor; Media; Creativity; and Reading, Research & Reflection. An idea can start with reading, grow through research and collaboration, take shape through design and prototyping, be tested in Simulation, get refined with a mentor, and finally be shared through Presentation or Media.

Here, students are developing one innovation after another and their ideas do not stop there. They are busy working on projects such as a human-detection drone for disaster management, an automatic water dispenser, systems for protecting buildings, a crowd management tool, a flight simulator and a currency converter. Other possibilities on the table include the Internet of Things (IoT), electronics, automation, 3D design and printing, renewable energy, digital media, product design, textiles and fashion, as well as ways of combining traditional skills with emerging technology.