At a press conference held on August 28, 2017 in Tehran, the second round of Noor Student Competition winners were announced. Over 5,000 students had participated in this competition by producing and sending about 2,000 short films in all fields of science including physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and astronomy.

Prof. Jackie Ying- the laureate of the Mustafa (pbuh) Prize 2015 was among the attendees- along with Mustafa (pbuh) Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF) officials and the reporters of several domestic and international media outlets.

“One of the distinctive features of the second round of Noor Student Competition compared with previous one is participating other regional countries.” Said Mahdi Saffarinia, Secretary of the Mustafa (pbuh) Prize's Policy Making Council, in his speech in this conference.

Saffarinia added: “In order to introduce one of the eminent scholars of the Muslim world in science and technology as a role model, the second round of Noor Student Competition has been named after Prof. Jackie Ying, the Executive Director of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) in Singapore and internationally known for her research in field of Nanotechnology. She was also the laureate of the Mustafa (pbuh) Prize 2015 in Bio Nanotechnology.” Prof. Ying, 51, is not only recognized in the field of science, but she is also introduced as one of “One Hundred Engineers of the Modern Era”.

Addressing Prof. Yings outstanding achievements, especially in inspiring the young generations, Saffarinia added: “it is important for students to have deeper awareness about influential scientists in Islam world”.

Last year, due to the 1000th anniversary of authoring ‘The Book of Optics’ by “Ibn al-Haytham” the first round of this competition was held in commemoration of this eminent Muslim scholar.

5109 students in form of 2194 groups took part in second round by sending a sum of 1194 60-second films of their scientific experiments in all fields of science, including physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and astronomy, to the MSTF.

“Based on the most important selection criteria which were the creativity and attractiveness of the received works, a total of 231 students in form of 105 groups were eventually selected, while one group of the winners are from Pakistan and another group is from Afghanistan.” Saffarinia further added.

Also the winners will be honored for their achievements in the closing ceremony which will be held in “Hozeh Honari - Andisheh Hall” on September the first, 2017, coinciding with the anniversary of Eid al-Adha. Broadcasting selected scientific videos on a weekly TV program, as well as granting laboratory and science equipment to the selected schools and research centers are among the prizes awarded to the winners.

Mustafa (pbuh) Science and Technology Foundation lunched annual “Noor Student Competition” in early December last year, in order to identify students’ strengths and talents, fostering and encouraging them and developing new perspectives in student communities, as well as promoting scientific cooperation among educational centers.

Saffarinia also as the president of MSTF in his address noted that KANS (Knowledge Application and Notion for Society) is another scientific competition which similarly has been designated to run at university level. This competition as a second layer of Mustafa (pbuh) Prize is supposed to be lunched in all Islamic universities and colleges in October 2017.

Meanwhile, in order to enhance cooperation among the Muslim scientists in Islamic countries around the world, MSTF has made a plan called Science and Technology Exchange Program (STEP), which will be held annually in one of the Islamic countries.

While the third round of this program will be held in December, coinciding with reward giving ceremony of Mustafa (pbuh) Prize, Two rounds of this plan were held in Tehran (2015) and Kuala Lumpur (2016), respectively.

It is worth mentioning that the third round of Noor Student Competition will be held commemorating “Ismail al-Jazari” prominent Muslim scientist, in the field of robotics in 2018.