More than 60 students from universities across Qatar competed in Quick Startup 2016, a weekend-long race to create a viable business plan. The winning team members were Aisha Al-Derhim, College of the North Atlantic Qatar (CNA-Q) and Fatima Alansari and Ruqaya Alsada from Qatar University.

The event, sponsored by Qatar National Bank (QNB), took place March 10 to 12 at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, and included information sessions and mentoring by several industry experts in entrepreneurship. Students developed an idea over the weekend and presented the business plan as if they were pitching to investors.

The judging panel was comprised of academics and experts on incubation, including Yasmeen Hasan from Bedaya Center, Indica Amarasinghe from ictQatar, Belal Alkadhi from Qatar Business Incubation Center, Peter Moore from College of the North Atlantic Qatar, Juha Peralampi from Qatar University, and Milton Cofield from Carnegie Mellon University.

A team of Carnegie Mellon Qatar students took second place: Ibrahim Rehman, Serene Darweesh, Umair Qazi and Pance Ali. Third place went to a CNA-Q team: Farnaaz Khan, Khadija Salim, Mohammed Zameel Zubair and Seham Abuhuzeimah.