Drawing on the cooperative bond between Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) and Huawei Technologies, a leading global Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions provider, eight HBKU students secured prestigious internship positions across a number of Huawei Qatar business units this summer.

Derived from the University’s four guiding pillars – Excellence, People, Innovation and Partners – HBKU casts a wide net of partnerships from across the industry sector to provide high-level professional development opportunities to its students. As such, working with their University’s partners in Huawei Qatar, students from the College of Science and Engineering gained valuable insights into various operations, such as the Enterprise Division as well as the telecommunications section.

Each of these divisions within Huawei Qatar is tasked with the execution of a unique set of ICT responsibilities on behalf of its customers, clients and partners across the nation’s industry sectors. For instance, committed to spreading the digital transformation to government and public sector organizations, financial services, energy, transportation, and manufacturing to achieve the goal of digital upgrade with "agility and intelligence" at the core, Enterprise defines industry standards for a broad range of innovative ICT products and solutions. These include progressive strides in the spheres of cloud computing, big data, campus networks, data centers, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other digital domains.

To respond to shifts in user behavior, the Huawei division responsible for telecommunications serves as a partner to country-specific operators in Qatar by tailoring digital services and operational capabilities to fit the evolving user profile. Recounting his positive experience within the telecommunications domain, Abdulrahman ElKelani from College of Science and Engineering said: “During my internship, the seamless interplay that my colleagues and I witnessed between Huawei – an end-to-end provider of ICT products and solutions – and Qatar’s main telecommunications providers in the interest of public connectivity was extremely educational. In particular, we were truly astounded by the number of processes that go behind a small task that we perform everyday like phone calls and surfing the web on 4G. It was also amazing to witness the testing of the incredibly fast 5G technology.” 

Commenting on the growing popularity of the professional internship program, Ms. Hong Lijuan, HR Director Huawei Qatar, said: “We were all impressed by the advanced level of tech proficiency exhibited by HBKU’s College of Science and Engineering students. Furthermore, our divisions appreciated the input from HBKU’s diverse body of students who all shared a common ambition to learn from Huawei’s specialists and return to their fields of graduate education with the added leverage of real industry insights to complement their coursework. We look forward to hosting future cadres of interns from HBKU in coming days.” 

HBKU’s CSE offers multidisciplinary programs across a wide spectrum of fields and specialties. All of the college’s programs focus on areas that have been identified as vital for national, regional, and international prosperity. To this end, CSE works closely with national and international partners to drive groundbreaking research and benefit from mutual resources and expertise. Its interactive exchange with Huawei in the area of capacity-building exercises and educational opportunities represents a common investment in the future of the tech sector, bringing about groundbreaking developments and effectively raising Qatar’s capacity for innovation, science and technology. 

Huawei is committed to be a key support in nurturing local ICT talent, working with government authorities, colleges and universities to identify, support and grow the future leaders of ICT. Two CSR programs are currently being implemented in the Middle East, including Qatar, which are the ICT Competition and Seeds for the Future.