Annual Report 2008-2009
Jared L. Cohon President Carnegie Mellon University
from the president
Carnegie Mellon University is very proud to be part of Education City. From our first conversations about offering our educational programs in Doha, we were drawn by the vision and leadership of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned. When our first graduating class received its degrees in May 2008, we saw the vision realized in the dreams of our students. And now, with the opening of this magnificent building, Qatar Foundation has added in a dramatic way to the physical manifestation of the vision. This is a great time for the nation of Qatar and its people, and for Carnegie Mellon University.
from the dean
T
he 2008-2009 academic year was epic for Carnegie Mellon University. The most visible change was our move into our new home. Provided to us by Qatar Foundation, this magnificent facility further cements Carnegie Mellon into the educational and cultural landscape of Qatar. The building provides us with state-of-the-art facilities in which to deliver our programs and also gives us space for events and activities. The flurry of activity surrounding the move into the building set the tone for a year of milestones and new initiatives, and has set our campus in a bright, new direction. After graduating our first class in May 2008, we welcomed the Class of 2012 – which has 67 students – in August. We also launched the second session of our Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program. We’ve also set out to accentuate our building so it feels like an extension of our home campus, and updated our logo to highlight our Arabic setting. The building opening celebration was the true highlight of the year with Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned cutting the ceremonial ribbon with the help of University president Jared Cohon. Our entire student body and our graduates joined her on stage, and His Highness the Amir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, also joined in the celebration. Not only did this event garner publicity, it showed the continued commitment of Qatar Foundation to our shared vision of education. In our new building we hosted several conferences this year, each one bringing scholars, educators and researchers from around the world to Doha. We hosted the 4th Conference on International Corporate Responsibility, which centers on globalizing business decisions that are sensitive to political, economic and cultural difference. We also hosted 90 computer science scholars for the 15th annual Logic for Programming, Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Conference. Most notably, we hosted
the 3rd International Conference on Information and Communications Technology and Development. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates gave the keynote address, which attracted media attention and guests from all over the world. Our students continue to shine and grow in many ways both inside and outside the classroom. In addition to academic achievements such as an increase in students on the Dean’s List, graduating with various honors and earning distinguished awards, our students are pushing boundaries with regard to personal development. Students have built homes with Habitat for Humanity, performed numerous hours of community service and started organizations for the specific purpose of giving back. Many more students are taking advantage of study abroad opportunities to expand both their education and world view. Carnegie Mellon has been in Qatar for five years now, and we continue to learn as much as we teach. There is, however, one thing we are sure of: Our Doha campus is not like Carnegie Mellon – it is Carnegie Mellon, with the same courses, same degrees and same values. I speak for all of the faculty and staff when I say we are looking forward with excitement to the next five years. Charles E. Thorpe, Ph.D. Dean, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar October 2009
contents Highlights New Building Admission Academics Student Affairs Corporate Relations Research Marketing and Public Relations Planning Operations Appendices
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After four years and two temporary homes, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar moves into its new building in Education City. The new facility is situated between Weill Cornell Medical College and Texas A&M.
Thirty-seven high school seniors and 14 juniors spend three weeks fully immersed in the life of a college student in the second Summer College Preview Program. The program introduces intelligent and academically motivated students to the demanding curriculum of selective American universities such as the ones in Education City.
Carnegie Mellon Qatar unveils its new logo. The updated wordmark gives the Arabic text more prominence and also highlights the University’s global branding.
Convocation for The Class of 2012 is held in the three-story atrium of the new Carnegie Mellon building in Education City. Sixty-seven students — 26 women and 41 men — make up the fifth class to join Carnegie Mellon Qatar.
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Alejandro Portes, Ph.D., professor of Sociology and director of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University, visits campus as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series. Portes leads three events on immigrant labor issues.
Students, staff and faculty, along with their families, gather together for a community Iftar during the holy month of Ramadan. Student Affairs organizes the meal every year.
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
Grahame Maher, CEO of Vodafone, visits the Education City campus to talk with students and other guests about his business philosophy and what has led both him and Vodafone to such international success. Maher’s visit is part of the Making the Connection lecture series.
Students put their skills, instincts and business sense to work in the second version of the American reality show The Apprentice. During the two-day challenge, students raised more than QR 28,000.
highlights
The Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program kicks off its second year with a class of 27 men and 18 women. CIEP is a nine-month, part-time course that encourages entrepreneurs to follow their dreams by giving them the skills needed to transform an idea into a marketable business venture.
Teachers from high schools in Qatar attend CS4Qatar. The professional development workshop is designed for educators in Qatar who want to broaden their horizons in the ever-expanding and broadreaching field of computer science.
Ninety computer science scholars from all over the world converge in Doha to attend the 15th annual Logic for Programming, Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Conference. Carnegie Mellon Qatar hosts the 4th Conference on International Corporate Responsibility. Sponsored by Carnegie Bosch Institute and Carnegie Mellon Qatar, the conference centers on the theme of globalizing business decisions that are sensitive to political, economic and cultural differences. Renowned researcher and robotics professor Takeo Kanade, Ph.D., engages a large audience in a lively and engaging talk entitled “Research on robotics and vision.” Kanade visited Qatar as the fourth speaker in Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
Fifty top executives from Qatargas complete the first cycle of an innovative leadership training program. The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and Carnegie Mellon Qatar created the Leadership Program curriculum tailored to the unique needs of Qatargas.
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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A team from Al Bayan Educational Complex captured first place in the inaugural Ibtikar Qatar competition. Ibtikar Qatar was created as a way to get high school students involved in an environmentally-focused competition, while at the same time piquing their interest in the dynamic field of Information Systems.
More than 300 high school students apply for the 120 seats in the spring session of CS4Qatar. The two-day event teaches high schools students about computer science and how it is applied to all aspects of life.
Carnegie Mellon Qatar becomes one of three universities in the Middle East to take part in IBM’s Qatar Cloud Computing Initiative. Along with Texas A&M and Qatar University, Carnegie Mellon Qatar will collaborate to find a cloud solution to help solve industry problems.
Representatives from 41 top organizations in Qatar talk with students about potential career and internship opportunities at the third annual Professional Day career fair. Held every spring, Professional Day gives students a chance to meet and network with industry representatives, and it gives organizations an opportunity to meet a large pool of young talent.
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar celebrates the official opening of its new building in Education City. Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, chairperson of Qatar Foundation, along with the entire Carnegie Mellon Qatar student body, cut the ceremonial ribbon on stage. Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Amir of Qatar, joined everyone on stage for the celebration.
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Students from 26 high schools in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates learn first-hand how to build their own robots at the two-day BOTBALL workshop at Carnegie Mellon University.
Carnegie Club kicks off with the first roundtable event of the year entitled “Green Building Matters.� Leaders in sustainable building design gathered together to discuss challenges in Qatar and the region. The Carnegie Club hosts forums for in-depth discussion on relevant and significant business topics in Qatar and the wider region.
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
Two teams of Carnegie Mellon Qatar students capture first and second place in the National Programming Competition held in the United Arab Emirates. The contest provides an opportunity for students majoring in computer engineering, computer science and IT-related subjects to show their skills in programming and meet students from other institutions.
The Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program holds its second New Venture Competition. The winning business plan receives a cash prize and mentorship.
Carnegie Mellon Qatar partners with Georgetown University to offer a joint Summer College Preview Program. Eighty secondary school students registered for the four-week college preparatory program.
highlights
Bill Gates delivers the keynote address at the 3rd International Conference on Information and Communications Technology and Development (ICTD2009). Researchers from all over the world attend the event.
As part of iStep, students participate in an innovative technology research internship offering computing solutions in Tanzania. The project is a joint effort between Student Affairs in Qatar and TechBridgeWorld in Pittsburgh.
The second Bill Brown Ride is held in honor of the longtime Carnegie Mellon professor. Eighty-five cyclists turned out for the fund raiser that yielded nearly QR 10,000 for a scholarship fund. Students showcase a broad range of research and course projects at the third annual Meeting of the Minds undergraduate research symposium. The Class of 2009 graduation is held in the new building. Her Excellency Sheikha Hanadi Bint Nasser Bin Khaled Al Thani gives the keynote address to the 35 graduates and 800 guests.
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new Building Grand Opening Event Appreciation to Qatar Foundation Building Details
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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The philosophy of the Carnegie Mellon building is connected to the social experience of the university. Carnegie Mellon wanted to be the heart of Education City. Having two sides of the building with a green spine in the middle was the basis of the design. Similar to buildings in other cultures, this design creates space for people to pass through and circulate. Ricardo Legorreta Legorreta+Legorreta Architects Mexico
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
April 2007
SPECIAL THANKS
November 2006
July 2007
Saad Al Muhanadi
Qatar Foundation Vice President for Capital Projects and Facilities
Mohammed Abu-Ghazala Qatar Foundation Director of Capital Projects
Ahmed Darwish
Qatar Petroleum Engineer Manager-Onshore
Moh’d Badran
Qatar Petroleum Lead Project Engineer Education City Project
February 2008
February 2009
August 2008
Carnegie Mellon Qatar Building Celebration
Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, chairperson of Qatar Foundation, and Jared Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon, together cut the ceremonial ribbon at the official opening of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s building in Education City on February, 22, 2009. The entire Carnegie Mellon Qatar student body and Class of 2008 alumni joined Her Highness and President Cohon on stage for the official ribbon cutting. Her Highness then invited the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, to the stage to join in the celebration. In the Scottish tradition of Carnegie Mellon, a bagpiper clad in full Scottish regalia led a procession into the outdoor Ceremonial Court in Education City. The whole community of Carnegie Mellon Qatar, along with guests from Pittsburgh, distinguished guests from Doha, and Qatar Foundation representatives enjoyed an evening of emotive videos featuring students, keynote remarks and the virtual ribbon cutting. The event then processed to the building for a reception and self-guided tours. Carnegie Mellon Qatar presented Her Highness with a gift of thanks for her visionary leadership that laid the foundation for the rich partnership between Qatar Foundation and Carnegie Mellon University. The gift is a mural that depicts the history of Qatar as well as the evolution of Doha into the modern-day city it has become. The mural – created by Doug Cooper, Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer – is installed in the Carnegie Mellon building so it may be viewed by anyone who visits Education City. Qatar Foundation provided the building to Carnegie Mellon so the university can deliver its programs in a state-of-the-art setting. Designed by renowned Mexican architects Legorreta+Legorreta, the building is located on Education City’s East-West Walkway. This design was purposeful to foster a greater sense of community and collaboration among students, staff and faculty throughout Education City. “Carnegie Mellon University has already made a substantial contribution through its teaching programs,” says Mohammed Fathy Saoud, Ph.D., president of Qatar Foundation. “Its first graduates are now participating in building Qatar’s new knowledge-based economy. Carnegie Mellon has shown itself to be an important partner in Qatar Foundation’s mission to lead the country into the ranks of the world’s most advanced societies.”
Construction facts Metric tons of steel Cranes Excavators ‘Tipper’ trucks to haul soil away Square meters of excavated soil/rock Kilometers of data & electrical cables Cubic meters of concrete Square meters of duct work Lighting fixtures Interior doors Square meters of whiteboard Square meters of exterior glass Square meters of interior/exterior stone façade Construction workers
6,400 11 7 33 87,173 1,590 38,283 25,000 9,050 734 875 2,516 40,309 2,300
Building statistics Classrooms Computer classrooms Labs Lecture halls Library Robotics labs Meeting rooms Study rooms Exercise rooms Offices Lounges Food court Assembly area
11 5 5 5 1 2 12 4 2 149 2 1 400+
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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admission Student Recruitment Outreach Enrollment Services
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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Student Recruitment
Total enrollment for Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar has increased to 187 over all four years for the 2008-2009 academic year. Sixty-seven incoming students joined the University this year. The student population represents 34 countries and is approximately 41 percent Qatari. Male and female numbers are growing more equal, with 86 males and 101 females. 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0
2004 1
applied
Applications for admission to Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar for the 2009-2010 academic year increased by
70% Qatari nationals accounted for 35.5% of the overall application pool.
2005 2
2006 3
accepted
2007 4
enrolled
2008 5
Applications for admission to Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar increased by 70 percent in 2009. In total, 1,118 applications were submitted for Fall 2009 enrollment, compared with a previous record high of 657 applications in 2008. Applications from Qatari nationals accounted for 35.5 percent of the overall application pool. For the 2008-2009 academic year, 657 applications were received. Of those, 186 were accepted, with 67 enrolling. New student enrollment by major for Fall 2008 is: Business Administration Computer Science Information Systems
33 22 12
Recruitment in Qatar Qatar continues to be the primary geographic focus for student recruitment. To kick off the student recruitment season, two high-profile events were held in Doha during October 2008. First was the fifth annual Local Counselor Visitation Day, which was held in the Texas A&M University Building. Second was the fourth annual Discover Education City student recruitment kickoff event, proudly hosted by Carnegie Mellon. Dr. Fathy Saoud, president of Qatar Foundation, delivered the keynote address to more than 900 potential students and their parents. Carnegie Mellon cooperated with the other Education City branch campuses to schedule local school visits. In 2008, the branch campuses adopted a more coordinated, Education City-wide approach to the visits, with teams of two admission representatives visiting each school and speaking on behalf of all six universities. In addition to distributing publications and brochures from all of the schools, the
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
first year enrollment by major admission teams also launched a new, animated Flash presentation centered around the theme of “Achieve, Explore, Inspire.” Qatar Foundation’s Marketing & Public Relations directorate contracted with public relations firm Bell Pottiger to develop the content, and with Fitch to develop the design of the presentation.
business administration computer science information systems
2008-2009
1 2 3
In total, the Education City teams visited approximately 60 secondary schools in Qatar. Some schools were visited more than once, and some had separate fairs or programs in addition to the school visit. Thus the total number of visits and events is approximately 80. Applications from residents of Qatar (including Qatari nationals) increased from 507 in 2008 to 813 in 2009, which is an increase of 61 percent. Applications from Qatari nationals rose from 207 in 2008 to 397 in 2009, an increase of 92 percent. Recruitment Outside of Qatar Outside of Qatar, the GCC continues to be our secondary recruitment market. Recruitment in the GCC is done jointly with Qatar Foundation’s Education Division and the other universities in Education City. During late 2008 and early 2009, Carnegie Mellon visited Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai) and Kuwait. In each country, representatives visited between 10 and 15 schools, hosted a dinner for local school counselors and hosted a “Discover Education City” University Fair. In addition to the GCC, admission representatives participated in college fairs sponsored by Amideast. Visits were made to schools in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt, as well as to approximately 10 schools in Syria and Lebanon. Qatar Foundation and the six university partners in Education City sponsored the third annual Education City Regional Counselor Program (ECRCP) in January 2009. The goal of the ECRCP is to showcase Education City so that influential counselors throughout the Middle East will return to their schools and encourage their students to apply. Twenty-five university counselors and advisers from countries such as Oman, Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain attended the two-day program.
2007-2008
2006-2007 2006
Applications from the GCC countries (excluding Qatar) rose from 81 in 2008 to 115 in 2009, an increase of 42 percent. Applications from other countries in the Middle East and northern Africa rose 63 percent from one year ago.
Outreach
Outreach into high schools is a crucial aspect of Carnegie Mellon’s vision in Qatar. By exposing high school students in Qatar and the Gulf Region to American university-level academics and programs, Carnegie Mellon Qatar is helping better prepare the students for success at top universities. This, in turn, is contributing toward the overarching goal of transforming Qatar into a knowledge-based economy. Carnegie Mellon Qatar held its third Summer College Preview Program from June 28 through July 23, 2009 in the new Carnegie Mellon Building. The SCPP introduces intelligent and academically motivated students to the demanding curriculum of selective American universities such as the ones in Education City. The SCPP takes students through an academically intensive four-week experience with classes in mathematics, English composition and SAT preparation, and a handson project. Students attended classes five days a week and completed four SAT diagnostic (practice) tests during the program. Enrollment for this year’s program was 41 students, with 46 percent being Qatari nationals.
2005-2006
2004-2005
A number of changes were implemented this year to enhance and grow the program. In late 2008, Carnegie Mellon accepted a request from Georgetown University to have the SCPP offered by both universities. As a result, the combined program
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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School participation = one school
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
enrolled 80 students between the two universities, an increase of 54 percent from the 2008 enrollment. In addition, the extension of the SCPP to four weeks provided the instructors and students with an additional five days of teaching and studying.
2008-2009 Student body
Qatari non Qatari
Robots continue to capture the hearts and minds of thousands of students in the Gulf Region with the continued success of the BOTBALL high school robotics program. This year, more than 200 students from 26 schools in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar accepted the challenge to design, build and program their own autonomous robots that compete against each other in a non-destructive tournament. The winning team was sent to the U.S. to participate in the world finals as well as take part in the Global Conference on Educational Robotics in Leesburg, Virginia. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar brought BOTBALL to Doha in 2005. Four teams took part in the inaugural event. In 2006 the competition increased to six teams in Doha, and in 2007 it expanded three-fold to include 12 teams in Doha, three teams in Kuwait and three teams in the U.A.E. In 2008, more teams from around the Gulf Region joined the competition along with three teams from Egypt. This year saw the addition of three schools from Saudi Arabia. Al Jazeera Children’s Channel featured BOTBALL in a 14-part series this year. This is the third year JCC has partnered with Carnegie Mellon to cover the robotics event. JCC reports Botball as one of its most viewed programs. Viewers are especially interested in the building and design of the robots.
gender
males females
Ibtikar Qatar is a new program launched by the Information Systems department. It was designed to pique the interest of high school students in the dynamic field of Information Systems and challenge them to use IS to make businesses and organizations more effective. Seventy-two students from 10 different schools joined the competition. Interest in the CS4Qatar workshops exploded in 2009. More than 300 students applied for 120 available spots in the two-day developmental workshop designed to teach secondary students about computer science and how it is applied in all aspects of life. Additionally, teachers from high schools all over Qatar continue to be highly interested in the CS4Qatar workshops. The professional development workshop
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
Afghanistan Algeria Bahrain Bangladesh Canada Egypt France India Indonesia Iran Iraq Italy Jordan Kuwait Lebanon is designed for educators in Qatar who want to broaden their horizons in the everexpanding and broad-reaching field of computer science. Since beginning in 2007, the CS4Qatar program has been held twice for high school teachers and three times for students. CS4Qatar maps well with Qatar’s vision of building a knowledge-based economy. By holding events for both teachers and students, Carnegie Mellon is able to increase its educational reach, and make a greater contribution to Qatar as a whole. The High School Programming Competition drew 14 teams from nine high schools to compete in the second intense four-hour programming marathon sponsored by the Computer Science department. The competition is designed to allow high school students to compete against their peers in a computer science-based contest. In addition to programming, students learn about time management, strategy, team work, planning, communication, deadlines and using resources. Competitions such as these are the best way for students to develop their skills because they let students compare and contrast themselves with their peers. This helps students know where they excel and where they need to improve.
Enrollment Services
Financial Aid A substantial portion of Carnegie Mellon Qatar students are either sponsored or receive some financial aid from Qatar Foundation. Forty-nine of our Qatari students are sponsored by the Higher Education Institute, and 19 students are sponsored by Qatar Petroleum. Additionally, three students are sponsored by Q-Tel, three by RasGas and one by Dolphin Energy. Sixty-two of our international students receive some amount of financial aid from Qatar Foundation.
New Zealand Nigeria Oman Pakistan Palestine Philippines Qatar Saudi Arabia Sudan Syria Tunisia UAE
Undergraduate Student Body Nationalities 187 students 2008-2009
America Yemen
academics Academic Affairs Student Achievement Course Offerings Academic Performance to Date First-Year Experience Academic Support Faculty Initiatives Library Graduating Class
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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Academic Affairs About the Carnegie Plan Students in Doha follow the Carnegie Plan. Conceived of in the mid-1940s by University president Robert Doherty, the Carnegie Plan provides a well-rounded "liberal/professional" education in which students are taught to apply fundamental knowledge to solve practical problems. They also are required to learn about and appreciate academic disciplines outside their primary area of study. The Carnegie Plan, which has received international attention, was the forerunner to today's focus on an interdisciplinary, problemsolving university curriculum.
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar offers its top-ranked undergraduate programs in Business Administration, Computer Science and Information Systems. Students follow the same rigorous curriculum and complete the same graduation requirements as their counterparts on the main campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Enrollment at the end of 2008-2009 was 117 students in Business Administration, 45 in Computer Science and 20 in Information Systems. Each year has seen increases in the size of the student and faculty bodies, and a commensurate increase in academic activities and accomplishments. We continue a commitment to delivering the Carnegie Plan of education by offering students depth and breadth in their major and general education coursework. In the 2008-2009 academic year, Carnegie Mellon Qatar offered four full years of coursework for Business Administration and Computer Science students as well as courses through the junior year for Information Systems students. Some of the major and many of the elective courses were classes developed by Carnegie Mellon Qatar faculty members, with approval from their home departments in Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon Qatar offered 123 courses in 2008-2009, an increase of 17 over the 2007-2008 academic year. Most of the additional classes met major requirements and more non-major elective courses were offered than in the 2007-2008 academic year. In addition, independent studies overseen by faculty, both resident and faculty who had taught in Doha in previous semesters, helped expand the Business Administration, Computer Science and Liberal Arts offerings. Independent studies are not included in the course count.
Student Achievement
Student and faculty teams are working on several diverse projects that have earned financial support from the Qatar National Research Fund, which is part of Qatar Foundation. Established in 2006, Qatar National Research Fund aims to advance knowledge and education by providing support to researchers. QNRF administers funding for original, competitively-selected research and fosters collaborations within academia, and through public/private partnership. Carnegie Mellon Qatar projects include computer security; Braille tutoring; reverse engineering; human robot interaction; and documenting the status of immigrant workers. Senior Thesis Two students successfully completed College Honors research projects this year. Hatem Alismail (CS 2009) completed “Exploring Visual Odometry for Mobile Robots” and Hend Gedawy (CS 2009) completed “Dynamic Path Planning and Traffic Signal Coordination for Emergency Vehicle Routing.” Presentations Students also did presentations at outside conferences, participated in internal competitions and competed in regional and global programming competitions. Internal competitions included the Business Case Competition, which for the first, time had an external sponsor; Carnegie Mellon Qatar Programming Competition; Meeting of the Minds; and the Liberal Arts and Sciences Brain Bowl. External competitions included the ACM Regional Programming Competition held in Alexandria, Egypt, and the IEEExtreme 24-hour Programming Challenge. Additionally, Carnegie Mellon teams took home first and second place at the National Programming Competition held in the United Arab Emirates. Awards Two students earned accomplishments that are also in recognition of the excellence of the courses being delivered in Qatar and the quality of campus life. Keghani Kouzoujian (CS2010) will be a Fifth Year Scholar on the Pittsburgh campus after she completes her senior year in Doha in May 2010. The Fifth Year Scholar is a highly selective competitive program in which students with strong academic records apply by proposing plans for how they would use a fifth year intellectually through course work and practically by delivering a project that benefits the University.
2009
Undergraduate Research Symposium
Hatem Alismael (CS2009) was one of 30 students to display research projects at the annual Meeting of the Minds undergraduate research and project symposium. Alismael, along with Hend Gedawy (CS2009), successfully completed College Honors research projects.
Successful applicants receive free tuition for a fifth year of study and a $7,000 fellowship. Kouzoujian will spend her fifth year working on completing a music minor and introducing a leadership training program from the Doha campus to Pittsburgh. In addition, Google selected Kouzoujian for its Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, an award intended to encourage women in the computer science field.
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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The Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association selected Mohamed Abou Zeinab (TPR 2009) for its Student Service Award, which is one of the highest awards presented to undergraduate students at Carnegie Mellon University. The Alumni Association presented only three Student Service Awards this year. The criteria for winning the award are that the student possesses a record of “an exemplary balance of outstanding academics and participation in extra-curricular activities, while providing exceptional service to the University, the student body and/or community.� Abou Zeinab met the criteria in an extremely impressive way by combining a high level of academic accomplishment with strong involvement in all areas of campus life. He received the award at the Alumni Awards dinner in Pittsburgh.
Course Offerings
Business Administration Eleven Business Administration faculty members offered 30 classes in business and economics that had an average enrollment of 26 students each. Most of the students were BA students, however enrollment also included students working on a business administration minor and BA classes that counted toward other major’s general education requirements. This year, Qatar faculty members developed new courses including Innovation Strategy; Globalization; and Power Influence and Decision Making. Computer Science Ten Computer Science faculty members offered 21 classes in the major (not including the foundational programming classes) with an average enrollment of eight students each. Most of the students were CS majors, however enrollment also included students working on a CS minor. Qatar faculty members developed new courses including Computer and Network Security; Formal Language and Automata; and Network Science. Information Systems Three Information Systems faculty members offered eight classes in the major with an average enrollment of six students each. Most of the students were IS students, however, enrollment also included students working on an IS minor. Qatar faculty members developed new courses including Global Systems Models and Puzzle Based Learning.
Above, Keghani Kouzoujian (CS2010) will be a Fifth Year Scholar at Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh after she completes her senior year in Doha in May 2010. She is the first Fifth Year Scholar from Doha. Mohamed Abou Zeinab (TPR 2009) received the Student Service Award, which is one of the highest awards presented to undergraduate students at Carnegie Mellon.
Foundation Seven faculty members shared between the majors offered 18 foundation classes in math, programming, English and statistics that had an average enrollment of 32 students. Some classes repeated over more than one semester and most were offered in multiple sections so average section size was much lower than course size. Innovations for foundation courses included adding content and contact time to the Introductory English course; offering the two-semester version of Integral Calculus; and offering a Doha version of the Carnegie Skills Workshop, which is a course designed to introduce incoming students to basic college skills and strategies. Liberal Arts Liberal Arts had the most course offerings due to providing the general education requirements for three majors based in three different colleges, each with its own requirements. Sixteen faculty members delivered 45 courses that had an average enrollment of 10 students. The courses were a variety of history, English, science, psychology, engineering, Spanish, math, design, philosophy and drama taken by students in all majors. Qatar faculty developed new courses in 2008-2009 including Global Information Society; Europe & the Islamic World; and Islam and the Integration of Society. Cross Registration Carnegie Mellon Qatar students also are able to take an increasing number and variety of cross registration courses with other Education City universities. These universities include Weill Cornell Medical College, Georgetown School of Foreign Service, Northwestern, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth. Cross registration courses enrich our offerings in the general education categories.
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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25
20
2008-2009 Cross Registration statistics of other students taking classes at Carnegie Mellon Qatar
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10
Fall 2008 term Spring 2009 term
5
0 1
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3
4
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In the 2008-2009 academic year, 21 Carnegie Mellon students completed courses at other Education City schools, while 31 students from other universities completed Carnegie Mellon courses. In addition, 14 Academic Bridge Program students enrolled in a freshmen-level Carnegie Mellon course as part of our effort to collaborate with the ABP. Summer school is a good example of cross-campus cooperation. Carnegie Mellon again coordinated its schedule and charged a common tuition with the other Education City schools to increase students’ opportunities for taking classes at more than one university. Summer school was again popular with about half of the returning students taking at least one course. The summer session was on the same six-week intensive schedule as the main campus beginning in late May and ending before July 1. Total enrollment for the 13 Carnegie Mellon classes was 123 students with about one-quarter being non-Carnegie Mellon students.
Academic Performance to Date
The classes in Doha are taught to the same rigorous standards as the courses in Pittsburgh. In Qatar, the cumulative grade point average at the end of 2008-2009 was 2.94. While our students come from a wide variety of non-American high school backgrounds and have learned English as a second language, their academic performance is comparable to their peers on the main campus.
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Cross Registration 2008-2009 - 21 Carnegie Mellon students completed courses at other Education City schools - 31 students from other universities completed Carnegie Mellon courses - 14 Academic Bridge Program students enrolled in a freshmen level Carnegie Mellon class
Academic performance of Carnegie Mellon Qatar students who study for a semester in Pittsburgh is a good indicator the campus is delivering the Carnegie Mellon education in Doha. Ten students studied in Pittsburgh for the Fall 2008 term and three remained for the Spring 2009 term. No additional students traveled to Pittsburgh in the spring, due in part to the cold winter weather in the early part of the term. The strongest indicator that we are teaching the curriculum in Doha with the same content and rigor of that in Pittsburgh was the performance of the seniors in capstone Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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courses. Management Game is the capstone course for the Business Administration program. Students form teams and run a simulated company in a virtual world. In these virtual worlds, they compete against teams from Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh and other universities. For the second year in a row, students in Doha outperformed the Pittsburgh students in average grades for the class. Similarly, Algorithm Design and Analysis is the capstone course for the theoretical core of the Computer Science program. The courses on both campuses used the same assignments, exams and grading curve. Students in Doha received grades that demonstrated they had a solid understanding of the theoretical core. Overall, 70 students earned Dean’s List recognition in at least one semester and 30 in both fall and spring, this is a 20 percent increase from 2007-2008. The Dean’s List percentage increase is attributable to the strong performance of the sophomore BA students.
First-Year Experience
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students earned Dean’s List recognition in at least one semester and 30 students earned the recognition in both the fall and spring terms.
In Fall 2009 Carnegie Mellon Qatar will expand the first-year curriculum adjustments initiated in Fall 2008 by creating a common curricular experience for all first-year students. The common Fall semester will consist of the English, math, programming, world history and Carnegie Skills Workshop classes as well as a major specific freshman seminar. In spring 2010, students will take common English, math and economic courses as well as major specific requirements. The common curriculum allows campus to be more intentional in developing the skills and habits that students need to be successful at Carnegie Mellon. For 2008-2009, making 76-100 Reading and Writing in an Academic Context a 12-unit course worked very well in meeting the English skill-building needs of the students who placed into it. The Greening of the Freshmen Year initiative used the Carnegie Skills Workshop course (99-104) to connect the World History and English classes on a water conservation theme. The new freshmen seminars in Computer Science and Information Systems aided cohort building in those programs as demonstrated by a much higher retention in the freshman CS class than in past years.
Academic Support
The Academic Resource Center and the seven faculty members who serve as academic advisors continue to provide academic support to students. During the 20082009 academic year, the ARC tutored nearly every Carnegie Mellon student and offered more tutoring than ever before. In total, 194 individuals received ARC tutoring, of whom 184 were Carnegie Mellon students. Thus, nearly all Carnegie Mellon students received ARC tutoring. Among freshman, 100 percent received tutoring, and the average freshman came to the ARC more than once a week. This year, 3,353 tutoring sessions were held, which is more than 2.5 times as many as last year. Part of this increase is due to undergraduate teaching assistants now working through the ARC. However, even if these tutoring sessions are excluded, still nearly twice as many tutoring sessions were held. While the ARC supported students in 61 different courses, almost all of its tutoring continues to focus on core freshman courses: Calculus, 35 percent; programming, 20 percent; freshmen writing, 14 percent; and other, 31 percent, . Tutoring was offered by five staff tutors, 12 peer tutors and 37 undergraduate teaching assistants, of whom 10 were exchange students from Pittsburgh. Together, they offered an average of 350 drop-in tutoring hours per week.
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Growth in Academic Resource Center tutoring sessions 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0
2004-2005
1
2005-2006
2
2006-2007
3
2007-2008
4
2008-2009
5
Math Writing Computer Science Other Faculty Initiatives
The major-based faculty forums continue to enhance the quality of education at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. The CS program’s focus on technology growth and development in this region and the developing world is an example of a faculty forum initiative. The BA group is developing an initiative to add several courses in international business to give its program a stronger identity and focus. The Liberal Arts and Sciences group is enriching the curriculum by offering a variety of environmental courses approaching global and local issues from multidisciplinary perspectives. Faculty members also challenge students to get involved outside of the classroom. Examples of course-related outreach projects include students interviewing migrant workers and Al Jazeera reporters as well as tutoring at local schools. Students also met course requirements by volunteering for a number of community service organizations including Family Consulting Center, Al-Fakhoora Campaign, Qatar Guest Center, Rumaila Hospital, Habitat for Humanity, Earthquake Relief, Hamad Hospital, Reach Out to Asia, Qatar Youth General Authority, Gawad Galinga and the Shafallah Center. The 2008-2009 academic year was the first year Carnegie Mellon Qatar had an arrangement in which the University’s Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence led seminars and professional development workshops, and meet individually with Carnegie Mellon Qatar faculty. The Spring 2009 seminars were delivered by videoconference from the Eberly Center in Pittsburgh and facilitated in Qatar by Selma Limam Mansar, Information Systems professor. For a list of faculty, see Appendix B. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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faculty seminars
Library
Library staff coordinated the relocation of approximately 10,000 print volumes to the new building. The reference and browsing collection are set up with future expansion in mind. Current shelving capacity is at 30,000 volumes. Print journals and daily newspapers are merchandised in attractive display areas.
Course Design from a Student-Centered Perspective Encouraging Intellectual Development and Critical Thinking Knowing What Students Know: Strategies for Monitoring and Supporting Student Learning Monitoring and Documenting Our Teaching.
The library offers several different types of spaces. Study tables provide a comfortable and quiet environment for individuals, while larger tables provide more space to spread out, and can be used to facilitate group work. Seating alcoves provide quick access to the browsing collection. A conference room, research cluster, seminar room and classroom are available for reservation and use. Steps have been taken to enhance the aesthetics and functionality of the space by installing red carpeting in the major walkway areas as well as adding a series of outdoor cushioned seating installations.
Graduating Class
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar held its second graduation ceremony at the end of the 2008-2009 academic year. Twenty-three students from the Class of 2009 marched across the stage having completed their course requirements for graduating. Five others had either graduated earlier or graduated from Pittsburgh. Nine graduated with University Honors: four of those as members of Phi Kappa Phi and one in Phi Beta Kappa. Twelve other students joined the graduates in the ceremony. Five were from the Class of 2008 who graduated in their fifth year. Six were from the Class of 2009 and would complete their coursework during the summer session. Additionally, one student from the Pittsburgh campus who spent the spring 2009 term in Doha received his diploma during the ceremony. The Class of 2008 graduates raised that class's five-year graduation rate to 85 percent, comparable to the main campus five-year graduation rate of 82 percent. The 28 certified graduates in the Class of 2009 translates to a 58 percent four-year graduation rate. This is lower than the main campus four-year graduation rate of 69 percent. Twelve additional students may complete their degree requirements in the next year, potentially resulting in a five-year graduation rate of 83 percent for the class.
Her Excellency Sheikha Hanadi Bint Nasser Bin Khaled Al Thani gives the keynote address to the 35 graduates and 800 guests at the Class of 2009 Commencement Ceremony. As a successful businesswoman and entrepreneur, Sheikha Hanadi is a role model for many young people in Qatar. 24
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
student affairs Leadership Development Service Learning Student Activities Community Building International Initiatives Clubs and Organizations Professional Development
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Student Affairs began the academic year with a solid focus on the continuous refinement of programs and assessments of divisional goals. An integral part of the strategy is to continue to forge multiple partnerships across campus as well as with our Education City branch partners. This is with the intent to develop strong connections between the curricular and co-curricular educational realms. Our goal is to build on existing partnerships and continue to work with the Carnegie Mellon Qatar faculty to create a holistic, seamless web of learning in and out of the classroom. We are pleased to report that faculty involvement has been significant and that collaboration on joint programming is in steady evolution.
Leadership Development Carnegie Mellon Qatar was the first university to offer LeaderShape outside of the United States.
Student Affairs has made great strides in the area of leadership development this year, offering a wide variety of programs. GPS is a first year leadership seminar that teaches basic concepts of leadership in the context of making a difference in the world. All freshman students were invited to join. GPS was very popular and will continue for the new incoming class in the fall of 2009. The program also will expand in the 2009-2010 academic year to include sophomores. Additionally, a Student Leader Forum was held this year. It was comprised of workshops geared specifically toward student leaders on specific topical areas relating to the role of a student leader such as recruitment, budgeting and marketing. Female students attended the Women’s Leadership Program (WLP), which was designed by Student Affairs and run in collaboration with the faculty. Its goal is to empower and inspire undergraduate women in campus leadership roles. Islamic feminism, gender rules, glass ceilings and how gender plays a role in our society were topics addressed at Mosaic. This annual gender issues conference is simulcast from Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh and invites both men and women. One of the most popular leadership events, LeaderShape, returned for a third year. LeaderShape is a six-day residential leadership development experience focused on building leadership concepts and abilities. In 2007, Carnegie Mellon became the first university to host LeaderShape outside of the United States. It was so well received that it was opened up to all students in Education City. Each year all 60 available slots are filled. Qatar Foundation is now sponsoring and heading up this program. Students on the Carnegie Mellon Qatar Student Majlis (student government) traveled to Washington, D.C. to take part in the American Student Government Conference. This summit allows student government leaders and advisors to share ideas and solutions, receive training and personal consultations and network with peers from colleges and universities of all types. As part of an initiative to encourage collaboration between the student governments in Pittsburgh and Qatar, the Pittsburgh Student Government took a weekend trip to Washington, D.C., to visit with the Student Majlis members who had traveled there for the ASG Conference.
Service Learning
Service learning has made major headway during the 2008-2009 academic year. Service Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility and strengthen communities. The Computer Literacy Instruction Program (CLIP) involved Carnegie Mellon students teaching computer literacy skills to service workers in Education City. CLIP began in the Spring 2008 term with classes for some 50 cafeteria workers, security guards and janitors. Classes were held evenings and weekends, and separate classes were held for women. Interest in the program grew in the fall of 2008 and spring of 28
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
2009. Students who took part in CLIP were excited about the program because it gave them a chance to use what they learned at school to give something back to the community. In addition to serving the local community, a summer service trip to Ghana was organized. The goals set forth for this trip were to expand service initiatives beyond the Arab world and take Carnegie Mellon students to a place that stretched their boundaries in terms of cultural comfort. Eight students signed up to spend eight labor-intensive days under the scorching sun building a house in the small rural village of Breman Asikuma of Accra, Ghana. The trip was part of the Habitat for Humanity International program.
Carnegie Mellon Qatar students quickly learned the ins and outs of building a house on a service learning trip to Ghana. Students had to make bricks and mortar by hand, and carefully put each one in place. Their work yielded a much-needed house for a local family.
Working with children was on tap for one group of volunteers. Under the leadership of a sophomore student, a group of students taught a Mini Entrepreneurship Course to Qatar Academy fourth-graders twice a week for six weeks. QA students learned how to open and run their own lemonade stand, then came to campus and opened their stands for business. This was the second year for the program.
Student Activities
The Office of Student Activities provides advising, resources and support to empower students in creating and developing campus culture and community through social, recreational, leadership and service learning opportunities. We also have established a number of programs that mesh the curricular and cocurricular realms of students’ learning experiences thus spanning learning both in and out of the classroom. These efforts have been expanded through videoconferencing and simulcasting to include our home campus and beyond. This gives our students the benefits of dialogue and learning with their counterparts across the world. The goal to offer experiential learning to students and extend their education beyond Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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PITTSBURGH * * WASHINGTON D.C.
IRELAND * SPAIN * MOROCCO *
TURKEY * JORDAN *
* BAHRAIN * DUBAI INDIA * THAILAND *
GHANA *
* TANZANIA NIUE *
Service learning, leadership building or cultural development student trips at Carnegie Mellon Qatar have spanned the globe.
the classroom is also exemplified in the investment in excursions and trips abroad. Whether for service learning, leadership building or cultural development student trips at Carnegie Mellon Qatar have spanned the globe. They include travel to Ghana, Tanzania, Morocco, India, Niue, Thailand, Turkey, Spain, Ireland, Jordan, Dubai, Bahrain, Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh.
Community building
Community building is a strong component of the Carnegie Mellon educational philosophy. It provides a platform for individuals to come together as a whole and create a community in which they can thrive. By participating in events and activities that create, enhance and strengthen the Carnegie Mellon community, students directly increase their personal well being as well as that of their peers. Outdoor Education is a method of community building that was introduced to campus this year. It involves a high amount of personal challenge and risk, coupled with team building activities and group support in an outdoor environment. Because the activities involved – ranging from camping and hiking to rock climbing and mountaineering – are intended to put students outside of their comfort zone, the potential for personal growth is great. In collaboration with a certified paddling instructor and an undergraduate teaching assistant from Pittsburgh, group kayak paddling lessons were offered to students. Many students who had never even been in a kayak spent their Saturday afternoons learning to paddle and navigate through the water. A cultural and recreational trip to Morocco focused on the development of outdoor skills and cultural learning. A dozen students spent the trip hiking in the foothills, exploring the mountains and staying with local families. Students even spent one night sleeping in a cave carved out of the earth.
During a cultural trip to Morocco, students spent one night sleeping in a cave.
Pizza & Politics is a popular discussion series that brings together all members of the Carnegie Mellon Qatar community. These informal discussions give students, staff and faculty a chance to openly discuss a current hot issue. Topics have included the financial crisis, Doha’s bachelor ban and the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Helping other students acclimate to campus is the goal of the Q-Campus Buddies program. Older students help first-year students, exchange students and teaching assistants get acquainted with Carnegie Mellon’s campus and Education City. The Office of Health and Wellness supports community building by encouraging and supporting the physical health and wellbeing of students and the University community. The office empowers students to succeed in life by facilitating the acquisition of information, skills and attitudes that positively impact academic success and other life goals. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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Community building events
HEART HEALTH
PIZZA & POLITICS
The office holds various activities including Heart Health, a campus-wide blood pressure screening and heart disease information day. Think Pink Qatar is an event organized to raise breast cancer awareness. Programs on the importance of breast examination and taking a proactive role in one’s health are designed specifically to be culturally sensitive to our population. Preparing For Marriage is a seminar on sexual health education for male students in which culturally-appropriate pamphlets and educational materials were distributed. And the health hazards of smoking cigarettes and shisha — a flavored tobacco smoked out of a water pipe — are highlighted at the Campaign on Health Risks Associated with Smoking. The Office of Personal Development hosted several community events during the academic year as well. Mental Health Awareness Month aims to raise awareness on issues surrounding mental health. Celebrate Your Body is a month-long program to raise awareness of body image, self-esteem, nutrition and health. Express Yourself! group sessions focus on anger management for women. The goal of this program is to help women reflect on the ways they express frustration and anger and empower them to express themselves effectively.
International Initiatives
The Office of International Education aims to provide all students with a global world view through the delivery of cross-cultural educational programs and activities. These include study abroad and exchange programs, as well as serving as the student housing, international student and immigration liaison to Qatar Foundation. THINK PINK
PREPARING FOR MARRIAGE
SMOKING CESSATION
CELEBRATE YOUR BODY
EXPRESS YOURSELF!
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
The Exchange Program is intended to provide students in Qatar with the opportunity to attend classes on Carnegie Mellon’s flagship campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Thirty-four students from Doha traveled to Pittsburgh during the 2008 summer term. Of these, 21 went only once while 13 returned for another summer. During the academic year exchange, 32 students traveled to Pittsburgh to study for one term, seven of those stayed for an additional term. Twenty-two students attended the Fall 2008 semester, while 10 attended for the Spring 2009 term. Each year, Doha students join their Pittsburgh counterparts for Summit. In this program, students are able to explore interests in a variety of topics they may not have the opportunity to study during the academic year. Course offerings range from balloon twisting and glass blowing to paintball and survival in the wilderness. Similarly, students from Pittsburgh may travel to Qatar for QULTA, Qatar’s version of Summit. QULTA ran for two days during spring break. Classes included Sword Dancing, Arabic Coffee Culture, Arabic Calligraphy, Falconry, Henna and Traditional Qatari Fishing. This was the first time culture classes were offered in Qatar to visiting students from Pittsburgh. Another popular program, International Education Week, is a collaborative effort with Qatar Foundation and the other Education City branch campuses that offers programs and activities aimed at broadening student cultural horizons and celebrating diversity. Students in Qatar also took part in an International Etiquette Dinner, which is the campus equivalent of Pittsburgh’s business etiquette dinner. This event combined a business dinner with a cultural experience to create an evening that instructed students on culture-specific dinner etiquette.
Summer Exchange
Carnegie Mellon University’s home campus is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. By spending a summer, semester or academic year at Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh, students from Qatar broaden their world view and attend classes that may not be offered in Doha. Study-abroad opportunities also aid students in crosscultural communication.
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0
20 1 05
S2
20 2 06
2007 3
20 408
S1
20509
Academic Year Exchange 10 9 8
Number of Students
7
Number of Students who
6
only attended for one term
5 4 3 2 1 0
The charts represent the number of students from Qatar who traveled to Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh to study.
Fall 20105
Spring Fall 20206 20306
Spring 20407
Fall 20507
Spring 20608
Fall 20708
Spring 20809
Fall 20909
S1
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Clubs & Organizations
Carnegie Mellon Qatar continues to witness remarkable development not only in the number of organizations and clubs on campus but also in the scope of their activities and impact on the student community. We have 14 clubs and organizations, most of which are jointly advised by both staff and faculty.
Active Womens Club
Organizes opportunities for men and women to be active on campus
All Around
The student newspaper since 2004
CCSC
Computer Science Club that organizes events and competitions for CS majors
Health & Fitness
Promotes healthy lifestyles among students
LiveGreen
Promotes awareness of environmental and sustainability issues
AV Club
A self-education club on various topics involving technical audio/visual equipment
cmBA
Business Administration Club that organizes events and competitions for BA majors
Human Rights
Promotes awareness of different local and global issues
photography Club
Organizes photo exhibits and competitions
Activities Board
‘Tartanizing� campus since 2008 with various activities
Carnegie Mellon Debate Holds workshops and mock debates for students
Culture Club
Mostly focuses on events promoting cultural awareness and exploration
`IS Club
Information Systems Club that organizes events and competitions for IS majors
Student Majlis
Campus student government body that oversees all funding of clubs
Professional Development
The Office of Professional Development serves the campus community by advising and assisting students in exploring career options, connecting with employers and making informed career decisions. The office provides the critical connection between university and career. The office provides programs and resources in the areas of career exploration and guidance, internship development, professional fluency, practical training and graduate education. In providing real-world applications to student learning, programs connect the undergraduate experience with professional employment opportunities, further educational options and attainment of life goals. In May 2008, Carnegie Mellon Qatar graduated its first class. The year was highly successful in the placement of students. Of all graduates who responded to the postgraduation employment survey administered in September 2008, 92.5 percent report being either fully employed or in graduate school. All graduates received employment offers. On average, members of the Class of 2008 received three employment offers apiece. Graduates took on a variety of roles in a number of different companies including Accenture, Carnegie Mellon, Conoco Phillips, Ernst & Young, Exxon Mobil, HSBC, Investor’s Group, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar National Bank, Qatar National Research Fund, Qatar Olympic Committee, Qatar Petroleum, Qatari Diar, Q-Tel, Ras Gas, Reach Out to Asia, Region’s Holding (QFC), Shell and Vodafone. One graduate accepted a job with Carnegie Mellon Qatar and also started her own company, Araboh.com. Several students went straight to graduate school: two at the London School of Economics and one at Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh.
2008 Post Graduation employment statistics BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION graduates 17 employed 13 graduate school 3 *one graduate chose not to seek employment
COMPUTER SCIENCE graduates employed graduate school
10 10 0
Professional Fluency Series This series is designed to prepare students for job hunting and career success. Professional etiquette consultant Leila Deinerah hosted a Business Etiquette Dinner for students to learn how to present themselves with the kind of polish that shows they are to be taken seriously. Interviewing skills were covered in a presentation that also emphasized the importance of research and practice before an interview. During the week of Professional Day, Business Administration professors Patrick McGinnis and Mohammed Dobashi, along with student affairs intern Fabiha Naumi, hosted a networking skills event. The workshop emphasized the importance of building and maintaining relationships. Computer Science students were the focus of a resume workshop after they were identified as a group needing increased instruction in resume development. The Office of Professional Development worked in conjunction with Computer Science faculty and Professor McGinnis to develop the presentation. Two outlets for general résumé instruction were held this year. One was a workshop hosted by Professor McGinnis. The other was daily “office hours” for one week in the Academic Resource Center. Jinanne Tabra, student development coordinator in the Office of International Education, and Rosemary Lapka, Professor of Communication Design, also participated in these office hours. A Professional Presence Workshop covered business etiquette, e-mail etiquette and student awareness of their “professional brand.” The event covered the nuances of social networking, and the importance of awareness of an individual’s Internet presence. This year’s Business Fashion Show was entirely student run – everything from the organization to the financing. This provided a valuable learning opportunity in event planning for the cmBA club. Students set up a proper runway and had visitors from other Education City campuses come and watch.
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
CAREER EVENTS & PROGRAMS The office of Professional Development offered 30 diverse programs and events to help prepare students to enter the marketplace. The largest event is Professional Day. Held every spring, Professional Day gives students a chance to meet and network with industry representatives, and it gives organizations an opportunity to meet a large pool of young talent. Professional Day attendees 42 companies 200+ recruiters and reps. 8 alumni as official recruiters 129 undergraduate students 18 faculty members
Companies that attended Professional Day in March 2009 to recruit Carnegie Mellon Qatar undergraduate students as interns or employees. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
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2006 2007 2008 Interns
21
34
40
% Qatari
24
20
40
% Female
71
50
65
TOP INTERNSHIP PARTNERS 2006-2008 Commercial Bank ConocoPhillips Ernst & Young General Electric HSBC iHorizons KPMG Qatar Foundation Qatar Petroleum Q-CERT RasGas Shell Standard Chartered Bank
Alumni Career Networking and Mentoring Program These events involve alumni mentoring current students, as well as students networking with local business professionals. Professional Scoop was an alumni-driven event in which alumni came to campus and gave presentations regarding professional development. Student Affairs provided ice cream for the event, thus the “scoop.” Alumni spoke about professional dress, resumes and what to do at Professional Day. This event was particularly well received, and reinforces the importance of continued alumni involvement in the office’s endeavors. Members of the Class of 2008 came to campus in November for the ’08 Answers event. The alumni encouraged seniors to apply early for jobs and highlighted the importance of internships and working closely with the Office of Professional Development. The new alumni recommended students sign up for internships, attend the lecture series, network with industry representatives and participate in Professional Day. More importantly, alumni spoke about the transition from university student to young working professional. Many remarked on how well the education at Carnegie Mellon prepared them for the work force. Additionally, several official recruiters from national and multinational companies visited campus to speak with students, give lectures and attend Professional Day. Graduate School Information Series This series of lectures was organized to inform students about graduate school options, and guide them through the application process and program selection. Is Graduate School for Me? featured a panel of faculty and staff who spoke about their graduate school experiences. Panelists also discussed how to prepare graduate school applications. A Graduate School Search Strategy workshop was held for junior and senior students to give them advice on the process of selecting the right graduate program. Hope Rodefer of the Academic Resource Center hosted a workshop entitled Writing an Excellent Personal Statement, which focused on writing essays for graduate school applications. It consisted of an overview of how important a personal statement is, as well as brainstorming exercises for students. Liberal Arts and Sciences professor Ben Reilly offered weekly Exam Prep Workshops for students and alumni for taking the GMAT and GRE, which are graduate-school placement exams. Student Employment Program Fifty-seven Carnegie Mellon students participated in Qatar Foundation’s Student Employment Program this past year. The Office of Professional Development works closely with the Career Services and Student Employment Office and the Office of Faculty and Students Services at Qatar Foundation in coordinating the Student Employment Program. The office assists in facilitating and coordinating the Student Employment Program for several departments at Carnegie Mellon including the Academic Resource Center, Admission Office, Marketing & Public Relations and the library. Internships An internship is one of the most valuable tools the University has to showcase the caliber of its students to the corporate world. Additionally, employers have found the program to be mutually beneficial to their recruitment efforts. Over the past three years, the number of students applying for internships has been on a steady increase. In the summer of 2008, 40 Carnegie Mellon Qatar students worked internships. Most students used Professional Day to make their internship connections.
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Making the Connection Lecture Series
One major institution of the student programming is the Making the Connection lecture series. Top executives from all over the world are invited to Carnegie Mellon Qatar to speak to students about different topics of industry, as well as opportunities at his or her organization.
Grahame Maher Chief Executive Officer Vodafone Qatar Recruitment Partners The following companies have either provided internship or extended job offers to Carnegie Mellon Qatar students: Accenture Al Ahli Hospital Al Fardan Group Al Watan Project Barwa Bayt.com BDO Consulting Blue Salon Carnegie Mellon Qatar Cisco Commercial Bank ConocoPhillips Deloitte Dolphin Energy DuPont Ernst & Young Exxon Mobil Fitch Four Seasons Fuego Digital Media General Electric Gulf Talent Hill & Knowlton HSBC Bank ictQATAR iHorizons International Bank of Qatar KPMG Maersk Oil Microsoft Research India Microsoft Standard Chartered Bank Morgan Stanley Occidental ORYX GTL
Oryx Printing Progressive Q-Tel QAPCO Qatar Airways Qatar Building Co. Qatar Central Bank Qatar Chamber of Commerce Qatar Financial Centre Qatar Foundation Qatargas Qatar Islamic Bank Qatar Museum Authority Qatar National Bank Qatar National Research Fund Qatar Olympic Committee Qatar Petroleum Qatari Diar Q-CERT QNRF QSTP RasGas Reach Out To Asia Reed Region Holding (QFC) Rubicon Shell Sidra Medical and Research Center Standard Chartered Bank Total United Development Company US Embassy Vodafone
Timothy P. Flynn International Chairman KPMG Kevin Higgins Senior Vice President Strategy Fuego Digital Media Frederic Ribieras Chief Financial Officer General Electric Oil & Gas Douglas Comer VP of Research Collaboration Cisco Robert P. Kelly Chairman and CEO Bank of New York Mellon Luke Skurman President, CEO and Founder College Prowler Andy Brown Country Chairman and Managing Director Shell Qatar
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corporate relations Strategic Initiatives Corporate Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program
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Carnegie Mellon faculty and local business executives gather together for a Carnegie Club event. Carnegie Club is a round-table discussion forum for business topics.
The Department of Strategic Initiatives
Strategic Initiatives is responsible for cultivating external educational and research projects to support and enhance the education programs at Carnegie Mellon Qatar; broaden the University’s global influence; and support Qatar in its efforts to become a regional leader in education, business and technology. Strategic Initiatives develops and maintains corporate and government relations, explores and develops research initiatives, partners with the Tepper School of Business to set strategy and business development activities for corporate education programs, manages program delivery on site as needed and facilitates faculty and administrator interactions with external entities as needed. Strategic Initiatives also represents the University in government-sponsored activities such as the International Energy Forum to discuss world-wide human resource challenges in engineering and the university’s role in addressing them. In addition, Strategic Initiatives supports undergraduate education by bringing external guests to be involved in course-related activities such as recruiting board members for Management Game, the capstone course of the Business Administration program. Research Carnegie Mellon’s research focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to real-world problems. Strategic Initiatives connects faculty research with industry needs. The current research questions include industrial water reuse, sustainable built environment, business process improvement, supply chain management in energy industry, robotic pipe inspection and Arabic language technologies. Strategic Initiatives develops a number of mechanisms to facilitate such research partnerships. For example, it organizes presentations by external guests to interact with faculty. This year, guest speakers included members of the Qatar Science and Technology Park. Strategic Initiatives also helped host a Research and Technology Commercialization luncheon, during which senior members of the University faculty and leaders of Qatar Foundation and the business community met and exchanged ideas on emerging research themes and the University’s role in technology commercialization. Finally, Strategic Initiatives invites corporate partners to visit campuses in Qatar and Pittsburgh to have a broad view of the University’s core mission and research programs.
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
Executive Education Carnegie Mellon Qatar and the Tepper School of Business deliver executive education programs that introduce conceptual frameworks and practical knowledge in the best management thinking and practices to industrial participants. Strategic Initiatives and Tepper Executive Education develop the executive education strategy jointly while Strategic Initiatives leads the effort to develop partnerships in Qatar. Our joint approach is to focus on the following elements: making our programs relevant to the regional market—especially Qatar; building deep engagements with partner institutions; and developing unique programs that leverage our understanding of global and specific regional needs.
Managing Scale and Complexity in LNG Supply Chains Professor R. Ravi headed a forum discussing the joint systems in place in LNG chains, identifying synergies and differences in chains and exploring opportunities for continuous improvement of those chains.
Carnegie Club The Carnegie Club is a round-table discussion forum for business topics. Discussions are led by Carnegie Mellon faculty with domain expertise and attended by a small group of executives from relevant business and government organizations. After each session, the participating faculty members write white papers that frame the discussion and summarize its main points and conclusions. Carnegie Club is designed to cultivate research that can aid regional business performance and sustain ability by bringing faculty in contact with local business issues to which their expertise may be relevant. By doing so it will: • Build a reputation that the work done at Carnegie Mellon Qatar can improve business performance and sustainability • Enhance interactions between faculty and industry by extending awareness of university intellectual assets that are relevant to organizations • Develop Carnegie Mellon’s brand in Qatar and the immediate region by creating a recognizable program highlighting University competitive advantages • Create new, relevant content for business education by identifying specific Qatar and regional challenges and solutions. The goal for the next three years is to generate relevant and intellectually provocative discussions and serve as a conduit to follow-on projects so that the Carnegie Club will be viewed in Qatar as a quality academic forum in which eminent faculty and leaders in business and government are honored to be able to participate. Custom Programs The emphasis of Carnegie Mellon’s Executive Education is on the development and delivery of custom programs. We invest our resources in the customization process, creating higher returns and value. The custom education programs are characterized by having: • An interdisciplinary approach to draw on intellectual capital across the University in engineering, social sciences and arts • Flexibility to meet logistical needs.
The custom programs include leadership and business acumen programs. The firms we are engaging in Qatar are characterized by rapid growth and organizational development or restructuring.
Carnegie Club Spring 2009 events
Strategic Initiatives works on four programs under executive education: • Carnegie Club • Custom programs (provided by the Tepper School of Business) • Global Immersion program (provided by the Tepper School of Business and Carnegie Bosch Institute) • Business Fundamentals program (in planning)
Green Building Matters Stephen Lee, architect and professor, and Rami el Samahy, assistant professor of architecture, led a roundtable on sustainable design initiatives at the School of Architecture’s Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, and how such efforts can be made relevant to Qatar.
If Strategic Human Resources Management is Common Sense, Why is Common Sense in Such Short Supply? Professor Mark Fichman discussed questions such as why management practices such as downsizing/ rightsizing rarely pay off, why paying for performance does not always work as it should and why managers do not invest in HR changes that have consistently led to outstanding results.
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Twenty-seven men and 18 women enrolled in the second Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program.
Global Immersion Program for Executives Offered through the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, the Global Immersion Program consists of two primary components: participation in the Carnegie Bosch Institute’s Global Leadership Forum (an intensive four-week program in Pittsburgh that addresses key topics in international strategy and leadership) and an additional period of 2-4 weeks of independent study to learn more about business in the U.S. and/or explore more deeply a self-determined project. The Global Executive Forum seeks to present, synthesize and apply knowledge about the multicultural professional environment. Top faculty members from America, Europe and Asia address key issues of strategy and leadership while presenting topics of broad economic and international scope. This program challenges and corrects executives’ assumptions about leadership, ethics marketing and other areas. During the Independent Study period, participants engage in the following activities: - Academic Mentoring: one-on-one mentoring from Tepper School of Business faculty
- Attend at Tepper MBA and/or executive classes
- Industry Visits: scheduled visits to benchmark companies to explore operations, organizational design and approaches to global strategy/business from a North American perspective
- Cultural Immersion: scheduled visits to North American government/public administrative organization, school system, health-care institution, cultural events and experiences
- Facilitation of participants’ self-guided study, travel and cultural experience in Pittsburgh and the United States.
The Global Immersion program ultimately seeks to provide cutting-edge management concepts and approaches, a multi-cultural learning experience and an emphasis on leading change that enhances enterprise performance. 44
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program
The Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program kicked off its second year with 45 students: 27 men and 18 women. The Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program, formerly the Executive Entrepreneurship Certificate Program, is a nine-month, part-time course that encourages entrepreneurs to follow their dreams by giving them the skills needed to transform an idea into a marketable business venture. The CIEP is offered in Doha as a partnership between Carnegie Mellon University and Qatar Science & Technology Park. Carnegie Mellon teamed up with Qatar Science & Technology Park to offer the program in Doha because QSTP is a hub for international companies and an incubator of start-up technology businesses, and Carnegie Mellon is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world. QSTP aims to develop Qatar’s knowledge economy, and a key way of doing this is by providing people with the skills and resources to commercialize technology. Twelve nationalities are represented in the class, and nearly half of the participants are Qatari. Forty-one students enrolled in the inaugural session, which ran from August 2007 to May 2008. Several start-up companies formed from that program and are seeking to take their ideas to the next level.
Clinipharma is one of the businesses that grew out of the first CIEP program. Dr. Nedaa Nassief, a medical doctor who specializes in respiratory medicine, and Dr. Pascal Derde, senior veterinarian at Al Shaqab, partnered together to further the mission of using an existing hepatitis drug to treat the growing problem of asthma. Nassief and Derde believe CliniPharma’s patented new use of the existing medication will revolutionize the way doctors treat and control asthma.
This year, several local organizations including ictQATAR. Qatar Foundation and Qatar Financial Centre, are sponsoring employees in the program. Carnegie Mellon Qatar is hoping to have more support from local corporations because innovation and entrepreneurship are important components for the development of Qatar. The CIEP program is comprised of four courses: Entrepreneurial Thought & Action; Technology Commercialization Strategy; Technology Commercialization Workshop; and Entrepreneurial Business Planning. Each of the four courses is seven weeks long and begins with one week of intensive hands-on classes called “fast weeks,” which are held in Carnegie Mellon’s new building in Education City. A network of successful entrepreneurs and managers give the lectures, discuss case studies and provide students with valuable personal advice. The remaining six weeks are comprised of independent student work and videoconferences with the Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh. The videoconferences are held at Carnegie Mellon in Education City in Doha, outside of business hours. Subsequent “fast weeks” are held in January, February and May. The CIEP program wrapped up in June. Carnegie Mellon Qatar and QSTP have a five-year agreement to run the program.
EDUCQUEST is an educational services and solutions provider that formed in the second Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program. By specializing in the development of educational solutions for government clients in the K-12 arena, EducQuest is targeting the rising student population in the MENA region as well as the rising trend of education reform and investment currently being adopted by a number of countries in the region. Hisham Nafie and Mohammed Khalil began the venture out of a shared love of education.
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research National Priorities Research Program Undergraduate Research Experience Project Seed Projects Cloud Computing
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Hala the robot receptionist is one of the projects being developed through the NPRP grant program. Hala works at the main reception desk at the Carnegie Mellon Qatar building where she can communicate in both English and Arabic.
Research
Carnegie Mellon Qatar has made significant progress toward building a solid research capability, and our current trajectory is promising. Although our primary mission for the foreseeable future will be education, Carnegie Mellon will continue to nurture and grow opportunities for faculty members to build research programs in their areas of interest and expertise. Carnegie Mellon Qatar continues to actively pursue mutually-beneficial opportunities for research collaboration with colleagues at numerous other universities. They include our partner institutions in Education City, Qatar University, Carnegie Mellon’s home campus in the United States and other academic institutions around the world.
National Priorities Research Program
Research efforts at Carnegie Mellon Qatar continue to receive support from the National Priorities Research Program (NPRP). This program is intended to support the overarching goal of the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), which is to foster 48
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
a research culture in Qatar. Specifically, NPRP grants will build human capital in Qatar; fund research to benefit the nation, the region and the world; and raise Qatar’s profile in the international research community. Carnegie Mellon Qatar currently has 10 NPRP-funded projects in progress from the first two rounds of program funding. These projects represent more than $6.8 million in awarded grants. Carnegie Mellon saw a significant increase in interest in the NPRP program for the second round of program awards, submitted in November 2008. Carnegie Mellon Qatar faculty submitted 33 proposals including proposals from each of our program areas (Business Administration, Computer Science and Information Systems), as well as chemistry, education policy, history, mathematics, sociology and statistics. Building on Carnegie Mellon’s tradition of collaborative research, the submitted proposals included collaborators from 13 universities around the world.
Undergraduate Research Experience Projects
Carnegie Mellon Qatar faculty members participate in QNRF’s Undergraduate Research Experience Project program, undertaking a few projects each year. The UREP program seeks to stimulate a broad array of undergraduate research opportunities in Education City and Qatar University through faculty- and other researcher-led projects involving one or more students. In general, UREP has been effective in encouraging students to get involved in research and in recognizing and supporting their research work, often in the form of senior theses.
Qatar Cloud Computing Center
Carnegie Mellon Qatar recently entered into a partnership with IBM, Texas A&M at Qatar and Qatar University to house the Qatar Cloud Computing Center. This ambitious project aims to provide a platform for cloud computing that the partner universities can use to explore research
Current NPRP projects Principal Investigator
Title Non-Destructive Gas Pipeline Inspection Using Computer Vision
Brett Browning
Improved Arabic Natural Language Processing through Semisupervised and Cross-Lingual Learning
Kemal Oflazer
Automated Measurement of Galaxy Morphology
Alex Rojas Pena
CameraNets: Coverage, Networking and Storage Problems in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks
Khaled Harras and Nael Abu Ghazaleh
Automated Tools for Effective Team Coordination in Emergency Response
M. Bernardine Dias
Modeling Control of Infectious Diseases with Behavior-Driven Infectivity
Jon Caulkins
Images of Muslim Women in Translated Mideast Media Sources: A Content and Discourse Analysis
Amal Al Malki
Human-Robot Interaction in an Arabic Social and Cultural Setting
Majd Sakr
Intelligent Diabetes Assistant: Predicting and Optimizing Blood Glucose
Chuck Thorpe
Enhanced Education for the Visually and Aurally Impaired Using Automated Tutors and Interactive Computer Games
M. Bernardine Dias
Current UREP projects Title
Faculty & Student Investigator
I-GEST – a Multi-Point Low-Cost Gesture-Based Input Platform
Faculty: Majd Sakr Khaled Harras Student: Jackson Davis
Creating New Options for Income Generation using Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs): A Partnership with Reach out to Asia (ROTA)
Faculty: M. Bernardine Dias Khaled Harras Student: Shakir Hussain
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in their areas of specialization. In Carnegie Mellon’s case, the research focus will be high-performance computing systems. The initial cloud computing cluster will be housed at Carnegie Mellon. Subsequent nodes will be housed at the partner universities and integrated to form a distributed cloud platform with the ability to share and seamlessly migrate computing resources across the clusters and campuses. Although this project is in its early stages, it illustrates the scope and type of research opportunities that we can pursue with our colleagues at other Education City schools and Qatar University.
Seed Projects
Carnegie Mellon Qatar faculty members who have agreed to teach in Qatar for at least three years are eligible to participate in the University’s Seed Funding program. Faculty members may apply for research grants of up to $200,000 to initiate and fund research projects in their area of expertise. Many faculty members choose to spread these funds across multiple projects. The Seed program continues to be an important tool for recruiting strong faculty to join Carnegie Mellon Qatar, and helping faculty build their research programs once they arrive. Faculty members have put their seed funding toward a wide variety of projects, often producing significant publications based on the work funded by the Seed program. To date, we have cumulatively funded more than 40 seed projects undertaken by 30 faculty researchers. These projects have lead to 38 NPRP proposals; 11 NPRP grant awards (totaling over $6.8M); collaborations with researchers from 37 different academic institutions around the world; and 119 published papers, books and conference presentations. Overall, the Seed program has been an extremely effective (and cost effective) way to encourage and enable faculty research at Carnegie Mellon Qatar.
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Ongoing Seed Projects Principal Investigator
Area
Project
Amal Al-Malki
Social Science
Language Hybridity Unveiling herself before the English Reader “Images of Islamic Women in Translated Mideast Media Resources”
Brett Browning
Robotics
Real-Time Vision Based Robot Perception
Steven Calabrese
Public Economics
Welfare and Distributional Analyses of Public Fiscal Policy The Political Economy of Legislature Districting
Lynn Carter
Computer Science: Software Engineering & Engineering Management
Software engineering, engineering management, systems engineering, testing, technology adoption and change management
Jon Caulkins
Operations Research
Drug Policy Analysis
Iliano Cervesato
Computer Security, Programming Languages, Computational Logic
Automated Analysis of Large Cryptographic Protocols
Bernardine Dias
Robotics
Robotics
Hasan Demirkoparan
Mathematics
Boundary Value Problems in Non Linear Elasticity when Solid Mechanics is Coupled with other effects.
Khaled Harras
Computer Networking
Integrating Multiple Parallel Networks to Enhance Delay Tolerant Networking Protocols
Erik Helin
Spanish
Research in Spanish Language Learning in Qatar
Ian Lacey
Information Systems
Exploration of the Concept of the Dynamic Web as a Global Knowledge Base
Selma Limam Mansar
Information Systems
Best Practices in Business Process Management and Global Sourcing of IT
Silvia Pessoa
English
Academic Writing Development among Carnegie Mellon Qatar Students
Benjamin Reilly
History
Arabic Language Studies
`
Global Disaster Textbook Project Arabic Docuscope Project Dudley Reynolds
Applied Linguistics
Qatari English Corpora Construction
Alex Rojas
Statistics
Characterization of the Influence of Local Environment on Galaxy Evolution
Majd Sakr
Computer Science
General Purpose Execution of Media Applications Human-robot Interaction in an Arabic Setting National Sensor Network
Chuck Thorpe
Robotics
Robotics Research Report 2004-2005 Intelligent Diabetes Assistant
George White
Entrepreneurship
Voice-Activated Personal Telephony Assistant
Yonina Cooper
Computer Science
ICTD in developing Regions/Impacts of Teaching Approaches on Learning/Developing Icons for Alice
Kemal Oflazer
Computer Science
Exploiting local syntactic structure for statistical machine translation into morphologically complex languages.
Terry Murphy
Chemistry
Air Quality Monitoring at Education City
Mohamed Dobashi
Business Administration
Yemen’s Quest for Inclusion in GCC & Sheikh Faisal Biography
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marketing & PUBLIC RELATIONS
Creative Services Media Relations Special Events Management
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The Class of 2009 Commencement was the first one held in Carnegie Mellon’s new building. Above, professor Marion Oliver serves as faculty marshal during the ceremony.
The primary goal of the Office of Marketing and Public Relations is to extend Carnegie Mellon’s global brand throughout the region by working together with our colleagues on the main campus. Additionally, we work closely with our colleagues at the other branch campuses and Qatar Foundation to promote the mission and vision of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned. This was a milestone year in the history of the University with two defining events —the celebration of our new building in Education City and Bill Gates’ visit to campus for the ICTD Conference. Diverse collaborations, international outreach and new initiatives have been the focus. Carnegie Mellon Qatar continues to experience an increase in media attention, not only in Qatar but also in the Middle East and the rest of the world. Additionally, the office plays a pivotal role in the planning and execution of all University branding, events, activities and publicity. The team works closely with other departments, senior staff, faculty and students to ensure the Carnegie Mellon message is consistently conveyed to a wide and varied audience base. In response to the strategic plan for the office, three distinct areas have been established: creative, which includes writing, editing, graphic design, electronic media and web; media relations; and special events management.
Creative Services
Branding One of the first creative initiatives was designing and implementing a new brand identity and unveiling of a new logo. This new artwork features the Arabic script in a larger size and also emphasizes Carnegie Mellon’s global wordmark. This design emphasizes the Arabic text and at the same time highlights the university’s global branding. A redesign of the Carnegie Mellon Qatar Web site also was done to ensure consistent messaging and design with Carnegie Mellon’s main page, www.cmu.edu. The new design focuses on ease of navigation for external audiences and implements a Content Management System (CMS) to empower the entire campus community to keep 54
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
Qatar Foundation and Carnegie Mellon University:
A Shared Vision Realized
What is needed is not simply to take one step forward, but to embark upon a comprehensive process that embraces modernity without trepidation and welcomes progress without fear. His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Amir of the State of Qatar
the site dynamic and up-to-the-minute. Site development began during this fiscal year, with a fall 2009 launch planned. Publications Major publications are one component in the marketing strategy. Akhbar, which is the Arabic word for news, is the official campus magazine. Akhbar is published twice a year. The Winter/Spring issue highlighted the building opening, sustainability efforts in Qatar, a student service trip to Ghana and the first StuCo, which is a student-taught class. The Summer/Fall issue featured stories on Bill Gates’ keynote address at the ICTD Conference, outdoor education, the mural for Sheikha Mozah and the Carnegie Club. In conjunction with the opening of the new building, a bilingual publication entitled Qatar Foundation and Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar: A Shared Vision Realized was published. A program was designed for the Meeting of the Minds undergraduate research symposium; a proceedings was created for the ICTD Conference; and executive education materials were designed for the Strategic Initiatives department. Invitation and programs were published for the Building Opening Celebration Invitation, Senior Celebration and Graduation. Multimedia Numerous multi-media projects were produced to incorporate innovative technology, adding a dynamic aspect to major events and initiatives. At the building celebration event, three videos were played including a milestone video featuring major events in the five years Carnegie Mellon has been in Doha; a time lapse video of building construction; and an emotive student video in which they talked of their experience at Carnegie Mellon. Additionally, a virtual ribbon-cutting video was filmed to coincide with the cutting of the actual ribbon.
akhbar ﺃﺧﺒﺎﺭ Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Winter 2008/Spring 2009
A shared vision realized
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s new building in Education City
akhbar ﺃﺧﺒﺎﺭ Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Summer/Fall 2009
A commemorative video was produced on the building opening event, and a video on the Senior Celebration and Graduation was produced and given to graduates to welcome them as Carnegie Mellon alumni. Continuing the university’s history of being on the forefront of adopting new technology, Carnegie Mellon was the first organization in the Gulf Region to install an electronic signage system throughout the building. To provide ease of use, an online poster generator was developed and integrated into the digital signage system. Facebook As a key part of our communications strategy, a Facebook page has been created to take advantage of the social networking phenomenon. During the year, various minor initiatives have yielded more than 600 fans worldwide. We are continuing to develop new strategies to use this medium to target our various constituencies and extend our global reach.
Bill Gates Microsoft founder visits Doha as ICTD keynote speaker
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2008-2009 Advertising
Excellence. At Carnegie Mellon. + Business Administration + Computer Science + Information Systems
Excellence. At Carnegie Mellon. + Business Administration + Computer Science + Information Systems
Excellence. At Carnegie Mellon. + Business Administration + Computer Science + Information Systems
Congratulations Class of 2009
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’s 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. The campus is a key component of Carnegie Mellon’s continuing mission to provide students around the world with the highest level of knowledge and preparedness for a changing world.
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’s core values of innovation, creativity, problem solving and collaborative teamwork provide the foundation for everything we do.
This year, Qatar Foundation and Carnegie Mellon are celebrating the grand opening of the university’s new building in Education City. Renowned architects Legoretta+Legoretta designed this state-of-the-art teaching and learning structure to Carnegie Mellon’s specifications, enabling the university to deliver academic programs and conduct research in worldclass facilities.
www.qatar.cmu.edu Phone Fax Web
To learn more, visit www.qatar.cmu.edu.
Excellence. At Carnegie Mellon.
Excellence. At Carnegie Mellon.
+ Business Administration + Computer Science
+ Business Administration + Computer Science
+ Information Systems
+ Information Systems
With more than a century of academic excellence and innovative research, Carnegie Mellon University is a global leader in education with real-world applications.
Welcome. Class of 2013.
At the invitation of Qatar Foundation, Carnegie Mellon joined Education City in 2004. The campus is a key component of Carnegie Mellon’s continuing mission to provide students around the world with the highest level of knowledge and preparedness for a changing world.
+ 974 454 8400 + 974 454 8410 www.qatar.cmu.edu
Excellence. At Carnegie Mellon. + Business Administration + Computer Science + Information Systems
Phone Fax Web
+ 974 454 8400 + 974 454 8410 www.qatar.cmu.edu
To learn more, visit www.qatar.cmu.edu.
www.qatar.cmu.edu
Advertising Outlets Magazines in Qatar Oryx, the Qatar Airways magazine Marhaba Time Out – Doha Qatar Happening B’Here Magazine Progress Qatar International Magazines MEED Online Facebook
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
Newspapers in Qatar Al Sharq Al Rayan Al Watan Al Arab Peninsula Gulf Times Qatar Tribune Directories Council for International Schools 2009
Part of our multi-faceted strategy is to explore targeted advertising on Facebook. To gauge the effectiveness of using social networking in our communication strategy, we worked with the Office of Admission to develop and measure the effectiveness of a one-month ad campaign targeting potential students in the MENA region and Southeast Asia. Because of its unprecedented success in driving new visitors to our Web site, Facebook and other social networking opportunities have become vital to our communication strategy.
Students pose in a variety of new items branded with the Carnegie Mellon Qatar logo.
Branded Items To further our branding initiatives, numerous new items were ordered emblazoned with the Carnegie Mellon Qatar logo. They include T-shirts, polo shirts, pens, note pads, flash drive pens, pens with flash drive and laser pointer, sunshades portfolios and laptop bags. These items assist in increasing brand awareness and creating a collegiate atmosphere among students, staff and faculty.
Media Relations
Media coverage continues to increase each year. In addition to continued coverage in print media, a partnership with Al Jazeera Children’s Channel provides international television exposure. Since 2007, JCC has been filming documentary–style programs on the Botball high school robotics program. This year, JCC doubled the number of episodes to 14 because of the popularity of this program throughout the region. Several large initiatives and events garnered local, nation and international coverage this year. The announcement of the Cloud Computing Center was covered globally, as was Bill Gates giving the keynote address at the ICTD conference. The opening of the University’s first building outside of the home campus was covered in various outlets all over the world, and the second graduating class also received global media attention. For a list of Press Clippings, see Appendix D. For a list of Press Releases, see Appendix E.
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Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, chairperson of Qatar Foundation, cut the ribbon to officially open Carnegie Mellon’s new building in Education City. She was joined on stage by Chuck Thorpe, dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar; Jared Cohon (pictured above), president of Carnegie Mellon; the entire student body and alumni.
Special Events Management
Event Management focuses on developing event concepts, planning the logistics, coordinating technical aspects, maintaining brand integrity and executing an event that meets the standards of the University. One ongoing special event is the Distinguished Lecture Series. The Distinguished Lecture Series was created in 2007 as a way to expand the breadth of educational opportunities offered by Carnegie Mellon Qatar. People from all over the world who have different messages and different areas of expertise are invited to Education City to speak to university students and guests from the community. This year, the DLS featured Alejandro Portes, Ph.D., professor of Sociology and director of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University, and renowned researcher and robotics professor Takeo Kanade, Ph.D. The most important milestone event this year was the opening of the University’s new building in Education City. MPR conceptualized and executed the event with the aid of a professional events company. Professional Day continues to be a University-wide event. MPR was in charge of branding, pop ups, staging, Web site and information pack. The ICTD conference also was coordinated by MPR. This includes branding, posers, flyers, Web site, registration and event logistics. Coordination was also done with Al Jazeera Children’s Channel, which filmed the entire event. For the second year, Senior Celebration and Graduation also were handled by MPR. The Senior Celebration event welcomes all graduating seniors, their families, faculty and some staff. Graduation, which is our largest annual event, attracts upwards of 800 guests. This year’s graduation was especially notable due to it being the first graduation ceremony in the new building. For a list of Events, see Appendix C. Looking forward to 2009-2010 Major initiatives planned for 2009-2010 include the following: a public version of the Annual Report that highlights the accomplishments of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar; launch of the new Web site (www.qatar. cmu.edu); expanding Akhbar to a full bilingual publication; a regional Facebook advertising campaign; and expanded services to other departments at Carnegie Mellon Qatar.
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regional breakdown by country
Qatar Turkey Saudi Arabia UAE Jordan Lebanon bahrain palestine kuwait oman Egypt indonesia Malaysia
51,661 3.38
June 20 08
27,428 2.11 20 une 08
Web site hits pages viewed
J
When expressing the major challenges in higher education leadership today, a prominent global leader in higher education replied: "The world is changing rapidly, driven by powerful forces such as economics, politics, demographics, religion and technology. We have seen enormous increases in globalization over the past few decades that have transformed how we do business, how we live, and how our governments function. American universities have been affected only marginally by these powerful forces thus far, but it is difficult to imagine that they will not be changed in significant, perhaps radical, ways over the next few decades."
totals
June 20 09
Our challenge for the future The Office of Marketing and Public Relations seeks to understand and respond to the rapid changes that are occurring in the region. An ever-increasing understanding of communication, technology and new media is essential. While new technologies are providing additional ways for our various audiences to get current information about the University, the relational aspect will not be sacrificed. We find it essential that technology and communication go hand-in-hand in order to effectively serve the students, meet the needs of the University and respond to the demands of the rapidly changing market in higher education.
June 20 09
Web site hits during one-month Facebook ad campaign in June 2009 compared with same period last year.
16,675 2,356 1,796 1,648 883 641 531 497 480 309 2,635 2,185 1,536
10,831 71 229 422 68 82 144 5 93 124 179 10 51
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planning Building Occupancy Institutional Effectiveness & Assessment
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Building Occupancy
ABOUT NSSE
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) annually obtains information from hundreds of four-year universities nationwide about student participation in programs and activities provided for learning and personal development. The results provide an estimate of how undergraduates spend their time and what they gain from attending university. Institutions use their data to identify aspects of the undergraduate experience inside and outside the classroom that can be improved. This information is also used by prospective college students, parents, college counselors, academic advisers, institutional research officers and researchers in learning more about how students spend their time and what they gain from their experiences. More than 1,300 different colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada have participated in NSSE since it was first administered in 2000.
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Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
In late July 2008, Carnegie Mellon moved into a portion of its building, though construction is still underway and expected to continue to the end of 2009. As of June 30, 2009, construction continues on the upper floor, which will serve as the temporary home for Northwestern University. Now that the University has taken occupancy of the building, planning is now shifting its focus to institutional effectiveness and assessment.
Institutional Effectiveness & Assessment
The Carnegie Mellon Qatar Committee for the Assessment of Student Learning and Development was established in the 2007-2008 academic year, with the work of the committee continuing into this past academic year. Efforts focus on articulating learning outcomes for all courses and academic and metacurricular programs; developing meaningful measures of how well students achieve those outcomes; developing a tool for faculty to use at the end of each semester to reflect on what worked well with the courses they taught; what could be improved; and ideas for how to plan and teach these courses in the future and fostering discussion about pedagogy and sharing approaches that instructors have found effective in the courses they teach. The National Survey on Student Engagement Under the coordination of Qatar Foundation’s Education Division, Carnegie Mellon Qatar participated in the National Survey of Student Engagement survey in the spring of 2008 and, again, in spring of 2009. The survey was administered to all first-year and senior students by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. Each of the Education City branch campuses participated in the survey. The survey is a valid and reliable measure of student engagement, which has been shown to correlate significantly with academic performance and overall success of undergraduate students. The 2008 responses from Carnegie Mellon Qatar and the other branch campuses in Education City indicate higher levels of engagement than do the responses from all 722 universities that participated in the survey. In most instances Carnegie Mellon Qatar scores are in the top 10 percent of all NSSE participants. The 2009 results will be analyzed this fall when the data is received from NSSE administrators. This will provide a similar snap shot of student engagement levels for the classes of 2009 and 2012, and will be compared with 2008 results. This August, Carnegie Mellon Qatar will participate in a related program entitle the Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE). Incoming freshmen will be asked to complete this instrument that establishes a baseline for comparisons with future NSSE results.
Level of Academic Challenge
Active and Collaborative Learning
100
100
90
90
80
80
70
70
60
60
50
50
40
40
30
30
20
20
10
10 0
0 1
first years
1
2
2
first years
seniors
seniors
Student-Faculty Interaction
Enriching Educational Experiences 100
100
90
90
80
80
70
70
60
60
50
50
40
40
30
30
20
20
10
10 0
0
first 1years
2 seniors
1 first years
2 seniors
Supportive Campus Environment 100 90 80
2008 National Survey of Student Engagement comparison between Carnegie Mellon Qatar and the NSSE average of 722 participating universities.
70 60 50
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
40 30
NSSE average
20 10 0 1 first years
2 seniors
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operations Human Resources Information Technology Facilities Global Security Finance
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The assembly area in the threestory atrium is the hub of the new Carnegie Mellon Qatar Building in Education City.
Human Resources
The Human Resources Department executed several customer-focused goals this year including understanding staff and faculty needs and providing a high level of customer service; handling issues with professional care; gaining the trust and confidence of students, employees, customers and vendors; and communicating and coordinating effectively with all departments. Several new initiatives allowed HR to achieve these goals. An Immigration Tracking System was designed and developed to establish a database for University faculty and staff with regard to the services provided to them. Also this year a new orientation program was developed that introduces all new employees to University’s policies, processes, key personnel and other resources. Additionally, this year HR became proactive in assisting in the transition of new employees and relocating their families.
Information Technology
This year, Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s Information Technology team faced its most challenging year due to a number of goals that had to be accomplished. They include supporting the campus community in the LAS Building; deploying a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure in the new building; seamlessly moving users from LAS to the new building; supporting FY2009 classes in the midst of building construction, moving the IT server infrastructure from the Cornell datacenter during spring classes; and continuing to assist the build out of the second floor of the building to accommodate both Carnegie Mellon Qatar and Northwestern University academic IT services.
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The overwhelming focus was on readying the new building for Fall 2008 classes and moving the campus community from the Liberal Arts and Sciences Building. The building contractor hand-off was three months behind schedule, which placed enormous pressure on the IT teams in Qatar and Pittsburgh to keep to the originally planned occupancy date so classes would not be disrupted. The challenges faced by the IT team ranged from a small fire, water leaks and air conditioning outages to dust from continuing construction and power outages. Despite these obstacles, the IT teams were able to provide an initial infrastructure that accommodated the campus community’s occupancy date and support classes. This deployment also included desktop and cluster upgrades, a VoIP phone system and an A/V infrastructure with a user interface that is consistent with Pittsburgh classroom devices.
Facilities Department
The year brought intense activity around the delivery of the new building. The Facilities Management Department worked to ensure a seamless transition throughout the move. The campus worked patiently with the issues of occupying and living in an unfinished building while Facilities Management dealt with each and every issue. Final construction has begun on the third floor of our building for the dedicated space that will be occupied by Northwestern University Qatar (NU) in October 2009. The Facilities Management Department is working with representatives from NU, Qatar Foundation and Qatar Petroleum to plan the work such that it will serve NU but thereafter will also be ready to serve Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s needs.
Global Security
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s Global Security program was established in 2003 on the main campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The program was relocated to Qatar in 2006 as a means to further grow and develop the program and better support the University’s interests in Qatar. Moving into the new Carnegie Mellon Building was a key milestone this year for both the University and Global Security. Global Security participated from the earliest days of the design phase through construction of the building on the full security infrastructure, integrating principles of security by environmental design and ensuring a strong, secure and transparent security environment. Fresh in its new building and eager to work with Qatar Foundation, Carnegie Mellon Qatar almost immediately became a focal point for hosting major events for Education City.
Northwestern University will be moving into the Carnegie Mellon building in the fall of 2009. NUQ is expected to be a tenant for three years.
Finance
The Carnegie Mellon Qatar Finance office supports Carnegie Mellon Qatar in the areas of accounting and finance, and is a central resource/liaison for the departments in Pittsburgh and Qatar. The office maintains close coordination with Qatar Foundation’s Finance Department, and plays a vital role in the process of decision making, budget control, reporting and planning. The office also is actively involved with Qatar Foundation’s Finance Committee and in providing information for Carnegie Mellon Management as well as the Joint Advisory Board. The office is staffed with full-time personnel in Pittsburgh and Qatar.
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appendices
Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E
JAB Members/Senior Staff Faculty members Events Press Releases Press Clippings
Appendix A JAB Members Senior Staff Members of the Joint Advisory Board CHAIR Mark Kamlet, Ph.D. Provost and Senior Vice President Carnegie Mellon University CO-CHAIR Fathy Saoud, Ph.D. President Qatar Foundation
MEMBERS Abdullah Al Kubaisi, Ph.D. Executive Director Her Highness’ Office Rashid Al Naimi, Ph.D. Vice President of Administration Qatar Foundation Abdullah Al Thani, Ph.D. Vice President for Education Qatar Foundation
Mary Jo Dively Vice President and General Counsel Carnegie Mellon University Ahmed Hasnah, Ph.D. Associate Vice President of Higher Education Qatar Foundation William Scherlis, Ph.D. Professor and Director Institute for Software Research Carnegie Mellon University
Ilker Baybars, Ph.D. Professor and Deputy Dean Tepper School of Business Carnegie Mellon University
Charles Thorpe, Ph.D. Dean Carnegie Mellon Qatar
Senior Staff Jerry Bosken Chief Operating Officer
Gloria Khoury Assistant Dean of Student Affairs
John Robertson, Ph.D. Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs
Mohamed Dobashi Senior Staff Advisor
Kevin Lamb Assistant Dean
Erin Stewart Director of Human Resources
Murry Evans Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Cynthia Mills Chief Information Officer
Chuck Thorpe, Ph.D. Dean
Mark Gambone Acting Chief Operating Officer
Bob Monroe, Ph.D. Associate Dean
Bryan Zerbe Director of Admission
Jim Gartner Senior Director of Global Security
Anqi Qian, Ph.D. Director of Strategic Initiatives
Appendix B Faculty Nael Abu Ghazaleh, Ph.D.
Khaled Harras, Ph.D.
Kemal Oflazer, Ph.D.
Amal Al Malki, Ph.D.
Starling Hunter, Ph.D.
Marion Oliver, Ph.D.
Arvid Adell, Ph.D. Barbara Anderson
Peter Bowman, Ph.D.
Brett Browning, Ph.D.
Lynn Robert Carter, Ph.D. Jon Caulkins, Ph.D.
Iliano Cervesato, Ph.D. Yonina Cooper, Ph.D.
Hasan Demirkoparan, Ph.D. M. Bernardine Dias, Ph.D. Mohamed Dobashi, S.J.D. Rami el Samahy
Darlene Everhart, Ph.D. Hoda Fahmy, Ph.D.
Ruth Fauman-Fichman, Ph.D. Mark Fichman, Ph.D.
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Erik Helin
Faheem Hussain Kelly Hutzell
Lansine Kaba, Ph.D.
Andreas Karatsolis, Ph.D. Sham Kekre, Ph.D. Nikki Krysak Ian Lacey
David Lamont
Rosemary Lapka
Selma Limam Mansar, Ph.D. J. Patrick McGinnis Joe Mertz, Ph.D.
Robert T. Monroe, Ph.D. Terrance Murphy, Ph.D. Mayu Nishimura
Joel Olfelt, Ph.D.
Silvia Pessoa, Ph.D.
Daniel Phelps, Ph.D.
Srinivasa Prakhya, Ph.D. R. Ravi, Ph.D.
Raj Reddy, Ph.D.
Benjamin Reilly, Ph.D.
Dudley Reynolds, Ph.D. John Robertson, Ph.D. Alex Rojas Ph.D. Majd Sakr, Ph.D.
Thierry Sans, Ph.D.
Charles E. Thorpe, Ph.D. George White, Ph.D.
Bonnie Youngs, Ph.D.
Appendix c Events August 16, 2008 - New Student Convocation The Class of 2012 was welcomed to the Carnegie Mellon global family at Convocation. The 67 new students, along with Carnegie Mellon Qatar faculty and staff, participated in the formal event that was held in the three-story atrium of the new Carnegie Mellon building in Education City. August 24-26, 2008 - Distinguished Lecture Series with Alejandro Portes As part of its Distinguished Lecture Series, Carnegie Mellon Qatar hosted three events on immigrant labor issues. All events featured Alejandro Portes, Ph.D., professor of Sociology and director of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University. Portes is a leader in the field of immigration. He is the author of 220 articles and chapters on national development, international migration, Latin American & Caribbean urbanization and economic sociology. August 28, 2008 - Al Jazeera Children's Channel Thank You Lunch A lunch meeting attended by the dean and the head of Al Jazeera Children’s Channel. September 8, 2008 - Media Dinner An Iftar dinner for media to discuss events scheduled for the upcoming year. November 1, 2008 Ibtikar Qatar Training Seventy-five high school students in Qatar sign up for the new Ibtikar Qatar competition. Ibtikar Qatar was created by the Information Systems faculty at Carnegie Mellon Qatar as a way to get high school students involved in an environmentally focused competition, while at the same time piquing their interest in the field of Information Systems. November 8, 2008 - CS4 Qatar Computer Science training workshop for local high school teachers. November 12, 2008 - Dean's List Dinner Students who have been named to the Dean's List are honored with a dinner. November 16, 2009 - Distinguished Lecture Series with Takeo Kanade Renowned researcher and robotics professor Takeo Kanade, Ph.D., engaged a large audience at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar in a lively and engaging talk entitled. "Research on robotics and vision." Kanade visited Qatar as the fourth speaker in Carnegie Mellon Qatar's Distinguished Lecture Series. November 22-27, 2008 - LPAR Conference The Logic for Programming, Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning conference is held at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. LPAR is a forum where, year after year, some of the most renowned researchers in the areas of automated reasoning, computational logic, programming languages and their applications come to present cutting-edge results, to discuss advances in these fields, and to exchange ideas in a scientifically emerging part of the world. November 25, 2008 - Second Language Workshop Lights, Camera, Action: One-day workshop for local second-language workshop teachers highlighting use of film in the classroom. January 17, 2009 - Ibtikar Qatar Competition Ibtikar Qatar is a competition created as a way to get high school students involved in an environmentally-focused competition, while at the same time piquing their interest in the dynamic field of Information Systems. High school students attended a kick off event in November, then returned in January to present their project. January 27, 2009 - Qatar Cloud Computing Announcement Carnegie Mellon Qatar, Qatar University and Texas A&M University at Qatar partnered together to bring cloud computing to the Middle East. The Qatar Cloud Computing Initiative is operational and initially located at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. February 13 & 14, 2009 - CS4 Qatar The two-day developmental workshop is designed to teach high schools students about computer science and how it is applied to all
aspects of life. More than 300 high school students from Qatar applied for the 120 seats in the weekend program. February 22, 2009 - New Building Celebration Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar celebrated the official opening of its new building in Education City on Sunday, Feb. 22. H.H. Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, chairperson of Qatar Foundation, along with the entire Carnegie Mellon Qatar student body and University President Jared Cohon cut the ceremonial ribbon on stage. March 18, 2009- Professional Day Representatives from 41 top organizations in Qatar talked with students about potential career and internship opportunities at the third annual Professional Day career fair. Held every spring, Professional Day gives students a chance to meet and network with industry representatives, and it gives organizations an opportunity to meet a large pool of young talent. April 1, 2009 - Senior Class Dinner A dinner at the Dean's residence honoring the senior class. April 17-19, 2009 - ICTD Conference The 3rd International Conference on Information and Communications Technology and Development is held at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. ICTD is the premiere conference for innovative technology benefiting developing countries, where academic researchers, practitioners, technologists and social scientists who study or design information and communication technologies present original and unpublished works around information and communications technology. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates delivers the keynote address. April 19, 2009 - Alumni Dinner The first official alumni event held in the building. Guests included administration from main campus, new Qatar alumni and their families. April 25, 2009 - BOTBALL Final More than 200 students from 26 high schools around the Gulf Region participated in the Regional Botball® Robotics Challenge. This is the fifth year for the high school robotics competition. This year, teams joined from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. April 28, 2009 - Meeting of the Minds More than 30 students took part in the annual undergraduate research and project symposium. They 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. May 3, 2009 - Senior Celebration 2009 An evening of awards, accolades and remembrances. Academic awards were given to top students, and families enjoyed an evening of celebration with their graduating seniors. May 4, 2009 - Graduation Ceremony Class of 2009 More than 500 family members, friends, faculty, staff and members of the Doha community celebrated the tremendous achievement of 35 members of the graduating class of 2009. The 35 seniors – 27 in Business Administration, seven in Computer Science and one in Information Systems – received diplomas. June 28-July 23 - Summer College Preview Program Carnegie Mellon Qatar and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar partnered to offer this year's Summer College Preview Program to young scholars preparing for entry into university. The program is designed to accommodate a total of 80 students and includes representation from public, private and independent schools from Qatar as well as around and beyond the region, reflecting a wide mix of nationalities.
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Appendix D Press Releases
2008
August Class of 2012 Convocation Move to new building Distinguished Lecture Series speaker Alejandro Portes September Amal Al Malki named to Qatar National Competitiveness Council October ICTD Conference announcement The Apprentice CIEP Kickoff November Vodafone CEO visits campus Ibtikar workshop KPMG chairman gives lecture ICR Conference CS4Qatar for teachers LPAR Conference on campus Distinguished Lecture Series speaker Takeo Kanade
2009
January Qatargas Leadership Program Dean’s List Fall 2008 Ibtikar competition February CS4Qatar for students Botball workshop Building opening celebration March Tepper MBA students visit Qatar Carnegie Club “Sustainable Building Design” Professional Day
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April
Botball Tournament Carnegie Club “Supply Chain Management” Sheikha Hanadi graduation speaker announcement ICTD Press Conference Meeting of the Minds
May
Graduation Students win 1st and 2nd place in the U.A.E. Programming Competition
June
Dean’s List Spring 2009 Community service trip to Thailand
Appendix E Press Clippings !
Building Opening: February 22, 2009
Publication: Al Sharq daily newspaper, Qatar Date: February 23, 2009 Coverage: Front page, pages 20 & 21
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Publication: Gulf Times daily newspaper, Qatar Date: February 23, 2009 Coverage: Front page & page 4
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Hala the Roboceptionist
Publication: Gulf Times daily newspaper, Qatar Date: March 1, 2009 Coverage: Front page & page 28
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Publication: Arab News daily newspaper, Saudi Arabia Date: March 10, 2009 Tuesday 10 March 2009 (14 Rabi` al-Awwal 1430)
Kingdom students take part in Doha robotics program Arab News
DOHA: Students from 23 high schools in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE learned first hand how to build their own robots at the twoday Botball workshop held at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar on Friday and Saturday. Botball is a US-based organization that introduces robotics to high school students. At the intensive two-day workshop, the teams were given the necessary background and expertise to design and program their own Lego Mindstorm robot.
PUTTING THEIR MINDS TO IT: Saudi students build their own Lego Mindstorm robot at the twoday Botball workshop held at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. (AN photo)
“We are very happy to join the Botball program this year for the first time,” said Abdulaziz Sa’ad Al-Jebreen, Robotics Trainer at Riyadh Schools — Prince Salman Center for Creating Leaders. “This high school competition will positively affect our students; it will broaden their knowledge and teach them sound programming skills. We hope to learn and share this knowledge with the other schools, and we’re looking forward to participate in the global conference after winning the Qatar competition.” Over the next eight weeks, the students will work with their teachers and mentors to build and program their own robots. These robots will then compete against each other in a nondestructive competition on April 25 at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. At this competition the robots must operate autonomously, meaning they move on their own without any remote control from the students. At the competition, teams also must demonstrate the work they’ve done in order to program their robot. “A lot of students think robots and artificial intelligence are something that is very difficult and that they could never be part of,” said Chuck Thorpe, dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar and former head of the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute. “Botball not only shows students that robotics is something they can do — and do well — it also shows them how to work as a team, how to plan a project, how to use their math skills and how to have fun while you learn.” This is the fifth year for Botball, and the first year teams from Saudi Arabia have joined the competition. The addition of Saudi Arabia brings the number of participating schools to 26 from five different countries. Grand prize for the winning team of the April 25 competition will be to travel to the United States in July to attend the Global Conference on Educational Robotics.
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The ICTD Conference: April 17 – 19, 2009
Publication: The Peninsula daily newspaper, Qatar Date: April 19, 2009 Coverage: Front page & page 5
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Publication: Al Watan daily newspaper, Qatar Date: April 19, 2009 Coverage: Front page & page 3
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Publication: Al Ahdath daily newspaper, Morocco Date: April 23, 2009 Coverage: Page 10
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Regional Botball Tournament:
Publication: Qatar Tribune daily newspaper, Qatar Date: April 26, 2009 Coverage: Front page, Nation section
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Graduation: May 4, 2009
Publication: Al Arab daily newspaper, Qatar Date: May 5, 2009 Coverage: Page 21
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Publication: The Peninsula daily newspaper, Qatar Date: May 5, 2009 Coverage: Page 22
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ABOUT CARNEGIE MELLON
With more than a century of academic excellence and distinguished research, Carnegie Mellon University is a leader in education with real-world applications. Consistently top ranked, the University has more than 10,000 students, 72,000 alumni and 4,000 faculty and staff globally. Core values of innovation, creativity, collaboration and problem solving provide the foundation for everything we do. At the invitation of Qatar Foundation, Carnegie Mellon joined Education City in 2004. Here, Qatar Foundation created a unique center for scholarship and research that is the ideal complement to Carnegie Mellon’s mission and vision. Students from Qatar and 30 different countries enroll at our world-class facilities in Education City. Carnegie Mellon Qatar offers undergraduate programs in business administration, computer science and information systems, as well as executive and corporate education. Learn more at www.qatar.cmu.edu.
COVER IMAGES top row, left to right.
Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s new building in Education City; Noor Al-Jassim (BA 2009) at the 2009 Commencement; Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, chairperson of Qatar Foundation, and Jared Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University, cut the ceremonial ribbon at the Building Opening Ceremony. middle row, left to right.
Computer Science faculty members and high school students at the High School Programming Competition; the shadow of the bagpiper and the new logo at the Senior Celebration; a local high school student works on a robot at the BOTBALL robotics tournament.
bottom row, left to right. His Highness the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani on the stage at the grand opening of the Carnegie Mellon Building; Carnegie Mellon University Provost Mark Kamlet and Microsoft founder Bill Gates at the ICTD conference on campus; the three-story atrium in the new Carnegie Mellon Qatar Building.
published by the Office of Marketing and Public Relations October 2009
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | P.O. Box 24866 | Education City, Doha, Qatar | Phone: +974 454 8400 | www.qatar.cmu.edu