Summary

This article details the research journey of two CMU-Q Business Administration graduates, Aaliya Savira and Abeeha Shoaib, who, mentored by finance professor Serkan Akgüç and alumnus Vlad-Radu Vasilescu, published a paper in an international journal. Their research, initiated through a QSIURP grant, investigated the resilience of Shariah-compliant companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project significantly influenced their academic and career paths.

What began as a summer research project for two sophomores at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), a Qatar Foundation partner university, has culminated in a paper published in an international journal. For 2025 Business Administration graduates Aaliya Savira and Abeeha Shoaib, the journey from initial question to publication was a defining part of their undergraduate experience.

The paper was co-authored with their faculty mentor, Serkan Akgüç, associate teaching professor of finance, and alumnus Vlad-Radu Vasilescu (IS 2022). It explores how different types of companies weathered the operational and financial shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While many studies focused on the stock market’s immediate reaction to the pandemic, the CMU-Q team delved deeper. “We wanted to look at the actual business operations,” said Akgüç. “How was profitability affected over the long term? This was never studied.”

The team analyzed financial data from US-based companies, comparing Shariah-compliant firms with non-compliant ones. Shariah-compliant companies are mainstream corporations, like Apple and Tesla, that meet specific criteria, most notably maintaining low debt levels.

The findings were striking. While the pandemic negatively impacted all firms, the profitability of Shariah-compliant companies dropped significantly less.

“We found that Shari’ah-compliant firms are more resilient to major economic shocks,” Akgüç noted. “They were more prepared to weather the storm, which is a very interesting stylized fact that people didn’t know before.”

From classroom idea to polished paper

The project’s origins lie in a statistics course, where Savira and Shoaib first explored the topic. Their curiosity led them to apply for a Qatar Student-Initiated Undergraduate Research Program (QSIURP) grant to continue the work over the summer. Akgüç, their mentor, was impressed by their persistence.

“I wanted to see their commitment, so I sent them back with questions a couple of times,” he recalled. “They kept coming back. They really owned the project.”

When the summer ended, the work continued. For the next two years, and even after graduation, the students refined the paper, conducted robustness checks, and navigated the rigorous peer-review process. Their dedication paid off, with the paper being accepted for publication in a respected finance journal.

“QSIURP gave us the independence to dig deeper into a subject we had already kickstarted,” said Savira. “We believed there was potential to explore this niche field.”

Research as a catalyst for Growth

The multi-year project did more than produce a publication; it fundamentally shaped the students’ skills and career trajectories. The hands-on experience with complex data and programming gave Shoaib newfound confidence.

“I was always hesitant to take a computer science course,” she said. “But after working with thousands of lines of code for this project, I took a Python course in my last semester and loved it. Now, I’m working in a software role at UBS. The research pushed me to find my place.”

For Savira, now a financial analyst at Avey, the project honed her analytical skills. “This experience made me more comfortable dealing with large datasets, knowing when to zoom in on the details and when to zoom out to see the bigger picture,” she said.

Reflecting on the experience, Shoaib believes research is central to the university’s ethos.

“I don’t think research is just part of the fabric of Carnegie Mellon,” she concluded. “I think research is the thread that’s knitting the fabric together. The skills you learn are ingrained in everything you do. It’s a way of thinking.”