CREATING AN EXPERIENCEALUMNUS TAKES ADVANTAGE OF OPPORTUNITIES

IN QATAR THROUGH WORK AT NEW AIRPORT

22page

Student's Campaign is

DRIVING CHANGE24page

Social Media abuzz at

GRADUATION34page

Student Volunteers leave a

PAINTING GIFT

قصة نجاح شاب حصل على دراسة جامعية ذات مستوى عالمي

صفحة رقم ١٩

Summer 2013

Fall 2013

CONTENTS1- 17

Features

On the record.

On:

18

Creating an ExperienceAlumnus takes advantage of opportunities

in Qatar through work at new airport.

Highlight

8 Exploring Taiwan

Business28 An Entrepreneurial Boot Camp

Science30 Time Machines

Research

33 Great Minds

Student Life34 A Painting Gift

Pittsburgh

40 Carnegie Mellon Names Ninth President

Class Notes41 New Alumni Officers Take the Helm

22Driving ChangeStudent’s car safety campaign recognized for Innovation and Creativity.

24In the MomentSocial media abuzz as class of 2013 graduates.

Featured Image 36 Campus Diversity

Summer 2013

Fall 2013

Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

In a race against 24 other teams—and the clock—two groups of computer science programmers from Carnegie Mellon Qatar placed first and second in the 2013 Oman Collegiate Programming Contest, held at the Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman.

Teams representing 18 colleges from Oman and across the GCC participated in the five-hour competition. The teams of three were given a set of nine problems to solve in JAVA, C or C++ using a single computer. They were ranked according to the most problems solved, with those teams who solved the same number of problems ranked by time.

At the end of the competition, the top five teams each solved four problems.

Teams Brainiacs and Kufta from Carnegie Mellon Qatar finished first and second respectively, with the former solving the first problem in less than eight minutes. Both of Carnegie Mellon’s teams solved each of the four problems in less than an hour.

Collegiate programming contests pit teams of students against each other as they work to solve the most problems in the shortest amount of time. Since the problems are often modeled on real-world issues, such competitions serve as a testing ground for young computer scientists to put their knowledge into action.

“I am very proud of these students. This result rewards all of their efforts. They have been involved in this competition since their freshman year,” said Thierry Sans, assistant professor of computer science.

A publication of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

A member of Qatar Foundation P.O. Box 24866 | Doha, Qatar

www.qatar.cmu.edu

Dean and CEOIlker Baybars, Ph.D.

Executive Director of Marketing and Public Relations

D. Murry Evans

Assistant DirectorKara Nesimiuk

Administrative CoordinatorMarissa Edulan

Manager of External RelationsFeras Villanueva

Manager of Multimedia and Graphic DesignSam Abraham

Web ManagerStephen MacNeil

Publications ManagerSarah Nightingale

MPR Advisory Board ChairpersonDudley Reynolds, Ph.D.

MembersAlex Cheek

Tom Emerson, Ph.D.Khaled Harras, Ph.D.

Gloria KhourySelma Limam Mansar, Ph.D.

Mark Stehlik

EditorSarah Nightingale

WriterSarah Nightingale

ProofreaderRuth E. Thaler-Carter

PhotographsKhalid Ismail, Adrian Haddad,

Stephen MacNeil

LayoutEmpire Advertising Qatar

For editorial inquiries or reprints,contact the Marketing &

Public Relations Departmentat mpr@qatar.cmu.edu.

Articles and photographs contained in thispublication are subject to copyright protection.No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in any retrieval system or transmitted inany form or by any means without prior written

permission of the university.

Summer 2013

Fall 2013

On therecord.

Aside from being successful entrepreneurs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg have something else in common: none of them graduated from a university.

With such innovators serving as role models for young people, this inevitably raises the question, “Do universities still have a role in developing society’s most rapidly evolving fields?”

I was asked a similar question recently while I was a panelist in the plenary session of the 8th World Chambers Congress, which was held in Doha in April.

An attendee asked how universities can equip today’s students to face tomorrow’s technological challenges, presenting me with a rare opportunity to share with business leaders from across the globe what makes Carnegie Mellon stand out when it comes to innovation in education.

I told him that innovation happens when bright, passionate people apply independent thinking to solve problems. But how do you teach that? It starts with the core values we hold at Carnegie Mellon—problem solving, experiential learning, teamwork and transferable skills. It’s all part of the CMU culture and environment, not only in the United States, but in Qatar, Rwanda, Portugal, or wherever a Carnegie Mellon program or campus is developed.

I also shared how our award-winning faculty members work closely with students on research with real-world applications. Carnegie Mellon is home to more than 120 research institutes and ranks first among all U.S. universities without a medical school in the number of startup companies created per research dollar spent. In the past 15 years, our faculty, students and alumni have created more than 300 companies and 9,000 jobs worldwide.

Our alumni are recruited by some of the world’s top companies; and so are our faculty, laying to rest the misconception that professors are out of touch. Right now, some of them are holding top positions in Apple, Microsoft and Google to name a few.

I closed by sharing one of my own philosophies: that there’s no magic in business – just people. At Carnegie Mellon, we train those people. And you’ll read about a few of them in this latest version of On-Q.

Ilker Baybars

Dean & CEO

Team Brainiacs included Fahim Dalvi, Anas Halbawi and Baljit Singh. Team Kufta comprised Talal Al Haddad, Ahmad Al Salama and Manoj Dareddy.

Top Programmers

EVENTS

JanuaryCarnegie Mellon Qatar students

beat 24 teams from other universities to win first and second

place in the Oman Collegiate Programming Contest.

FebruaryFinn Kydland, a Carnegie Mellon

alumnus and Nobel laureate, delivers the Richard M. Cyert

Distinguished Lecture Series in Business Management.

MarchTwenty-one students and four professors explore the business

culture in Taipei, Taiwan.

AprilA record 835 prospective students

representing 61 nationalities apply to Carnegie Mellon.

MayStudents select Divakaran Liginlal,

associate professor of information systems, as this year’s Outstanding

Teacher.

On the record.

2 3Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

Healthy CompetitionWith fast-food restaurants more common than parks and gyms, it’s not surprising that Qatar’s residents are becoming overweight.

But help could come from an unusual place: our smartphones.

This spring, Carnegie Mellon’s Information Systems program challenged high school students to harness the power of technology to find innovative solutions for this growing problem. Participants in the annual Ibtikar Qatar competition had eight weeks to come up with a mobile-based game that would support healthy living in Qatar. Judging the 22 teams from 10 schools were Carnegie Mellon Qatar faculty and students.

The winners, from Doha College, designed Qatar Lifestyle, a bilingual application for adults and children that mixes physical exercise with virtual play. As characters in the game, players learn healthful food options and new ways to exercise. Players are also encouraged to communicate with each other and seek advice from a health professional.

Ibtikar Qatar is an annual competition that introduces high school students to information systems and the broad applications of the field. Each year, the competition has a different theme, and students are challenged to use information technology to design creative solutions to important problems.

“Information systems is not just about benefiting businesses. It is about practically changing people’s lives through technology,” said Daniel Phelps, assistant teaching professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar.

A 24-Hour HackathonWhile the term “hacker” might conjure up negative images, Carnegie Mellon defines hacking as using programming to build something cool.

Organized entirely by Carnegie Mellon students, the Qatar campus’ first 24-hour Hackathon provided an opportunity for students from Carnegie Mellon and Qatar University to show off what they can do through programming.

The Hackathon required teams of students to develop projects or application ideas into working applications. Students who participated, referred to as hackers, could use any technology, which encouraged them to showcase their creativity, range of skills and future potential.

Among the applications built in just 24 hours were games, a grade-projector tool and an online bulletin board.

The teams presented their apps to a panel of industry judges that included Sirraj Kara, senior engineer, embedded software, Williams F1; Dick Olsson, Drupal lead developer, Al Jazeera; and Zaid Haque, lead desktop publishing officer, Hamad International Airport.

“This is a great opportunity for students in Qatar,” said Haque, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s Information Systems program. “I was so impressed with all of the teams here and I see a bright future for each of these students. I want to see an extension of all of the applications showcased today and for them to be put into use.”

Sidra Alam, a senior in computer science and a member of the organizing committee, was motivated to bring Hackathon to Qatar after participating in a similar event in Pittsburgh.

“We were surprised at how many people here were inspired by the idea; we didn’t expect such an overwhelming response,” she said.

WinnersBest Hack

Team Name: Cereal Killers

Arihant Agarwal computer science

Fazil Akhtar computer science

Best Idea

Team Name: Brainiacs

Baljit Singh computer science

Fahim Dalvi computer science

Syed Ali Hashim Moosavi computer science

Narjis Premjee business administration

Best Design

Team Name: IScotty

Tasneem Jahan information systems

Sumya Khandaker information systems

Nabeeha Fatima Haque information systems

Best Freshmen Team:

Team Name: BalJEET

Sharmin Islam information systems

Daun Chung computer science

Hasan Al-Jawaheri computer science

Mahmoud Al-Ismail computer science

Student Organizers:

Afnan Fahim senior, computer science

Anas Halbawi senior, computer science

Hanan Mohammed

senior, computer science

Sidra Alam senior, computer science

Humaira Tasnim senior, information systems

Doha College student Ali Jafar collects her team’s award from Tridas Mukhopadhyay, Deloitte Consulting Professor of e-Business. Jafar’s teammates are Ali Sajjad and Zainab Akhtar Hussain.

On the record.

4 5Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

CS4QatarComputers are everywhere—in cars, planes, phones, and even in space shuttles.

Behind these computers are computer scientists, who explore the design and innovation of computing and what computers can do.

To encourage young people in Qatar to enter this important field, Carnegie Mellon held its annual CS4Qatar workshop in March, which attracted 90 high school students from 22 schools across the country.

During the workshop, Takeo Kanade, a professor of computer science and robotics at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and one of the world's foremost researchers in computer vision, showed students how robots can be used in fun and exciting ways.

“CS4Qatar enables participants to come to Carnegie Mellon and get a chance to interact with our faculty and students using cutting-edge technology,” said Damian Dourado, manager for pre-college programs and director of community outreach. “They are able to see the amazing things that are done in computer science and how Carnegie Mellon is at the forefront of technology and innovation.”

CS4Qatar enables participants to come to Carnegie Mellon and get a chance to interact with our faculty and students using cutting-edge technology.

DAMIAN DOURADOManager for pre-college programs

كارنيجي ميلون تنظم ورشة "علم الحاسوب من أجل قطر"

الحاسوب موجود في كل مكان، في السيارات، في الطائرات، في الهواتف، بل وفي مكوك الفضاء.

ووراء ذلك الحاسوب ثمة علماء يعملون على التصميم واالبتكار، ويبحثون فيما يمكن للحواسيب القيام به.

ولتشجيع الشباب القطري على اقتحام هذا المجال، نظمت جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر ورشة علم "الحاسوب من أجل قطر" السنوية في شهر مارس

الماضي، والتي جذبت 90 طالبًا من 22 مدرسة ثانوية على مستوى البالد.

وخالل الورشة، تلقى الطالب عرضا عن كيفية استخدام الروبوتات بطريقة ممتعة وشيقة، قدمه تاكيو كانادي، أستاذ علوم الحاسوب والروبوتات بجامعة

كارنيجي ميلون في بيتسبيرغ، وأحد أشهر الباحثين على مستوى العالم في مجال الرؤية باستخدام الحاسوب.

من جانبه، قال داميان دورادو، مدير برامج التحضير الجامعية ومدير التواصل المجتمعي: "من شأن ورشة علم الحاسوب من أجل قطر أن تمكن المشاركين بها من الحضور إلى جامعة كارنيجي ميلون والحصول على فرصة التفاعل مع

أعضاء هيئة التدريس والطالب باستخدام أحدث التقنيات، حيث يشاهدون أشياء مدهشة يتم صنعها في علوم الحاسوب ويرون بأعينهم كيف تحتل الجامعة

مركز الصدارة في التقنية واالبتكار".

On the record.

6 7Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

مع انتشار فيروسات الكمبيوتر وتأثيرها على المزيد والمزيد من الناس، والحكومات والشركات، نظمت جامعة كارنيجي ميلون ندوة نقاشية حول

"دور األمن التكنولوجي في الحفاظ على األمن العام".

وتحت رعاية سعادة الشيخ عبد اهلل بن ناصر بن خليفة آل ثاني وزير الدولة للشئون الداخلية، تشكلت اللجنة من: سعادة اللواء الركن سعد بن جاسم

الخليفي مدير عام األمن العام، والدكتور راج ريدي أستاذ علوم الحاسب اآللي والروبوتات في كلية علوم الحاسب اآللي بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون في

قطر، والدكتور غوردون بيل، الباحث الرئيسي في مايكروسوفت للبحوث، والدكتور أحمد المغارميد، المدير التنفيذي بمعهد قطر لبحوث الحوسبة.

وقد استعرض ريدي الخطوات العملية التي يستطيع الناس اتخاذها لحماية أنفسهم ومؤسساتهم من الفيروسات والبرامج الخبيثة، وهي خطوات تشمل تفعيل التحديث اآللي واستخدام كلمات مرور قوية وعمل نسخ

احتياطية لكل الملفات المهمة.

من جهته، عّلق إلكر بايبرس، عميد جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر، على التحديات التي تواجه المجتمع للحصول على األمن التكنولوجي، قائاًل:

"لقد حققنا الكثير من التقدم في مجال األمن التكنولوجي، بيد أن الناس ال يزالون يجهلون كيفية استخدام تلك النظم بشكل آمن. وقد قطعت جامعة

كارنيجي ميلون شوطًا كبيراً في هذا المجال البحثي الحيوي".

وأضاف: "يزداد هذا المجال أهمية يومًا بعد آخر، السيما مع وثوق المراهقين بشبكات التواصل االجتماعي وعرض بياناتهم الشخصية على شبكة

اإلنترنت. ومن خالل التوعية نستطيع رفع الوعي، بحيث نستطيع توصيل رسالة قوية حول كيفية استخدام التكنولوجيا بشكل آمن".

كارنيجي ميلون تستضيف ندوة نقاشية حول األمن التكنولوجي

Alumnus and Nobel Laureate: Innovation Drives Growth“Innovation and technology are the main driving forces for economic growth, ultimately leading to future productivity,” said Finn Kydland, a Carnegie Mellon alumnus and Nobel Laureate, during the Richard M. Cyert Distinguished Lecture Series in Business Management.

Kydland’s lecture, titled “Policy Consistency and the Growth of Nations,” outlined how a country’s progress depends on technology to convert capital and labor into goods and services.

“But, to take advantage of technological change, nations need investment in new capital, structures, equipment and their citizenry,” Kydland said. “Government policy may be a crucial factor in this respect. Encouraging people to gain the right skills is a way to solve the problem, and the best way to do this is through the education system.”

Kydland and Edward C. Prescott were joint recipients of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Economics “for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles,” according to the official website of the Nobel Prize. Kydland holds the Richard P. Simmons Distinguished Professorship at Carnegie Mellon and is also the Henley Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Prescott is an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and professor of economics at the W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University.

Innovation and technology are the main driving forces for economic growth, ultimately leading to future productivity.

FINN KYDLANDA Carnegie Mellon alumnus and Nobel Laureate

CMU Hosts Panel on Cyber SecurityWith computer viruses affecting more and more people, governments and companies, Carnegie Mellon’s panel discussion on “The Role of Cyber Security in Maintaining Public Security” came at an apt moment in time.

Under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani, minister of state for interior affairs, the panel comprised H.E. Staff Major General Saad Bin Jassim Al Khulaifi, director general of public security (chief of police), Ministry of Interior; Raj Reddy, Moza Bint Nasser University Professor at Carnegie Mellon; Gordon Bell, principal researcher, Microsoft Research; and Ahmed Elmagarmid, executive director, Qatar Computing Research Institute.

Reddy outlined practical steps people can take to protect themselves and their institutions against viruses, worms and malware. Among them, he said, are enabling automatic updates, using strong passwords and backing up all critical information.

Ilker Baybars, dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar, commented on the challenges facing society in attaining cyber security: "We have made a lot of progress in the area of cyber security; however, people are still not aware of how to use these systems safely. Carnegie Mellon is at the forefront of this vital research.

“This research becomes ever more necessary as more teenagers trust social media sites and expose their personal information online. Through education, we can raise awareness so that a strong message is delivered about how to use technology safely.”

On the record.

8 9Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

Exploring TaiwanFrom the top of one of the world’s tallest buildings to the inside of Taiwan’s multinationals, students explored Taipei this spring as part of independent study courses in business administration and information systems.

Twenty-two students representing 11 countries went on the trip, learning more about business and culture in Taiwan and synthesizing their experiences in 10-page papers. The group visited companies and universities during the day, and explored some of the local markets and restaurants in the evenings.

Layal Al-Alami, a senior in business administration, was impressed by how much companies invest in their employees through gyms, swimming pools and restaurants.

“What was fascinating about ASUS (a computer hardware company) is that they had a huge Mona Lisa made out of motherboards and chips,” Al-Alami recalled. “It was a piece of art that they put together to showcase at a community event, and they later moved it to their ground floor, where it rests with many other art pieces for the public to admire. It seemed like companies there try to give back to their community, and they seem to believe that a company’s ground floor should function like a public museum. This is something we haven’t seen in Doha yet.”

The students also visited Tam Kang University, where they met with Taiwanese students and traded university experiences. A highlight of the trip, Al-Alami said, was a visit to Taipei 101, which was the world’s tallest building until Dubai’s Burj Khalifa opened in 2010.

This spring, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar signed Memoranda of Understanding with six organizations in Qatar, which will lead to new opportunities for collaborations on education, research and community development.

Carnegie Mellon Builds Strategic Partnerships

Preserving Computer Programs

Librarians are experts at archiving books and electronic documents. Until now, though, they haven’t tried to preserve executable content like computer programs.

Led by Carnegie Mellon’s Mahadev Satyanarayanan, a professor of computer science in Pittsburgh, and Gloriana St. Clair, dean of university libraries, a team of researchers is tackling that problem by developing Olive, the first archiving system for preserving executable content. Their work is funded by grants from the Institute of Library and Museum Services and the Sloan Foundation.

In a presentation at Carnegie Mellon Qatar, St. Clair explained the value of preserving computer programs, not only for historical purposes, but also to support future developments in computer science.

According to Daniel Ryan, curator of executable content of the Olive Archive, the project involves preserving the programs so they can be accessed in their original formats. This often means replicating not only the program but also the operating system on which it originally ran.

As a proof of concept, the researchers are archiving the 1980s adventure game Mystery House, the 1990s science fiction game Doom, a piece of educational software and an academic journal containing executable content.

The team hopes that other researchers might use Olive one day to preserve and access executable content.

وفي ربيع هذا العام وقعت جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر مذكرة تفاهم مع خمس مؤسسات

محلية، من شأنها أن تؤدي إلى ظهور فرص جديدة للتعاون في تطوير التعليم والبحث العلمي وتنمية

المجتمع، وهذه المؤسسات هي:

Twenty-two students representing 11 countries went on the trip, learning more about business and culture in Taiwan and synthesizing their experiences in 10-page papers.

RasGas Company LimitedFebruary 13, 2013 Mr. Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi, CEO

راس غاز المحدودة18 فبراير 2013

السيد حمد راشد المهندي،الرئيس التنفيذي للشركة

Qatar Finance and Business AcademyFebruary 20, 2013 Dr. Abdulaziz Al Horr, CEO

أكاديمية قطر للمال واألعمال20 فبراير 2013

الدكتور عبد العزيز الحرالرئيس التنفيذي

Al Faisal HoldingMarch 28, 2013 H.E. Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, CEO

الفيصل القابضة28 مارس 2013

سعادة الشيخ فيصل بن قاسم آل ثانيرئيس مجلس اإلدارة

Ezdan Holding GroupApril 27, 2013 H.E. Dr. Khalid Bin Thani Abdulla Al Thani, Chairman

مجموعة إزدان القابضة27 أبريل 2013

الدكتور خالد بن ثاني بن عبداهلل آل ثانيرئيس مجلس اإلدارة

Ooredoo (formerly Q-Tel)May 7, 2013 H.E. Sheikh Saud Bin Nasser Al Thani, CEO

Ooredoo )كيوتل سابقا(7 مايو 2013

الشيخ سعود بن ناصر آل ثانيالرئيس التنفيذي

Qatar AirwaysJune 12, 2013 Akbar Al Baker, CEO

الخطوط الجوية القطرية١٢ يونيو2013

أكبر الباكرالرئيس التنفيذي

On the record.

10 11Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

Alumni Return to CMU to Recruit GraduatesAysha Fakhroo returned to Carnegie Mellon this March with one thing in mind: recruiting students to join her at ExxonMobil in Qatar.

Fakhroo, a computer science graduate and application manager at ExxonMobil, was one of about 25 alumni who attended the Professional Day career and networking fair as recruiters.

“Carnegie Mellon’s computer science program is world-renowned,” Fakhroo said, “but the university also provides a well-rounded educational experience. I am here today to recruit the university's intelligent and innovative students.”

About 50 companies and organizations from Qatar and the region attended this spring’s Professional Day, which connects students, particularly graduating seniors, with job and internship possibilities.

Companies attending for the first time in 2013 included: Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros. Co. W.L.L.; Al Faisal Holding; Barclays; Citi; Doha News; Forbes Associates; Hamad Medical Corporation; Hill+Knowlton; ILoveQatar.Net; Nestlé; Qatar Fuel Additives Co. and Qatar Insurance Company.

Botball Attracts 225 StudentsImagine you’re part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory. It’s your job to develop a robot that can land on Mars and scoop up rock samples to be analyzed back on Earth.

That’s exactly what local middle and high school students did during the 9th Regional Botball Robotics Challenge, held at Carnegie Mellon Qatar this spring.

Botball is a robotics competition that helps secondary school students develop knowledge and practical understanding through hands-on experience with science, technology, engineering and math.

Each year, the regional competition focuses on a particular theme. With NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover reaching the Red Planet last August, students had to use robots to “collect” rocks and “send” the samples back to Earth using the programming language “C.” Participants had the opportunity to interact with Carnegie Mellon faculty and students and were judged by industry experts.

A Qatar Academy team won first place, with Qatar’s Lycée Bonaparte finishing second and Al Khor International School finishing third.

“Botball is a great competition and has taught me to be fast and efficient. I really enjoy learning through games about artificial intelligence and product development,” said Abdullah Al-Shakarchi, a student at Qatar Academy.

This year’s event attracted 225 students from 20 schools. As the first-place winner, Qatar Academy will travel to Norman, Oklahoma, in July to attend the 2013 Global Conference on Educational Robotics and compete in the International Botball Tournament.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Nada Arakji, a business administration student, was honored at the Annual Education Excellence Day ceremony, which took place at the Qatar National Convention Centre in March. The Emir of Qatar, H.H. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, honored Arakji and 23 other outstanding academic achievers at an event attended by several senior officials. Arakji won a gold award in the student category.

Abdulla Jassim Al-Khenji, a sophomore in information systems, represented the State of Qatar in the 2013 Asian Indoor Rowing Competition, which took place March 16–17 in the Kowloon Park Sports Centre, Hong Kong. Al-Khenji, who has been rowing for seven years, participated to gain more overseas competition experience. He hopes to represent Qatar in the 2016 Olympic Games.

Teams of Carnegie Mellon students won second and third place in the 2013 Al Fikra National Business Plan competition, an event that supports entrepreneurship in Qatar. Rafay Abbasi and Haya al Kubaisi were awarded second place and QR 30,000 for Looms and Knots, a manufacturing and design company. Mashael Al-Misnad and Fatima Fikree placed third and received QR 20,000 for Al Malaf, a company that encompasses digital file-storing services.

On the record.

12 13Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

محاضرة حول "الدور الفاعل لريادة األعمال األسرية" في كارنيجي ميلون

Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s debate team won the 2013 Qatar Universities Debating League (QUDL). In this year's league, 107 speakers from nine institutions competed in five tournaments held between October and February.

Since the league is scored by accumulating the points of the best speakers from each university, a win does not rely on a single student or team, but on all the students participating.

Carnegie Mellon Qatar students rounded out the debating league with several individual successes: Narcis Jafarian, Best Speaker

Award; Mohamed Benkermi, 9th Best Speaker Award; and Bilal Anwar Sheikh, Best Novice Speaker Award.

In addition, four Carnegie Mellon teams participated in the National Debate Championships. Two teams performed well: Dana Al Ansari and Patrick Steinhagen made it to the semi-finals, and Narcis Jafarian and Tarek Al Hariri made it to the final. The Best Speaker Awards from the National Championship went to Patrick Steinhagen, and second place as Best Speaker went to Dana Al Ansari.

Qatari Entrepreneur Speaks to StudentsSheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, chairman of Al Faisal Holding, shared his experiences as one of Qatar’s leading entrepreneurs through a March lecture titled “The Active Role of Family Entrepreneurship in Contributing to Qatar’s National Vision 2030.” The talk, which was part of the Dean’s Leadership Series, highlighted the strong connection between learning and business.

Sheikh Faisal outlined how, over a career spanning 45 years, he has launched a succession of new ventures and attracted foreign investments to several sectors of the economy in Qatar. Today, Al-Faisal Holding is one of Qatar’s leading diversified business groups, with more than 40 commercial and industrial entities.

Students Complete Successful Season of Debating

Embassies Learn More About Educational Opportunities in Qatar

Regional embassies connected with local universities and the Supreme Education Council this spring, thanks to the first Diplomatic Educational Exhibition, organized by the Diplomatic Institute at Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with Carnegie Mellon Qatar.

The event was held under the auspices of H.E. Dr. Khalid bin Mohammad Al-Attiyah, minister of state for foreign affairs.

Ilker Baybars, dean and CEO of Carnegie Mellon Qatar; Hassan Ibrahim Al Mohannadi, director of the Diplomatic Institute–Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and H.E. Rashed Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, minister’s assistant for service affairs.

استعرض سعادة الشيخ فيصل بن قاسم آل ثاني، رئيس مجلس إدارة شركة الفيصل القابضة، تجاربه باعتباره واحداً من رواد األعمال البارزين في قطر، وذلك

خالل محاضرة بعنوان "الدور الفعال لريادة األعمال األسرية في المساهمة في رؤية قطر الوطنية لعام 2030".

وتأتي المحاضرة في إطار سلسلة العميد للمهارات القيادية، التي تسعى إللقاء الضوء على العالقة القوية بين التعليم واألعمال. واسترجع رئيس مجلس إدارة شركة الفيصل القابضة مسيرته المهنية التي بدأت قبل 45 عامًا، أطلق خاللها

سلسلة من المشاريع الجديدة. كما تحدث عن نجاحه في جذب االستثمارات األجنبية إلى قطاعات اقتصادية متعددة في قطر.

واليوم، تعتبر الفيصل القابضة واحدة من المجموعات االقتصادية المتنوعة والرائدة في قطر مع أكثر من 40 كيانًا تجاريًا وصناعيًا تابعًا.

السفارات تتعرفعلى المزيد من الفرص التعليمية في المعرض

الدبلوماسي

نظم المعهد الدبلوماسي بوزارة الشؤون الخارجية وبالتعاون مع جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر،

المعرض التعليمي الدبلوماسي األول في ربيع هذا العام. ويهتم المعرض بالربط بين السفارات اإلقليمية

والجامعات المحلية والمجلس األعلى للتعليم.

أقيم الحدث تحت رعاية سعادة الدكتور خالد بن محمد العطية، وزير الدولة للشؤون الخارجية.

التعليق على الصورة )من اليسار إلى اليمين(الدكتور إلكر بايبرس، عميد جامعة كارنيجي ميلون

في قطر ورئيسها التنفيذيادكتور حسن إبراهيم المهندي، مدير المعهد

الدبلوماسي- وزارة الخارجيةسعادة راشد بن خليفة آل خليفة، مساعد وزير

الخارجية لشؤون الخدمات

Publications and Presentations Articles and Book Contributions Presentations

Starling Hunter, visiting associate teaching professor. Structural Holes and Banner-Ad Click-Throughs, Technology & Investment (with Ravi Chinta).

Starling Hunter, visiting associate teaching professor. Thematic and Lexical Repetition in a Contemporary Screenplay, Open Journal of Modern Linguistics (with Susan Smith).

Starling Hunter, visiting associate teaching professor. Word-Formation in Mark Boal’s “The Hurt Locker,” Open Journal of Modern Linguistics.

Dudley Reynolds, teaching professor of English, Do you have to know Arabic to teach in Qatar? What impact should/could knowledge of our students’ L1s have on our teaching? (keynote), TESOL 2013 International Convention and English Language Expo, Dallas, Texas, March 2013.

Dudley Reynolds, teaching professor of English, Dealing with Diversity, TESOL 2013 International Convention and English Language Expo, Dallas, Texas, March 2013.

On the record.

14 15Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

Dedicated Staff Receive Charles E. Thorpe AwardsThe Charles E. Thorpe Distinguished Service Awards, named after Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s founding dean, are a tribute to the teamwork and dedication of the university’s staff members.

Each year, the community nominates non-faculty university employees in five categories, with the winners announced at the end of the school year. The 2013 winners are:

Outstanding Innovation

Khairunisa Mohammed Dalwai, Administrative Assistant

Outstanding Service to Students Shazia Haq, Academic Assistant

Outstanding Commitment to the Community Ahmed Husane Aldobashi, Housing and Transportation Manager

Outstanding Dedication to CMU Roula Albradee, Senior Accountant

RasGas: Vision Affects Long-term SuccessWith an annual output of around 77 million tons, Qatar is the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG). RasGas produces about half of it—supplying countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas.

This alone does not predict that RasGas will be a successful company, said Khalid Sultan Al Kuwari, chief marketing and shipping executive, who spoke at Carnegie Mellon as part of the Dean’s Lecture Series. To become a major energy supplier, you need a vision, execution, a deep understanding of markets, a robust strategy and good people, Al Kuwari said.

According to Al Kuwari, RasGas, through its major shareholders (Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil), has invested in the full LNG supply chain, from drilling larger wells to managing the largest ships on the seas. The result: Qatari LNG delivered to all corners of the globe efficiently and reliably.

The lecture elaborated on key variables that influence the global energy market and demonstrated how a shrewd marketing strategy can result in long-term success.

راس غاز .. نموذج مثالي لتحقيق الرؤية إلى نجاح فعلي

تعتبر قطر أضخم مصدر للغاز المسال في العالم بمعدل 77 مليون طن سنويًا، وتنتج وحدها نحو نصف هذه الكمية، التي يتم تصديرها إلى بلدان مختلفة في جميع أنحاء آسيا وأوروبا واألمريكتين.

"بيد أن هذا وحده ال يضمن نجاح الشركة في المستقبل"، على حد قول السيد خالد الكواري، كبير مسؤولي مجموعة التسويق والشحن براس غاز، والذي ألقى محاضرة بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون في إطار سلسلة

محاضرات العميد. حيث يقول: "لكي تصير من كبار مصدري الطاقة في العالم، فإن هذا يستلزم وجود قيادة ملهمة، إلى جانب توافر فهم عميق لألسواق العالمية واستراتيجية قوية وكوادر إدارية وفنية متميزة".

وبحسب الكواري، فقد استثمرت راس غاز، من خالل مساهميها الرئيسيين: قطر للبترول وإكسون موبيل، في سلسلة تحويل الغاز الطبيعي إلى سوائل )بدءا بحفر آبار أكبر وصواًل إلى تشغيل أضخم السفن في البحار(

األمر الذي أتاح نقل الغاز المسال القطري إلى شتى بقاع العالم بكفاءة ونجاح.

كما تطرقت المحاضرة قد تطرقت إلى المتغيرات الرئيسية التي تؤثر على سوق الطاقة العالمية، إلى جانب استراتيجيات التسويق الجيدة، والقادرة على تحقيق نجاح دائم ومتنامي.

Inter-Campus Team Wins Case CompetitionThe Carnegie Mellon students who braved crowds at Doha’s new IKEA store recently weren’t there for the furniture. They were learning about the store and scoping out its target market.

This year’s Internal Case Competition challenged students to position the Swedish furniture retailer in the local market. Pittsburgh students who were visiting Doha as part of the Impaqt exchange program joined Qatar students to form six teams in the contest, which was held over a two-day period in March.

The winning team, Epsilon Consulting, worked around the clock to produce a plan that impressed a panel of faculty and alumni judges.

"Epsilon succeeded in presenting a practical step-by-step solution to the case at hand, providing multiple recommendations that would have been just as successful realistically as they were within the fictional confines of the case competition,” said Omar Allouba (TPR’09), a sales assistant at Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing and a competition judge.

Epsilon Consulting consisted of Dana Al- Ansari, a junior in business administration; Zainab Baqri, a sophomore in business administration; Kenrick Fernandes, a junior in computer science; and Alexis Georgiadis, a senior in business administration at the Pittsburgh campus.

CMU Researchers Awarded QNRF Grants

This spring, Carnegie Mellon Qatar has received four grants from Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).

Jorge Sacchini and Edmund Lam, both post-doctoral research associates, received funding through the Junior Scientists Research Experience Program (JSREP). Sacchini was selected for his work on the interactive theorem prover, Coq, which is used in large-scale projects, including formalizing mathematical theories and verifying programs. His project will

attempt to implement extensions to increase the expressive power and usability of Coq and help bring it to a wider range of applications and users. Lam’s project involves developing an extension of the high-level programming construct Join Pattern, with features that will make the system more robust and effective for parallel and distributed programming.

The university also received two National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) grants during the sixth funding cycle,

which was announced in May. Kemal Oflazer, teaching professor of computer science, will lead a project to explore partial diacritizations of Arabic text in the context of both Natural Language Processing and human readability, aiming to discover the optimal diacritization level. Jonathan Finkel, assistant teaching professor of biology, will lead a project to better characterize the diverse collection of pathogenic fungi isolated at Hamad Hospital in Qatar.

Carnegie Mellon Qatar received applications from a record 835 prospective students representing 61 nationalities for the 2013–14 academic year.

Admitted students and their families attended the Marhaba Tartans reception in April to meet faculty, alumni and students, and learn more about what it will be like to be part of the Carnegie Mellon community.

Nora Al Subai, Carnegie Mellon Qatar alumna and SAP senior business analyst at Qatar Petroleum, shared her CMU experiences in an address to prospective students and their parents.

“The Carnegie Mellon experience is a privilege, one that is paved with hard work, growth and success,” Al Subai said. “I am eternally grateful to my mother for making me apply to CMU. It has honestly been one of the best decisions in my life. It was clear to my parents, and to me, that I came to CMU a child and walked out a confident, independent woman.”

Record Number of Students Apply

16 17

On: Camera

Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

Carnegie Mellon Qatar students and staff attend a Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey game: (left to right) Amalan Roshan; Sarah Khirawi; Sana Fathima; Melissa Deschamps, director of international education; Aveed Sheikh; Jumana Al-Abdi, director of personal development; Saif Mujahid; Hassaan Ijaz; and Vanessa Fernandes; (front center) Rama Sbei. The group visited the Pittsburgh campus as part of the Impaqt exchange program.

The Impaqt team, consisting of two students from the Qatar campus and two from the Pittsburgh campus, won this year’s BrainBowl academic quiz.

Ten students from the Pittsburgh campus joined Carnegie Mellon Qatar students on a trip to the desert as part of the Impaqt program.

18 19Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

Creating anExperience يجمع الشاب زيد حق في شخصيته مجموعة متعددة من الثقافات. فقد ُولد في

الواليات المتحدة األمريكية ألب هندي وأم باكستانية، ثم نشأ في ماليزيا، قبل أن يلتحق بالمدرسة الثانوية في دولة اإلمارات العربية المتحدة. ورغم تنوع الخيارات

التي توفرت أمامه إلكمال تعليمه العالي، وامكانية التحاقة بأي جامعة في العالم، إال أنه اختار الدراسة في مؤسسة قطر للتربية والعلوم وتنمية المجتمع

بدولة قطر.

يتذكر الشاب وصوله إلى مؤسسة قطر حين كانت ال تزال في بداياتها، تضم مزيجًا من المباني الجديدة واألخرى قيد اإلنشاء. ويقول: "كنت أتطلع دومًا للدراسة

في أمريكا. ولكني شعرت، مع مرور الوقت، بالحاجة إلى خبرة جديدة وفريدة من نوعها. لذلك قررت الدراسة في دولة قطر، حيث وجدت تجربة غير مسبوقة، وأكثر

إثارة وتحفيزاً". كان يود أن يشهد نمو دولة قطر، والمساهمة في تحقيق رؤية قطر الوطنية 2030، التي تعد من أكثر خطط التنمية االقتصادية واالجتماعية طموحًا

وضخامة في العالم.

التحق الطالب المتحمس بكلية طب وايل كورنيل عام 2007، حيث أكمل البرنامج الطبي التمهيدي. ولكن، بعدها بعامين قرر تغيير اختصاصه، وتحويل مساره

الجامعي للدراسة بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر، حيث وجد ضالته في برنامج نظم المعلومات. وهو برنامج يؤكد على استخدام قوة الحاسبات وتكنولوجيا

المعلومات في إنشاء وإدارة وتوصيل المعلومات، لمساعدة الشركات والمؤسسات على اتخاذ القرارات وحل المشاكل، وخدمة العمالء.

ويتحدث حق عن قراره بالتحول عن دراسة الطب قائاًل: "لطالما أحببت القفز وسط التحديات وتطبيق المبادئ التي تعلمتها البتكار أفكار وأشياء جديدة. وفكرت في

أنني لن أستطيع تحقيق ذلك بسهولة إال إذا درست اختصاصًا مختلفًا".

وتساعد الطبيعة المرنة للبرنامج الذي تعتمده مؤسسة قطر على تشجيع الطالب على صقل مهاراتهم في المجاالت التي تناسبهم أكثر. وفي حالة حق، فقد اختار

دراسة تأثير تصميم التكنولوجيا على تجربة المستخدم، المعروف باسم "تصميم تجربة المستخدم". وهو مشابه لتخصص تصميم واجهة االستخدام األكثر شيوعًا،

في كونه يركز على دراسة شكل ومظهر التطبيقات ومواقع الويب، كما يبحث تفاعل المستخدم مع التكنولوجيا ضمن سياقات مختلفة.

ويقول حق: "عند التحاقي بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون، خضعت لدورة تدريبية في التصميم، حيث أدركت أن فكرة الجمع بين الخطوط واألشكال لتكوين تجربة

تكنولوجية هو أمر يستهويني حقًا. لقد كان ذلك ما أردته بالضبط من تعليمي، بأن يكون نقطة انطالق لإلبداع وإنشاء معرفة جديدة، وقد حصلت على ذلك في

برنامج تكنولوجيا المعلومات".

وإلى جانب الدراسة األكاديمية، يعتبر حق أن أكثر ما مّيز دراسته في جامعة كارنيجي ميلون هو اكتسابه "خبرات العالم الحقيقي". إذا التحق، خالل سنواته

الجامعية الثالث، ببرامج تطوعية دولية، وأمضى فترة تدريبية في مركز ويليامز للتكنولوجيا في قطر، كما شارك في عدد من مؤتمرات، باإلضافة إلى انخراطه

Z aid Haque is his own multicultural melting pot. Born in the United States to an Indian father and

a Pakistani mother, he grew up in Malaysia and later attended high school in the United Arab Emirates. He could have gone to university anywhere in the world.

He chose Education City in Qatar.

At the time, he said, Education City was a mixture of new buildings and “holes in the ground.” He came because he wanted to experience Qatar’s growth, and be a part of one of the most ambitious human and economic development plans in the world: Qatar’s National Vision 2030.

“I always thought I would go to university in America, but as the time approached I felt like it was a little tried and tested. I decided to come here because it seemed more exciting and interesting to me,” Haque said.

In 2012, after graduating from Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s Information Systems program, Haque, 24, took a job with Doha International Airport, the hub for Qatar Airways’ rapidly expanding network. The organization is responsible for the new Hamad International Airport, which is among the most significant infrastructure projects in Qatar’s history and is set to open at the end of 2013. As lead desktop publishing officer, Haque

applies his knowledge of technology and passion for design—two of the skills he learned and honed at Carnegie Mellon Qatar.

Haque didn’t come to Education City as a Tartan, though. In 2007, he enrolled at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, where he completed the pre-medical program before transferring to Carnegie Mellon.

“I struggled with the idea of not being creative,” Haque said of his decision to leave medicine. “I wanted to jump right in and put the principles I had learned into action by coming up with ideas and creating new things. I felt that would be easier and more acceptable in another field.”

Zaid joined Carnegie Mellon in 2009, and found his academic home in the Information Systems (IS) program. At Carnegie Mellon, the IS program emphasizes using the power of computers and Information Technology to generate, manage and communicate information that will help businesses and organizations make decisions, solve problems and serve their customers.

The flexible nature of the program encourages students to cultivate their own interests within the field. With the guidance of his advisor Selma Limam Mansar,

Alumnus takes advantage of opportunities in Qatar through work at new airport

قصة نجاح شاب حصل على دراسة جامعية ذات مستوى عالمي

قطر تمنح الخريجين الجدد فرصة إثبات مهاراتهم المهنية

في مشاريعها التنموية

20 21Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

Feature

associate professor of information systems, Haque’s interest became how the design of a particular technology affects how a person feels about interacting with it—known as User Experience (UX) Design. Similar to the more commonly known User Interface (UI) Design, UX explores the look-and-feel of technologies like apps and websites, but also asks questions about how a user would interact with the technology in different contexts.

“When I joined Carnegie Mellon, I took my first design course and realized that the simple idea of combining lines and shapes to create a technology experience was something that really interested me. This was exactly what I wanted from my education—a platform to innovate and create new knowledge, and I got that in the IS program.”

In addition to coursework, what Haque calls “real world experiences” made his Carnegie Mellon education stand out. During his three years on campus, Haque volunteered overseas, interned at Doha’s Williams F1 Advanced Technology Center, attended conferences and got involved in student organizations. Through a student club called Developmental Solutions Organization (DSO), he organized a conference at Carnegie Mellon and coordinated a fundraiser for Haiti’s earthquake victims that raised $6,000 in just seven days.

“Carnegie Mellon gave me the opportunity to gain experience and skills that I would need in the future,” he said. “In addition to the academic side, there was a lot more depth to our education. What I gained from Carnegie Mellon was exposure to the real world and how things would be after graduation.”

Hamad International Airport is a multi-billion dollar project that will serve about 25 million passengers each year. As part of his job, Haque is responsible for the design of digital technologies at the airport, including flight information displays and apps, as well as static signage. His goal is to make sure passengers get the right information in the right way at the right time.

Designing the communications to help millions of passengers navigate their way around a large airport in a multilingual environment can seem like a daunting task. Haque starts from the traveler’s perspective. In the spirit of UX Design, he asks questions like “Would a passenger have a free hand to take out his or her phone to use an app, or would they be pushing a trolley with both hands at this point?” “Would users want to download an app for this action, or could they do the same thing on a mobile website?” and “Can I push information from this screen onto a user’s mobile device, so that it’s possible to use the mobile device without having to come back to this screen?”

According to Haque: “Answering these questions helps us get a better sense of how to design a group of products that meet a unified goal, in this case providing information about flights to passengers through different means.”

While he considered job opportunities in Europe and the U.S., Haque’s work at the airport—and the ability to contribute to Qatar’s future growth—has once again spurred him to stay in Qatar. He is an active member of Carnegie Mellon’s Qatar Alumni Chapter, and has given back to the university by serving as a judge in a spring programming competition and by presenting a series of professional development workshops that are geared toward students.

His advice to graduating students, especially those from other countries, is to stay in Qatar and explore the possibilities here. His message to employers is simple—give recent graduates a shot.

“Qatar is growing very rapidly and the biggest thing the country needs is skills and expertise,” he said. “That’s what Education City students can provide for them.”

في المنظمات الطالبية. وضمن مجموعة النشاطات الالمنهجية، ساهم في "منظمة حلول التنمية"، كما شارك في جمع التبرعات لضحايا زلزال هايتي،

وصلت إلى 6 آالف دوالر خالل أسبوع واحد.

ويقول حق: "لقد أتاحت لي جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر فرصة اكتساب الخبرة والمهارات التي سأحتاجها مستقباًل. لقد كانت فترة الدراسة غنية

بالمعلومات األكاديمية والعمق العملي. وأكثر ما استفدته من هذه السنوات هو االحتكاك بالواقع والحياة العملية".

تخرج حق من كلية نظم المعلومات في جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر عام 2012، وكان يبلغ حينها الرابعة والعشرين من العمر. حصل بعدها على وظيفة

في مطار الدوحة الدولي، والذي يمثل المقر الرئيسي للخطوط الجوية القطرية ومركز شبكتها العالمية المتسارعة النمو.

ويعمل مطار الدوحة الدولي على تشييد مطار حمد الدولي، الذي يعّد أحد أضخم مشروعات البنية التحتية في تاريخ دولة قطر، ويتوقع افتتاحه مع نهاية

عام 2013 الجاري.

ومطار حمد الدولي هو مشروع عمالق، تصل كلفة إنشاؤه إلى مليارات الدوالرات، وسيخدم 25 مليون مسافراً سنويًا. وسيكون حق مسؤواًل عن

تصميم التقنيات الرقمية في المطار، مثل واجهات وتطبيقات عرض معلومات السفر وكذلك الالفتات الثابتة. وهدفه هو التأكد من حصول المسافرين على

المعلومات السليمة بالطريقة الصحيحة، وفي الوقت المناسب.

وبحكم عمله كمسؤول عن النشر المكتبي، يطبق حق معرفته بالتكنولوجيا وحبه للتصميم، وغيرها من المهارات التي أتقنها وصقلها خالل فترة دراسته في

جامعة كارنيجي ميلون بقطر.

وتؤدي الالفتات اإلخبارية ووسائل اإلبالغ دوراً أساسيًا في مساعدة الماليين من المسافرين والركاب على التنقل بسهولة في مطار ضخم، داخل دولة يزورها

ويعمل بها اآلالف ممن يتحدثون بلغات مختلفة.

ويُظهر هذا أهمية العمل الذي يشارك فيه حق، والمهمة األساسية التي يتوالها.

لتحقيق أفضل النتائج، طّبق الشاب مبادئ تصميم تجربة المستخدم، ليبدأ عمله من منظور المسافر. فطرح مجموعة أسئلة تساعده على تكوين فهم

أعمق للمسألة، منها: هل سيستطيع المسافر إستخدام يديه في إمساك هاتفه الجوال لتصفح التطبيقات، أم سيكون مشغواًل بدفع عربة األمتعة؟

وهل سيرغب المستخدمون في تنزيل تطبيق محدد لهذه الخدمة، أم سيودون

الوصول إلى هذه المعلومات من خالل زيارة موقع المطار عبر الهاتف المحمول؟ وهل توجد حاجة إلرسال المعلومات من الشاشة إلى جهاز المستخدم الجوال،

ليكون قادراً على حفظ هذه المعلومات من دون العودة إلى الشاشة مرة أخرى؟

ويشرح حق طريقة عمله بالقول: "تساعدنا اإلجابة على هذه األسئلة في فهم كيفية تصميم مجموعة من المنتجات التي تلبي الهدف المطلوب، وهو في

هذه الحالة توفير المعلومات عن الرحالت للمسافرين عبر وسائل مختلفة".

يقّدر الشاب عمله في مطار الدوحة الدولي، لكونه يمّكنه من المساهمة في مسيرة دولة قطر التنموية، وهو ما يمثل حافزاً إضافيًا له للبقاء في هذا البلد،

رغم فرص العمل المتوفرة في أوروبا والواليات المتحدة. ويتوجه بنصيحة للطالب المقيمين الذين يتخرجون من جامعات دولة قطر، بالبقاء في الدولة،

واستكشاف اإلمكانيات المتوفرة لديهم. أما رسالته لجهات التوظيف فيلخصها بالقول: "امنحوا الخريجين الجدد فرصة إلثبات قدراتهم". وبنظرة مليئة بالحماس

يقول: "تتطور قطر بسرعة صاروخية، وأكثر ما تحتاجه الدولة في الوقت الحالي هو المهارات والخبرة التي تتوفر في طالب مؤسسة قطر".

ورغم انتقاله إلى سوق العمل، إال أن حق لم يبتعد عن الجو األكاديمي، إذ يحاول رد الجميل لجامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر، من خالل المشاركة كحكم في

مسابقات البرمجة الصيفية، وتقديم سلسلة ورش عمل طالبية حول التطوير المهني.

As part of his job, Haque is responsible for the design of digital technologies at the airport, including flight information displays and apps, as well as static signage. His goal is to make sure passengers get the right information in the right way at the right time.

Zaid Haque graduated from Carnegie Mellon's Information Systems program in 2012.

Haque onsite at Hamad International Airport.

22 23Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

Driving Change

A few years ago, Mohammed Al Matwi wasn’t interested in road safety. He was a teenager—and he thought he was invincible.Even after two near misses on the road, the Carnegie Mellon Qatar student was still driving too fast and texting behind the wheel. But the third time was different. He was driving so fast that he didn’t notice an oncoming vehicle until it was almost too late. Fearing a crash, his sister, who was in the back, leapt forward and

Student’s Car Safety Campaign Recognized for Innovation and Creativity

pulled him back into his seat. As her arms locked around him, he heard the terror in her voice as she screamed “Ahmeek! Ahmeek!,” an Arabic phrase meaning “I will protect you.”

It was a wake-up call for Al Matwi, a 19-year-old business administration student.

“For the first time, I thought about protecting my dear friends and their dear friends, and continuing down to the whole community protecting one another,” he said.

Al Matwi spoke to Dalia Rehal, student development coordinator, about creating an awareness campaign for safe driving. She encouraged him to apply for Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s Doha Community Engagement Program (DCEP), which provides students with small stipends as they raise awareness about important issues.

Aiming to grab the attention of his Education City peers, Al Matwi proposed an interactive campaign based on silent theater. His idea was selected—partly because of his creativity and partly because the topic is so important.

In 2011, 40,000 people in Qatar were involved in accidents and 204 people were killed. Since 2007, the number of traffic-related injuries has doubled, according to the Qatar Statistic Authority. Despite a growing number of casualties, many people still drive too fast and don’t buckle up.

Recruiting classmates as volunteers, Al Matwi choreographed reenactments of real traffic accidents as reported by Qatar’s media. In addition to negative scenes, he created positive skits, such as a friendly conversation between friends about the dangers of using a cellphone while driving.

According to Rehal, the flashmob style of the campaign—which he named Ahmeek!—created an element of surprise that really captured students’ interest during lunchtime performances in Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s food court.

“Mohammed’s idea of using interactive theatre was a very creative way to portray accounts from real news stories about car accidents in Doha. His project was chosen for DCEP because the selection committee felt it had great potential to engage the local community,” Rehal said.

This past March, Al Matwi submitted Ahmeek! to Vodafone Qatar’s World of Difference initiative, a community outreach program that funds ideas that have the potential for a positive impact on Qatar. The program is coordinated by Dana Haidan, head of corporate social responsibility at Vodafone Qatar and a 2009 graduate of Carnegie Mellon Qatar.

In April, Al Matwi was selected from more than 150 applicants as one of three winners in the competition.

Through World of Difference, Al Matwi plans to expand his awareness campaign to the wider community through performances in malls, souqs and other public spaces.

“I was so glad that Vodafone believed in me to sponsor my campaign for one year. With their support I aim to raise the level of the campaign to a new phase where I will recruit volunteers not only from Carnegie Mellon, but from the whole community. Wait and you will see how powerful they will be,” he said.

A volunteer demonstrates the price of dangerous driving during Al Matwi's campaign.

24 25Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

Feature

In the Moment

Winter 2012 / Spring 2013

Social Media Abuzz as Class of 2013 Graduates

26 27Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

I t was the moment they’d been waiting for.

Their robes were zipped, their caps adjusted. They’d posed for photos and turned their phones to silent.

They’d fallen into line.

They’d marched in a procession to their places on the stage. Squinting through the bright lights, they had scanned the audience for their families and friends.

And now they listened, patiently, as Dean Ilker Baybars welcomed their guests and congratulated them on making it to graduation. Their pride left them almost speechless—but not for long.

This was, after all, the Class of 2013.

From then on, it was business as usual. They whooped and clapped for each other—and the crowd cheered back. Phones crept out of pockets and Instagram pictures buzzed onto Twitter. As the ceremony ended, they enthusiastically embraced a relatively new tradition in Qatar: They tossed their caps high into the air as the audience cheered them on.

Eighty-one students graduated this May, including the university’s first six biological sciences majors. This was the largest—and possibly the liveliest—class to date, and they brought more than 1,200 family, friends and community members to share in their excitement.

Jarrod L. Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon, gave the keynote address. Cohon, who completed his 16-year tenure as president in June, highlighted the growth and vibrancy of the Qatar campus as one of the high points of his presidency.

“While I didn’t worry about our capacity to create academic excellence here, we had to wonder whether we could create in Doha the unique culture that had come to distinguish the Carnegie Mellon student experience in Pittsburgh,” Cohon said.

But those concerns turned out to be unfounded, he added.

“You took the elements of the CMU culture, and made them the basis for a new and dynamic CMU-Q culture,” Cohon said. “Anyone who comes to this campus can feel it and sense it; Pittsburgh students who visit here rave about you. In fact, I think they’re a little jealous of what you have here: Carnegie Mellon’s excellence and values cultivated in an intimate and beautiful setting, in a country and region where you truly are the future.”

Ilker Baybars, dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar, presented awards in academic excellence to Fatema Akbar, this year’s Andrew Carnegie Scholar. Qatar Campus Scholars Awards were also presented to Akbar, Shivani Arora and Manoj DaReddy. Baybars urged graduates to use their hard-earned degrees to shape the future of the country and the region.

“This is an exciting time to be a graduate of Carnegie Mellon,” said Baybars. “We are confident that you are prepared and eager to

@hhejji Class of 2013, we've been through it all. Congratulations. Wish you all the best ahead. #cantbelievewedidit @Hadhrami_ Very excited for the class of 2013 graduation 7@ anan_Alanam @#CMUQ graduation! @N_krypToniTer Congratulations Class of 2013! Can't imagine CMUQ without you :( (with Sara and Salma at @qatarconvention )

participate in making the Qatar National Vision a reality. I wish each and every one of you success as you embark on the next stage of your journey.”

Along with the six in biological sciences, the 81 graduates included 43 who majored in business administration, 14 in computer science, and 18 in information systems. In addition to Qatar campus graduates, Leto Karatsolis-Chanikian, an architecture student who studied at the Pittsburgh campus, received her diploma during the ceremony.

Ahmad Al Salama, a computer science graduate, gave the student speech, inviting his peers to make history.

“My fellow students, let's not spend the rest of our lives looking backward and reminding those around us that we went to the prestigious Carnegie Mellon. Instead, let’s look forward to higher honors,” he said. “Let’s not look backward at the joyous moments at Carnegie Mellon. Instead, let’s look forward to the greater joys and the challenges ahead.”

Hats off to the Class of 2013—and to the future ahead of them.

2013 AwardsOutstanding Teacher:Divakaran Liginlal, associate teaching professor of information systems

Andrew Carnegie Society Scholar:Fatema Akbar

Qatar Campus Scholar:Fatema Akbar, Shivani Arora, Manoj DaReddy

Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association Student Service Award:Shivani Arora

2013 Senior Student Leadership Awards: Afnan Fahim (with distinction), Abhay Valiyaveettil (with distinction), Marwa Al Fakhri (with distinction), Mashael Al-Misnad (with distinction), Fahad Islam, Ahmad Al-Salama, Anas Halbawi, Fatima Fikree, Mei Elgindi, Shivani Arora, Firas Bata, Fatema Akbar

Biological Sciences Program Celebrates First GraduatesThe first six students have graduated from Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s Biological Sciences program.

Launched in 2011, the latest addition to the programs offered at Carnegie Mellon Qatar is offered in collaboration with Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. The program uses interdisciplinary approaches to tackle some of today’s most important scientific problems, and provides students with the critical thinking skills necessary for modern research biology.

Before joining Carnegie Mellon, Hiba Al-Ashtal, Ridin Balakrishnan, Mei Elgindi, Hadya Elshakh, Rajj Katibe and Mohammad Samer Younes all attended Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar for two years, where they completed the pre-medical program.

“It is an absolute honor to be one of the first students graduating from the biological sciences program,” Elgindi said. “We have had the privilege of becoming role models to the younger students—not only to the current juniors and freshmen, but the future generations, too. We are the pioneers.”

The Biological Sciences program is a testament to Carnegie Mellon’s commitment to furthering the Qatar National Vision 2030 and creating a knowledge-based economy. These graduates are uniquely qualified to develop solutions to important problems in fields such as biotechnology, health care and global health.

ILKER BAYBARSDean of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

28 29Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

On: Business

An Entrepreneurial Boot Camp

From an application for booking taxis in Qatar to a virtual marketplace for home-based catering, students used their business acumen and creative flair this spring to come up with new business ventures in just three days.

The event that helped them achieve this was 3 Day Startup (3DS), an American not-for-profit organization that empowers the next generation of youth business leaders through a learn-by-doing approach. The U.S. Embassy and Carnegie Mellon partnered to launch the program in Doha.

The idea behind 3DS is simple: for students to start tech companies over the course of three days. To achieve this, the organization helps teams at universities around the globe organize events that turn students into entrepreneurs and connect them with a network of mentors, investors and talent.

Since its conception five years ago, more than 2,500 3DS alumni from 55 worldwide events have started 39 technology companies that have collectively raised $9.5 million in investment capital.

During Doha’s workshop, more than 40 students representing nearly every university in Qatar collaborated to build innovative technology startups for Qatari and international markets.

According to U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Susan L. Ziadeh, “To witness the energy and innovation of these students is truly inspirational. Once again, the youth of Qatar have shown us that, if you work hard and collaborate, everything is possible.”

Students came to the program from a cross-section of disciplines—business, computer science, communications, law, design—diving into the program’s entrepreneurship laboratory, which simulated the real thrills and challenges of launching a startup.

Carnegie Mellon kick-started the event by inviting high-profile faculty to mentor the students throughout the weekend, including Dave Mawhinney, director of the Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship, and Milton Cofield, executive director of undergraduate programs at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business.

3 Day Startup Comes to Qatar

Team AwardsTeam Hustle: Fit Right (Hana Saleh, Fatima Elsaka, Fijo Padiyoor, Gabriele Kahlout, Kiran Varghese, Tejas Kumar, Marwah Mir, Binod Chandran)

Team Focus: Tidalal (Kenrick Fernandes, Lina MaHusain, Ahmad Mubarak, Noora Nasser Al-Kubaisi, Noha AlKameha)

Smooth Talker: Sweet Story (Amelia Tonelli, Mohamed Elmessidi, Gabriela Arce)

Best Use of a Hairdryer: Smart Clothing (Zeeshan Hanif, Dina Yassin, Yousef Newkirk, Salman Usmani, Mohammad Saeed)

Spirit of 3DS: Bayt Baytk (Mohamed Maher Eladawi, Omar Laham, Aisha Al-Marzoqi, Roda Al-Hor)

of the team Tidalal, which won the Team Focus award. “It was great working with students from different backgrounds— our various skills sets complemented each other,” Fernandes said. “I particularly enjoyed applying my computer science knowledge to developing an app that could have an impact on Qatar’s culture.

“One thing that really stood out for me was the momentum and excitement that was built during the program, after the first day, I couldn’t wait to get here early on the next morning.”

Entities in Qatar participating in 3 Day Startup included: Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, Qatar University, Drexel University, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, College of the North Atlantic, Stenden University, University of Leeds, TKM College of Engineering, and the Academic Bridge Program.

معسكر ريادة األعمالابدأ مشروعك في ثالثة أيام

من طلب حجز سيارات األجرة في قطر، إلى سوق افتراضي للمأكوالت المنزلية الجاهزة، يستخدم الطالب حسهم التجاري وذوقهم اإلبداعي في محاولة للتوصل إلى مشروعات جديدة في ثالثة أيام فحسب.

وكان الحدث الذي ساعد على تحقيق هذا الهدف، برنامج منظمة ابدأ مشروعك في ثالثة أيام )3DS(، وهي منظمة أمريكية غير هادفة للربح تعمل على تمكين الجيل القادم من قادة األعمال الشباب من خالل منهج التعلم بالممارسة. وقد دخلت كل من السفارة األمريكية في قطر وجامعة كارنيجي ميلون قطر في شراكة

إلطالق هذا البرنامج في الدوحة.

وهناك فكرة بسيطة وراء هذه المبادرة وهي: وضع أسس لشركات تكنولوجية في فترة ال تتجاوز ثالثة أيام. ولتنفيذ ذلك، تساعد المنظمة فرق الجامعات في مختلف أنحاء العالم على تنظيم فعاليات تعمل على

تحويل الطالب إلى أصحاب مشروعات، وتكوين شبكة تعمل على توثيق أواصر الصلة بين المرشدين والمستثمرين والموهوبين.

ومنذ بدايته، قبل خمس سنوات، وضع أكثر من 2500 من خريجي "ثري دي إس"، في فعالية أقيمت في جميع أنحاء العالم، حجر األساس لـ 39 شركة تكنولوجية استطاعت مجتمعة أن تجمع 9.5 مليون دوالر من رأس

المال المستثمر.

وخال انعقاد ورشة عمل الدوحة، تعاون أكثر من 40 طالبًا، يمثلون جميع جامعات قطر تقريبًا، لوضع أسس مشروعات تكنولوجية مبتكرة تناسب األسواق القطرية والدولية.

وقد علقت سفيرة الواليات المتحدة في قطر، سوزان زياده، قائلة: "إن مشاهدة هذه الروح من الطاقة الهائلة واالبتكار لدى هؤالء الطالب يعد أمر ملهم حقًا. فلقد أثبت لنا شباب قطر مجدداً أن العمل بجد وتعاون يجعل

المستحيل ممكنًا."

وقد انضم لهذا البرنامج طالب من مختلف التخصصات - إدارة األعمال، وعلوم الكمبيوتر، واالتصاالت، والقانون، والتصميم - لخوض غمار التجربة والبحث في مختبر برنامج ريادة األعمال، والذي يحاكي اإلثارة

والتحدي اللذين يصاحبان عملية وضع أسس مشروع حقيقي.

وقد بدأت جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر هذا الحدث من خالل دعوة أعضاء هيئة التدريس البارزين لتقديم النصح واإلرشاد للطالب طوال عطلة نهاية األسبوع. ومن الشخصيات المهمة التي شاركت في ذلك دايف

ماوهيني، مدير مركز دونالد إتش جونز لريادة األعمال، وميلتون كوفيلد، المدير التنفيذي لبرامج الطالب بكلية إدارة األعمال كارنيجي ميلون تيبر.

وفي هذا اإلطار، يقول توماس إميرسون، األستاذ المساعد المشارك في برنامج ريادة األعمال، وأحد منسقي مبادرة ثري دي إس: "إن تمكين الشباب ومساعدتهم ليمثلوا العناصر النشطة في مجتمع األعمال اليوم،

يعتبر العامل األساسي لتطوير اقتصاد قائم على المعرفة. وقد أظهر كاًل من الفريقين مجموعة من المهارات المتفردة في تنظيم المشروعات، كما جمع البرنامج الكثير من الشباب الموهوب والمفعم بالحيوية، والذين

تتملكهم الرغبة للمشاركة في تحقيق رؤية قطر الوطنية 2030، من خالل ابتكار وإنشاء المؤسسات الجديدة."

كما استقطبت منظمة رواد األعمال في قطر، برئاسة خليفة المسند، مجموعة من رواد األعمال الناجحين في قطر لتقديم اإلرشاد للطالب حول كيفية ممارسة األعمال التجارية في قطر.

وقد توجت عطلة نهاية األسبوع، والتي تميزت بالحيوية، بعرض فريق "المالعب"، والذي تم تقديمه أمام لجنة من الخبراء والمستثمرين الممولين. حيث قام الطالب باستعراض نماذج حقيقية لمشروعات تكنولوجية

جديدة، أماًل في الحصول على التمويل والقيام باالستثمار من جانب رجال األعمال المخضرمين.

يقول كينريك فرنانديز، الطالب بكلية علوم الحاسب اآللي بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر وعضو فريق" تدلل" الذي فاز بجائزة تركيز الفريق: "إنه ألمر رائع أن تعمل مع طالب ذوي خلفيات ثقافية وحضارية مختلفة،

حيث تتكامل مهاراتنا المختلفة ليعزز كل منها اآلخر. ولقد استمتعت شخصيًا من خالل معرفتي بعلوم الحاسب في القيام بتطوير أحد التطبيقات التي يمكن أن تترك أثر في حضارة قطر .

وأضاف: "كان الشيء الوحيد الذي لفت انتباهي حقًا، هو هذا الكم من الحيوية والتشويق الذي تصاعد خالل البرنامج. فبعد مرور أول يوم، أصبحت أتعجل الوصول في وقت مبكر من صباح اليوم التالي."

وقد شاركت في برنامج "ثري دي إس" كل من جامعة: كارنيجي ميلون في قطر، وفيرجينيا كومنولث في قطر، وجامعة قطر، ودريكسل، وتكساس أي آند إم في قطر، واألكاديمية العربية للعلوم والتكنولوجيا والنقل

البحري، وكلية شمال األطلنطي، وجامعة ستندن، ومؤسسة حمد الطبية، وجامعة ليدز، وكلية الهندسة بتي كيه إم، وبرنامج الجسر األكاديمي.

“Empowering our youth to become active constituents of today’s business society is the basis for developing a knowledge-based economy,” said Thomas Emerson, associate professor of entrepreneurship and 3DS organizer. “Each team demonstrated exceptional entrepreneurial skills, and the program has brought together many talented and energetic young people who want to help achieve Qatar’s National Vision 2030 by founding and building new enterprises.”

The Qatar chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, led by President Khalifa Al-Misnad, participated by mobilizing successful Qatari entrepreneurs to mentor students on doing business in Qatar.

The high-energy weekend culminated with student team “pitches” to a panel of experts and angel investors. Students demonstrated real prototypes for new technology startups in the hopes of attracting investment from established entrepreneurs.

Kenrick Fernandes, a Carnegie Mellon Qatar computer science student, was part

Tidalal team members collect the award for Team Focus.

30 31Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

On: Science

In 1952, IBM developed its first electronic computer, the 701. During the next three years, IBM sold 19 such machines to research laboratories, aircraft companies and the U.S. government.

A lot has changed since then.

This spring, members of the Carnegie Mellon in Qatar campus took a tour of the information age through the seminar course “Perspectives in Computer Architecture” and a distinguished lecture series open to the wider community. Some of their guides were among the pioneers of computer science.

Among them was Chuck Thacker, a technical fellow at Microsoft Research who helped design and build the Alto, considered to be the first modern personal computer.

Thacker also co-invented the Ethernet local area network, a technology for connecting computers that is still used today. In 2009, Thacker received the Turing Award, which is recognized as the Nobel Prize of Computer Science.

During the course of two lectures, Thacker described how computers emerged from a few post-war laboratories to become an indispensable part of our lives. He spoke about the technologies that have enabled computers to become smaller, faster and more usable. He also highlighted important challenges, including a slowing down in progress as computer scientists begin to push against the physical laws imposed on them.

Raj Reddy, the Moza Bint Nasser University Professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh campus, helped organize the course with local faculty and taught two lectures on the origins of computers. Reddy, who has been a Carnegie Mellon faculty member since 1969, won the Turing Award in 1994 for his pioneering research on artificial intelligence.

“Raj has been an integral part of the development and continued success of the Qatar campus,” said Majd Sakr, associate teaching professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. “By helping us organize this course, Raj was able to connect our students with some of the most important contributors to the information age.”

Mohammad Hammoud, a post-doctoral fellow at the Qatar campus, also contributed two lectures to the series. Joining the group were other distinguished researchers, including Daniel P. Siewiorek, Buhl University Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Gordon Bell, one of the inaugural faculty in Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Department, where he was a professor of computer science

Time Machines

آلة الزمن مشاهير الباحثين يصطحبون

الطالب في جولة الحاسبات

Renowned Researchers Take Students on Tour of Computing

في عام 1952 طورت شركة IBM أول حواسيبها اإللكترونية، من طراز 701 ، وخالل السنوات الثالث التالية، باعت الشركة 19 نسخة من هذا الجهاز للبعض من المختبرات

البحثية وشركات الطيران، باإلضافة للحكومة األمريكية، إال أنه ومع مرور الوقت هناك الكثير من األشياء قد تغيرت منذ ذلك الحين.

وفي ربيع هذا العام قام أعضاء جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر بجولة في عصر المعلومات، وذلك من خالل ندوة نقاشية بعنوان "آفاق هندسة الحاسوب"، وسلسلة

من المحاضرات المتميزة والمفتوحة لمختلف شرائح المجتمع، وقد كان بعض المشاركين في الندوة من رواد علوم الحاسوب، ومن بينهم "تشاك ثاكر"، الخبير

الفني بمختبر مايكروسوفت للبحوث، والذي أسهم فيما سبق في تصميم وبناء جهاز Alto، الذي يعتبر أول حاسوب شخصي حديث. كما شارك "ثاكر" أيضًا في ابتكار

شبكة اإليثرنت المحلية، وهي التقنية التي تتيح اتصال أجهزة الحواسيب ببعضها البعض وال تزال مستخدمة حتى اليوم. وفي عام 2009، حصل "ثاكر" على جائزة "تيورنج

أوورد"، التي تضارع جائزة نوبل في علوم الحاسوب.

وقد شرح "ثاكر" للطلبة خالل الندوة كيفية والدة الحواسيب من رحم بضع مختبرات في فترة ما بعد الحرب لتصبح جزءاً ال غنى عنه من حياتنا. كما تحدث عن التقنيات

التي ساهمت في تصغير حجم الحواسيب، وزيادة سرعتها، واستخدامها بشكل أكثر. كما سلط الضوء أيضًا على تحديات مهمة، مثل بطء التطور، والذي يرجع إلى تحرك

علماء الحاسوب ضد القوانين الفيزيائية المفروضة عليهم.

أما "راج ريدي"، األستاذ بجامعة موزا بنت ناصر في مقر كارنيجي ميلون بمدينة بيتسبيرغ، فقد شارك في تنظيم الندوة مع أعضاء هيئة التدريس المحليين وألقى

محاضرتين عن أصول الحواسيب. ويذكر أن ريدي - الذي انضم إلى هيئة التدريس بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون منذ العام 1969 -قد فاز بجائزة "تيورنج أوورد" تقديراً ألبحاثه

الرائدة في مجال الذكاء االصطناعي.

وفي هذا الصدد، يقول ماجد صقر، أستاذ علوم الحاسوب المشارك بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر: ""يعتبر راج جزءاً أساسيًا للنجاح والتطور المتواصل الذي تشهده

الجامعة في قطر. فبمشاركته في تنظيم الندوة، استطاع راج تعريف طالبنا ببعض أهم المساهمين في عصر المعلومات."، كما شارك في الندوة أيضًا الدكتور محمد

حمود الحاصل على درجة الدكتوراه من الجامعة، حيث ألقى محاضرتين.

يذكر أنه قد انضم إلى مجموعة المحاضرين أيضًا عدد من الباحثين المرموقين، كان من بينهم "دانيال بي سايوريك"، أستاذ علوم الحاسوب وهندسة الكهرباء والحاسب

اآللي بجامعة بوهيل؛ و"غوردون بيل"، أحد أقدم أساتذة قسم علوم الحاسوب بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون، حيث عين أستاذاً لعلوم وهندسة الحاسوب خالل الفترة

من عام 1966 وحتى 1972. وقد منحته الجامعة درجة فخرية في العام 2010. وباعتباره أبو الحاسوب الرقمي الدقيق ورائد الحوسبة الفائقة والموازية، قاد بيل "ثورة الحواسيب

الرقمية المتوسطة"، التي أدت إلى تصنيع حواسيب اصغر حجمًا وأبسط تصميمًا في متناول شريحة أوسع وأكثر تنوعًا من المستهلكين.

وقد اغتنم الفرصة للتعرف على التطورات المهمة من أشخاص خبراء في هذا المجال، "كينريك فيرنانديز"، طالب علوم الحاسوب بالصف الثالث في الجامعة، ويقول فيرنانديز

في هذا الصدد: "لقد كان من المدهش اكتشاف أن الكثير من هذه التقنيات كان موجوداً بالفعل قبل أن نولد، وكل ما هنالك أنها تطورت بمرور الزمن. وعلى سبيل

المثال، نحن نعتقد أن التزامن - فكرة دمج الحواسيب - تعتبر تقنية جديدة نسبيًا، ولكني اكتشفت أن غوردون بيل كان يعمل عليها منذ سبعينيات القرن الماضي."

يشار إلى أن تلك الندوة لم تكن الفرصة الوحيدة التي أتيحت للطالب للتفاعل الشخصي مع أشهر علماء الحاسوب في العالم، إذ أن "تاكيو كانادي" - أستاذ علوم

الحاسوب والروبوتات بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون، وأحد الباحثين الرواد على مستوى العالم في مجال علم الروبوت، قد قدم دورة عن الرؤية باستخدام الحاسوب.

كما أن "كانادي"، الذي تستخدم بحوثه حول الرؤية االصطناعية في عدة مجاالت تطبيقية مثل المركبات المستقلة والتعرف على الوجوه والطب والكاميرات

الرقمية والعديد من المجاالت األخرى، قد استمتع بكونه حلقة وصل بين الطالب والتكنولوجيا الحديثة.

وقال كانادي: "كثيراً ما يرى الطلبة نظرية رياضية أو تكنولوجيا حديثة في نص مكتوب، ثم يتساءلون )كيف تم ابتكار هذا الشيء؟(. أما من ابتكروها - هؤالء الذين

خاضوا الكثير والكثير من التجارب - فهي تبدو لهم تدفقًا فكريًا طبيعيًا. إنها لخبرة عظيمة للطالب أن يتمكنوا من الحديث وجهًا لوجه مع هؤالء المخترعين ويكتشفوا

كيف فعلوا ما فعلوه".

عالوة على ذلك، فقد ألقى كل من "ثاكر"، "راج ريدي"، "غوردون بيل"، و"كانادي" عدداً من المحاضرات المتميزة على أعضاء هيئة التدريس وكوادر وطالب الجامعة وكافة

شرائح المجتمع.

and engineering from 1966 to 1972. The university awarded him an honorary degree in 2010. Considered the father of the minicomputer and a pioneer in high-performance and parallel computing, Bell worked at the forefront of the “minicomputer revolution,” which brought smaller and simpler computers within the reach of a larger and more diverse range of consumers.

“In me, you’re getting a live historian,” Bell said. “I’ve been very close to some of these technologies, so I can give a personal perspective.”

Kenrick Fernandes, a junior in computer science, relished the opportunity to learn about important developments from people who were immersed in the issues of the day.

“It was humbling to find out that a lot of this technology has been around since before we were born, and it has just become more developed over time,” Fernandes said. “For example, we think of parallelism—the idea of combining computers to solve some of the world’s great problems—as a relatively new idea, but Gordon Bell has been working on this since the 1970s.”

This spring’s seminar course wasn’t the only opportunity for students to interact one-on-one with renowned computer scientists.

Takeo Kanade, U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor at Carnegie Mellon and one of the world’s foremost researchers in robotics, taught an introductory course on computer vision.

Kanade, whose research on artificial vision has applications in autonomous vehicles, facial recognition, medicine, digital cameras and many other areas, enjoyed being a direct link between students and technologies.

Kanade said. “It’s a great experience for students to be able to talk directly to people and find out how they did what they did.”

Kanade, Bell and Thacker each also delivered distinguished lectures to faculty, staff, students and the wider community.

Kanade used a technology he developed for the U.S. SuperBowl to highlight how computer vision technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we watch sports and other entertainment. During his distinguished lecture, Kanade described how computer

These speakers have been inspirational to our students and younger faculty members. I am delighted to have hosted them on campus and hope they will join us again in the coming years.

ILKER BAYBARSDean of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

From left, Takeo Kanade, Raj Reddy, Gordon Bell and Chuck Thacker were among the computer science giants who lectured at Carnegie Mellon Qatar this spring.

33

On: Research

Summer 2013 / Fall 201332

It’s amazing what Carnegie Mellon students can do when they set their minds to it.

They can make robots with life-like facial expressions; they can isolate and study fungi from local hospitals; and they can highlight the obstacles to becoming an entrepreneur in Qatar.

Carnegie Mellon Qatar students showcased their research projects to faculty, fellow students and community members during April’s Meeting of the Minds undergraduate research symposium. A committee of expert judges scored the presentations and posters based on their appearance, creativity and significance.

The event demonstrated the importance of research in the school’s culture, according to Mark Stehlik, associate dean for education, “Research is a core part of the Carnegie Mellon educational experience. It provides students with opportunities to learn in new ways, to think creatively and dynamically, to ‘go deep’ on a topic in a way that is impossible in a normal classroom,” he said.

“The best thing about research is that, while it doesn’t always generate results, it is always a learning experience. Meeting of the Minds is an opportunity for students to showcase their research, photography and other creative projects. And it’s a chance for us to see how they are thinking outside the box.”

The winner of the best undergraduate project was Afnan Fahim, whose research project, “Toward Computational Offloading in Mobile Clouds,” illustrated how the experience of mobile-phone users could be improved by offloading to smaller “clouds” placed closer to users.

“This prize is the culmination of the all-nighters and hard work that went into this project,” said Fahim. “This is a great time to celebrate all the hard work that we have done. I am really happy and proud, and even more motivated to continue my research to achieve greater things.”

Fahim’s project was also selected for the annual SIGCOMM Conference, to be held this year in Hong Kong. The conference focuses on significant research contributions to the field of computer and data communication networks.

Jyda Moussa and Sophie Qingjia Jiang, who investigated newspaper coverage of the Arab Spring, received the award for the best poster.

Reviewing the posters were representatives from the General Secretariat for Development Planning (GSDP), Vodafone, iHorizons, Shell, QCRI, QMIC, QNRF, QF Research Division, Meeza, QBRI, Aspire, the Supreme Education Council, Texas A&M at Qatar, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar and Qatar University.

For the third year, Barak Saeed Yehya, an expert in institutional development at the GSDP, recognized five projects for being in line with Qatar’s National Development Strategy.

At the event, Ilker Baybars, dean of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, recognized the 43 participants, who presented 27 posters in categories of Business Administration, Biological Sciences, Computer Science and Information Systems.

“Our faculty supports and encourages students to participate in research, which will foster a lifetime of intellectual curiosity that will benefit them, their employers and their country’s development,” Baybars said.

Great MindsStudents Showcase Research at Undergraduate Symposium

وقد استخدم "كانادي" تقنية طورها لصالح برنامج سوبر باول بالواليات المتحدة لتسليط الضوء على تقنية الرؤية باستخدام الحاسوب، وكيف أن بمقدورها إحداث

ثورة في الطريقة التي نشاهد بها األلعاب الرياضية وغيرها من البرامج الترفيهية. وخالل سلسلة محاضراته المتميزة عن علوم الحاسوب ببرنامج "ايه نيكو هيبرمان"،

واصل "كانادي" تسليط الضوء على العالقة بين الرؤية باستخدام الحاسوب والروبوتات من جهة، وبين مجال علوم الحاسوب من جهة أخرى وتطبيقاتها في

العالم الذي نعيش به.

بينما سلط ثاكر في سلسلة محاضرات العميد الضوء على التحديات الماثلة في عالم تكنولوجيا المعلومات في الماضي والمستقبل، مستشهداً بالمحادثات

األوتوماتيكية كمجال يشهد تقدمًا ملحوظًا. حيث أن الفجوة بين سرعة المعالج والذاكرة وصعوبة تطبيع الحواسيب بحيث تتناسب مع القدرات البشرية في عصرنا،

تمثل مشاكل التزال في حاجة إلى حل، على حد قول ثاكر.

وعقب العرض التوضيحي الذي ألقاه ثاكر، قام غوردون بيل - الباحث بمختبر مايكروسوفت للبحوث - بإلقاء محاضرة ضمن سلسلة محاضرات العميد استعرض

فيها مشروعه لتسجيل األحداث الحياتية، والذي أنفق فيه عشر سنوات كاملة من عمره والذي يسمى MyLifeBits. مستخدمًا نفسه كدراسة حالة، استخدم بيل وزميله

جيم جميل، مجموعة متنوعة من األجهزة لتسجيل وتخزين بيانات عن أوجه متنوعة من حياة بيل بشكل رقمي مع إمكانية الوصول إليها. ويقول بيل عن برنامج تسجيل

األحداث الحياتية هذا: "إن بمقدوره تسجيل كل شيء رقميًا، بداية من صحة وتعليم أفضل، مروراً بزيادة اإلنتاجية، وصواًل إلى استعادة ذكريات الماضي بكل بساطة".

وفي هذا الصدد يقول "إلكر بايبرز"، عميد جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر: "لقد ألهم هؤالء المحاضرون طالبنا وأعضاء هيئة التدريس صغار السن بجامعتنا. وكم أنا مسرور باستضافتهم في الجامعة، وآمل أن يعاودوا االنضمام إلينا مرة أخرى في

السنوات القادمة".

vision and robotics connect the field of computer science with the physical world we live in.

Thacker’s lecture highlighted past and future challenges in the field of information technology, citing automatic speech recognition as an area of great progress. The increasing gap between processor and memory speeds and the difficulty of cooling today’s computers were problems that still need to be addressed, Thacker said.

Thacker’s presentation was followed by a lecture by Bell, a principal researcher at Microsoft, who spoke about his decade-long life-logging project called MyLifeBits. Life-logging, Bell said, can mean everything from better health and education, to increased productivity, to simply reminiscing about the past. Using himself as a test case, Bell and colleague Jim Gemmell demonstrated how it works by using a variety of devices to digitally record, store and make accessible data about various aspects of Bell’s life.

“These speakers have been inspirational to our students and younger faculty members. I am delighted to have hosted them on campus and hope they will join us again in the coming years,” said Ilker Baybars, dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar.

Gordon Bell in 1964 at the console of the first timesharing computer, the PDP-6, forerunner to the PDP-10 machines that Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science department used in the mid-70s through early 80s. Right: Bell with the entire development team.

On: Science

A panel of experts from industry and academia judged the entries. Above: Afnan Fahim accepts the best undergraduate project award.

35Summer 2013 / Fall 201334

On: Student Life

There are too many children and too few caregivers at the Ruhunu Orphanage in Galle, Sri Lanka. There is plenty of rice, but not much meat. And there are lots of mosquitoes, but not enough nets.

In a state-run school nearby, the students are ready to learn, but lack the resources they need. Many of them have taken years of English classes—from teachers who barely speak the language.

When 15 students from Carnegie Mellon Qatar travelled to Sri Lanka for a weeklong community service trip, the goal was to make a difference without expecting something in return. The real challenge, though, was to make an impact in such a short time.

Splitting into two groups, the students got to work right away, said Yezenia Malek, director of health and wellness at Carnegie Mellon Qatar, who led the trip with Paul Henderson, director of student activities. While one group volunteered at the orphanage, the rest taught English at the school. Midway through the week, the two teams switched.

Galle’s state-run orphanage is home to about 100 children from birth through nine years old. Just three staff members care for the 40 or so babies and toddlers, leaving little time for anything

beyond feeding and changing. To help out, the team fed, cleaned and played with the babies, who craved intimate gestures like being stroked or hugged, said Valerie Garcia, a freshman in business administration.

“There was one child with Down Syndrome who I became close with,” she said. “When you came up to him and picked him up, he was so excited—it was like he had never been hugged before.”

Some students, like Anas Halbawi, a senior in computer science, had little experience with children, but they soon bonded with the babies and toddlers.

“When we first got to the orphanage, I tried waving and smiling, but of course I got no response,” recalled Halbawi. “After a couple of tries, I figured that I needed to act like a kid— you know, just do weird stuff and be stupid. I did that and it worked!”

At the school, the group planned to practice conversational English with the local students. But when they started to speak, they got blank stares in return. It soon became clear that, for many of the students, this was their first opportunity to learn from fluent English speakers.

A Painting GiftStudents Help Children and Paint Orphanage in Sri Lanka

After struggling at first, Halbawi and his teammate came up with a word game to coax some English out of the students.

“We divided the class into two teams, and that’s when the students got competitive and interested. I was really happy to see that we were finally able to get them engaged,” he said.

For Garcia, who graduated from high school just last year, it was hard not to feel sad after comparing the education she received in Qatar to that of the Sri Lankan students in Galle.

“It was hard to see how different our paths are. While I am going to a top university, they won’t even be going to college,” she said.

As the week went on, the volunteers knew they wanted to leave the children at the orphanage with a longer-lasting gift. They decided to paint the outside of the building, which was dull, cracked and covered with spider webs. The project took longer than expected, but after three days, the place was “shiny, clean and much newer-looking,” Halbawi said.

“It was great looking at it and thinking that I was a part of it. Of course, teaching the students and taking care of the kids made an impact and I felt that I was making a difference, but there was no final outcome—that wasn’t the case with the painting,” he said.

Malek said the trip helped students develop leadership and teamwork skills, and encouraged them to work beyond their comfort zones.

“When you have children with special needs and emotional needs, it is very hard to see— even for me as a nurse,” she said. “The students did an outstanding job. I was really proud of them.”

Editor’s note: Students and staff were not permitted to take photos of the infants in the orphanage.

Galle’s state-run orphanage is home to about 100 children from birth through nine years old. Just three staff members care for the 40 or so babies and toddlers, leaving little time for anything beyond feeding and changing.

36 37

On: Camera

Dozens of countries are represented at Carnegie Mellon Qatar.

This spring’s International Day and Global Bash events were just two of the ways the campus

celebrated its diversity.

38 39Summer 2013 / Fall 201338

Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh-based C Street Brass toured Doha this spring with performances on campus and at Souq Waqif’s Al Mirqab Boutique Hotel. Dean Ilker Baybars invited the quintet to Qatar to highlight the university’s world-class arts programs.

Carnegie Mellon stole the spotlight at the

67th Annual Tony Awards. Eight alumni

took home Broadway's coveted prize in six

categories, from acting to costume design

and lighting design.

Photo courtesy of Shevett Studios.

40 41

On: The Pittsburgh Connection

Summer 2013 / Fall 2013

Following elections this spring, four new officers have been chosen to represent the Carnegie Mellon Qatar Alumni Chapter for two-year terms beginning in April 2013.

Omar AlloubaPresident

Omar Allouba (TPR’09) is a sales assistant at Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP), an organization that is helping to establish a vibrant literary culture in Qatar and the Middle East.

During his time at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Omar served as the editor-in-chief of the student-run newsletter, All Around. He was also one of 10 students to visit Ghana in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity to build homes in the remote town of Breman Asikuma. To top off his rich Carnegie Mellon experience, Omar had the honor of representing his class as the student speaker at graduation.

Omar is interested in the arts and enjoys singing and acting whenever the opportunity presents itself. He has performed in several musicals organized by Qatar Foundation, including “Oliver!” and “Wicked,” and has also performed with the Doha Players in its rendition of “The Hot Mikado.”

Omar hopes his experiences both within and outside the university will allow him to serve as president of the Qatar Alumni Chapter in ways that will strengthen the bond among members of the ever-growing alumni body. Contact Omar at oalouba3@gmail.com

Batoul KhalifehVice President

Batoul Khalifeh (TPR’12) is part of the Graduate Development Program at Commercial Bank of Qatar, where she is currently working in the Corporate Banking Department. In her spare time, she enjoys reading about the controversial, jogging and watching “Star Trek.”

While at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Batoul was fortunate to be able

On: Class Notes

Dr. Suresh possesses the strategic vision, international expertise, and commitment to technology research and education that will continue to build CMU’s reputation as a world leader in higher education.

RAY LANEPartner at Kleiner Perkins, chairman of Hewlett-Packard and chairman of Carnegie Mellon’s Board of Trustees

On July 1, Subra Suresh assumed the post of Carnegie Mellon’s ninth president in its 113-year history. He succeeded Jared L. Cohon, who stepped down from the position after 16 years.

“I am truly honored to have the opportunity to lead Carnegie Mellon University as its ninth president,” Dr. Suresh said in a February announcement. “The extraordinary ability of the CMU faculty and students in bringing together cutting-edge research and education across multiple disciplines positions CMU uniquely to address national and global challenges. I look forward to working with the CMU community to further our global impact.”

Until July, Dr. Suresh was the director of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), a $7-billion independent government science agency charged with advancing all fields of fundamental science, engineering research and education. Previously, he served as the dean of the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was nominated to be NSF director in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

“Dr. Suresh possesses the strategic vision, international expertise, and commitment to technology research and education that will continue to build CMU’s reputation as a world leader in higher education,” said Ray Lane, partner at Kleiner Perkins, chairman of Hewlett-Packard and chairman of Carnegie Mellon’s Board of Trustees. “Amongst hundreds of candidates, Dr. Suresh stood out as uniquely qualified to lead Carnegie Mellon— an institution internationally known for education and research in computer science, engineering, the arts and business. He also recognizes Carnegie Mellon’s interdisciplinary capabilities—including its work in science, public policy, humanities and social sciences— to research and solve the world’s most complex problems.”

Dr. Suresh received his Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in First Class with Distinction; a master's degree from Iowa State University; and a Doctor of Science degree from MIT. Following postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he joined the faculty of engineering at Brown University in December 1983. He was promoted to full professor in July 1989. He joined MIT in 1993 as the R.P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and served as head of MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering from 2000–2006.

Dr. Suresh has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, German National Academy of Sciences, and Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, among others. He has been elected a fellow or honorary member of all the major materials research societies in the United States and India. In 2011, Dr. Suresh was honored with the Padma Shri by the president of the Republic of India. In April, he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal for his research work in mechanical engineering and materials science. He has been awarded seven honorary doctorate degrees from institutions in the U.S., India, Sweden, Spain and Switzerland.

Dr. Suresh has been married to his wife Mary (Delmar) since 1986. They have two daughters, Nina and Meera.

Carnegie Mellon Names Ninth PresidentSubra Suresh Joins Carnegie Mellon from National Science Foundation

New Alumni Officers Take the Helm

2009Fatima Al-Rumaihi (BA)is a senior analyst - pricing at Qatar Telecom.

2011Laila Khan (BA)is pursing a master's in finance at MIT.

2012Ghada Al-Sooj (IS)is a senior business analyst at Qatar Petroleum.

2013Anas Helbawi (CS)is a project manager at Doha News.

to travel a lot and be involved in campus activities. She was part of the 2010 IMPAQT group that visited the Pittsburgh campus and New York for 10 days. She has also visited Washington, D.C., and Boston, Mass; Malaysia, and China. Batoul believes it is important to stay involved in campus activities in spite of a heavy academic workload, so she joined the All Around student newspaper, Activities Board, Developmental Solutions Organization (DSO) and Student Majlis.

Batoul’s plans for the future are still not clear, but she hopes they will serve the greater good. She joined the Alumni Association because there is much to reap from the network of CMU alumni in Qatar. Batoul hopes to work with the other officers to lay down a sustainable way to connect people that will serve the alumni group in Qatar beyond her term.Contact Batoul at batoul.f.khalife@gmail.com

Abdallah DarwishDirector of FinanceAbdallah Darwish (TPR’12) is the corporate development and planning assistant at Qatar Petroleum International. He was previously the strategic business development assistant, arranging global delegations in the oil and gas sector in conjunction with ministries, embassies and companies. He also helped with financial evaluations of many projects proposed by international delegates.

As finance director of Qatar’s Alumni Chapter, Abdallah aims to prolong the support that was provided to him by previous alumni officers. As a relatively recent graduate, he also wants to enrich the spirits of the new alumni and keep the alumni network solid and ongoing.

Abdallah is planning to pursue his master’s degree in the near future. Contact Abdallah at cedar_90@hotmail.com

Rasha Mkachar Director of CommunicationsRasha Mkachar (TPR’08) is a research associate and project manager at FIKRA

Consulting and Research, a local think-and-do tank. She received her master of science in Islamic Finance from the Faculty of Islamic Studies in 2012, after completing her bachelor of science in Business Administration at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. Her business background has prepared her to work in a variety of different fields, from consultancy to publishing and now research.

During her time at Carnegie Mellon, Rasha served on the first Student Government as the academic coordinator and was active and involved in many campus clubs and events. She especially enjoyed being part of the orientation team and welcoming freshmen into a great university experience.

Rasha has always had an interest in the arts and a great love for documentaries and film, which she has been pursuing through Doha Film Institute.

Rasha hopes that serving as the communications director for the Qatar Alumni Chapter will allow her to reconnect with Carnegie Mellon Qatar alumni and keep the community active and alive.Contact Rasha at rasha.mkachar@gmail.com

42

Alumni set sail for an evening of fun during the Dhow Cruise and Dinner event in May.

A few weeks earlier, alumni welcomed graduating seniors into their network at a social

event at the InterContinental Hotel in Doha.

We don’t print diplomas.We create innovators.

www.qatar.cmu.edu

We know there’s no secret formula for innovation.

Innovation is the result of creativity, collaboration and plenty

of hard work. If you study at Carnegie Mellon, you’ll be

challenged academically. Your creativity will be encouraged,

you’ll collaborate with our world-renowned faculty, and you’ll

explore and combine disciplines in new ways.

Biological Sciences | Business Administration | Computational Biology | Computer Science | Information Systems