DOHA, QATAR – Meeting of the Minds, the annual undergraduate research and project symposium, was held Tuesday night at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. More than 30 students showcased their research and course projects through posters, videos, presentations and demonstrations. Meeting of the Minds is part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Undergraduate Research Initiative, which is a program that supports and encourages undergraduate students to participate in innovative research. Some projects grow out of coursework, while others typify Carnegie Mellon’s emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration to solve real-world problems.
“Research is in the Carnegie Mellon DNA. We pride ourselves on being a problem solving institution. It is great when students are taking classes but it is even greater when we give them real world problems to solve” said Charles Thorpe, Dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar.
Twenty-four posters were displayed in categories of Business Administration, Computer Science, Information Systems and Liberal Arts and Sciences. Students demonstrated a wide range of projects including Dynamic Path Planning and Traffic Light Coordination for Emergency Vehicle Routing, making use of a camera’s image sequence to convert photos into 2D images, studies on domestic and migrant workers in Qatar, the structure of covert networks in Doha and the translation of safety and security messages between English and Arabic to reach the broadest audience possible. There were also posters of Qatar’s developments on the Braille Tutor project and “Hala” the roboceptionist.
At Meeting of the Minds, undergraduate students as well as graduate students present their work in a manner that can be easily understood by those who are not in that field. The annual research symposium gives the students an opportunity to present their work to a wide audience of faculty, fellow students, family members and industry representatives. The experience contributes to developing general leadership and decision making capabilities in addition to building research skills.
“Forty posters were submitted by various students and 24 were selected to present today. Most are team projects, we definitely promote collaborative research here at Carnegie Mellon” said John Robertson, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs.
Meeting of the Minds also helps members of the Qatar community understand the importance of conducting research, and see the numerous ways that research can benefit society. Meeting of the Minds has been held at the end of the spring term at Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh for several years, and has also become an annual tradition in Doha.
A review committee consisting of industry experts from Ras Gas, Exxon Mobil, Q-Tel, Shell, the University of Arizona and the University of Toronto, in addition to faculty members from other Qatar universities reviewed the presentations and selected the best projects and posters.
Awards and certificates were presented to the best poster design and best project. The winners were Rashid Alkaabi for the best overall project and Khalid Alsooj, Nasreen Zahan, Faiza Al Saeed, Amal Al Barwani and Naif Al Kaabi for the best poster design.
Rashid Alkaabi’s project offers technology solutions to tackle communications issues faced by immigrant workers in Qatar. “The aim of my project is to address immigrant workers with limited or no computer skills. I really searched for interviews in Bahrain and here in Doha. I went to Q-Tel offices to interview laborers and their families,” said Alkaabi. “Last year I was dreaming about being a Carnegie Mellon student and today I’m competing against seniors and winning.”
ABOUT CARNEGIE MELLON
With more than a century of academic excellence and innovative research, Carnegie Mellon University is a global leader in education with real-world applications. Consistently top ranked, Carnegie Mellon offers a distinct mix of programs to its 10,000 students at campuses around the globe. Core values of innovation, creativity, problem solving and collaborative teamwork provide the foundation for everything we do.
At the invitation of Qatar Foundation, Carnegie Mellon joined Education City in 2004. Here, Qatar Foundation has created a world-class center for scholarship and research that is the ideal complement to Carnegie Mellon’s tradition of innovation through collaboration. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar offers its highly regarded undergraduate programs in business administration, computer science and information systems to students in Qatar and the Gulf Region.
