Summary
A team of researchers and undergraduate students at CMU-Q, led by faculty members Tayeong Park and Jennifer Bruder, has received a new Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) grant from the QRDI Council. This grant will fund the continuation of their award-winning research into public perceptions and motivations regarding wildlife conservation in Qatar. The new student team comes from the Business Administration program, bringing strong quantitative skills to the project, which aligns with CMU-Q's institutional focus on sustainability.
A team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), a Qatar Foundation partner university, has received a new Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) grant from QRDI Council to continue their investigation into wildlife conservation.
The project, led by faculty members Tayeong Park, assistant teaching professor of statistics and data science, and Jennifer Bruder, associate teaching professor of psychology, will explore the factors that shape public motivation to support conservation efforts. The new study will look deeper into how public awareness and attitudes toward endangered wildlife can influence pro-environmental behavior in Qatar.
This new UREP grant builds on the team’s previous, highly successful work on the same topic. In 2022, a faculty-student team, also led by Bruder and Park, won first place at the 14th Annual UREP Competition. That award-winning project, “Conservation and biodiversity in Qatar: Surveying awareness and attitudes toward Qatari fauna,” provided the first comprehensive look at public perceptions of Qatar’s native endangered species and resulted in two academic journal publications.
“We are thrilled to receive a second UREP grant to continue this important line of inquiry,” said Bruder. “Our first study revealed some fascinating insights into how people perceive local wildlife, and this new project allows us to delve deeper into those findings.”
A new team of five undergraduate students will conduct the research: Aljori Abdulla, Habiba Almosallam, Hissa Al-Thani, Alina Barmagambetova, and Firdavs Fayzillaev. While the previous award-winning team came from an information systems and psychology background, this new cohort is composed entirely of business administration students.
“This team brings a strong quantitative and statistical perspective to the project,” Park noted. “Their skills in data analysis will be invaluable as we explore the more nuanced factors that motivate people to support conservation, allowing us to approach our research questions in new, data-driven ways.”
Sustainability at CMU-Q
Sustainability is an institutional priority at CMU-Q, both in campus operations and the areas of academic and research focus.
Last year, CMU-Q became the first university in the MENA region to receive the prestigious FEE EcoCampus Green Flag designation. In a campus-wide initiative, CMU-Q has signed a formal sustainability charter, adopted more sustainable processes, and increased community awareness of recycling, food security and waste management. The campus continues to find new ways to reduce its carbon footprint and integrate the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into education and research.
