Student research into antibiotic resistance wins Carnegie Mellon symposium
Meeting of the Minds 2022 is one of the largest research symposia in CMU-Q history
A student research project investigating ways to combat antibiotic resistance won the Best Project and Best Poster awards at the Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) undergraduate research symposium. Meeting of the Minds 2002 took place in person for the first time since 2019. CMU-Q is a Qatar Foundation partner university.
Biological sciences student Niamah Ayisha Nishan won the top honors for her project, “Determination of minimum inhibitory concentration values for common classes of antibiotics, berberine and flavones by the broth microdilution assay.” Nishan’s faculty advisor was Simon Faulkner, assistant teaching professor of chemistry.
Niamah Nishan presents her research to the Meeting of the Minds judges.
Michael Trick, dean of CMU-Q, underscored the importance of research at the university: “At Carnegie Mellon, our mission is to investigate questions that will have a real impact on the world. Each of these student researchers can answer the question, “why does your research matter?” and I think this is a hallmark of Carnegie Mellon’s approach.”
The awards for second and third place both went to Đorđe Popović for his studies into “Alternative splicing and the phenotypes of different breast cancer subtypes,” and “FedTeams: Towards trust-based and resource-aware federated learning.”
Dorde Popovic won second and third place for his research projects.
Special awards were given by Mohammed Abdulaziz Al Nuaimi of the Planning and Statistics Authority, as well as Dr. Munir Tag for Qatar National Research Fund.
Selma Limam Mansar is the senior associate dean for faculty and research and the organizer of Meeting of the Minds 2022.
“Conducting and presenting research is an integral part of a student’s education at Carnegie Mellon,” she said. “Meeting of the Minds is a chance to showcase CMU-Q student research to our community, the Education City community, as well as business and technical leaders in Qatar. And it is important to note that this showcase is only possible with the amazing engagement and dedication of our faculty, who serve as advisors, mentors and judges.” ”
Meeting of the Minds 2022 included nearly four dozen posters, including projects by undergraduate students and CMU-Q researchers.
Judges for Meeting of the Minds are part of the wider scientific and academic community. This year, the judges represented the following organizations: Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Equine Veterinary Medical Center, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Planning and Statistics Authority, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, Qatar Foundation Research, Development and Innovation, Qatar National Research Fund, Qatar University, Sidra Medicine, VCUarts Qatar, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, and World Innovation Summit for Health.
Meeting of the Minds 2022 judges.
Meeting of the Minds is an undergraduate research symposium that originated at the Carnegie Mellon University main campus in 1995.
Meeting of the Minds 2022 winners
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Awards
Best Project, 1st place
Best Poster
Determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values for common classes of antibiotics, berberine and flavones by the broth microdilution assay (BMA)
Niamah Ayisha Nishan
Faculty advisor: Simon Faulkner
Best Project, 2nd place
Alternative splicing and the phenotypes of different breast cancer subtypes
Đorđe Popović
Faculty Advisor: Ihab Younis
Best Project, 3rd place
FedTeams: Towards trust-based and resource-aware federated learning
Đorđe Popović
Advisors: Khaled Harras and Hend Gedawy
Planning and Statistics Authority Awards
Exploring phenotypic changes in breast cancer cells by MAPK14 minor intron splicing
Lulwa Alhaddad
Faculty Advisor: Ihab Younis
Does imagination reduce false memory?
Waad AlKhenji, Nayla AlMulla, Maryam Fakhroo
Faculty Advisor: Ekaterini Klepousniotou
Combining deep learning and bootstrapped few-shot learning for adaptive out-of-sample crowd counting
Ammar Karkour
Faculty Advisor: Gianni Di Caro
Is the future female? A study on educational attainment and economic development
Nour Mohamed
Faculty Advisor: Agustín Indaco
Sniffing Bluetooth low energy
Gulnaz Serikbay, Yusuf Saquib
Faculty Advisor: Ryan Riley
Qatar National Research Fund Awards
How does the extracellular matrix influence cancer cell behavior
Maryam Aslam
Faculty Advisor: Mohamed Bouaouina
Identification of alternative splicing patterns in diabetic patients
Shahrazad El Natsheh
Faculty Advisor: Ihab Younis
Combining deep learning and bootstrapped few-shot learning for adaptive out-of-sample crowd counting
Ammar Karkour
Faculty Advisor: Gianni Di Caro