[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/MKhalaf.jpg” caption=”Mohammed Khalaf is off to Qatar to compete on the Stars of Science reality show. He is one of 16 contestants trying to turn their ideas into marketable products. “]They filmed him in the lab, walking on campus and visiting Hamilton tourist sites. Now Mohammed Khalaf, a 25 year-old master's of engineering entrepreneurship and innovation student at McMaster, will debut on an inventors reality show to be broadcast on 18 Arab television channels beginning May 29.

Stars of Science features 16 contestants, aged 21 to 31, competing to turn their ideas into marketable products and win (US) $300,000. The competitors, from 11 different countries, were chosen from 5,600 applications by a panel of expert judges.

Khalaf, who came to Canada in 1994 and graduated with a B.Eng. in electrical and biomedical engineering from McMaster in 2006. In 2008 he began the master's program offered through the Xerox Centre for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation at McMaster.

Khalaf will join his competitors at the Qatar Science and Technology Park in Doha, where he will develop his project while being tutored by experts in business and technology and attending courses to improve his skills.

Throughout the show, contestants will present their projects to a three-member jury. Half of the projects will be eliminated in each of the prime-time episodes until only two remain. Unlike other reality shows, those whose projects have been eliminated stay on the show and become members of one of the remaining projects.

Viewers throughout the Middle East will be given the chance to vote for one of the two remaining projects during the final episode, scheduled to air June 26.

More information can be found on the Stars of Science web site.