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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.
Some projects grow out of coursework, while others typify Carnegie Mellon's emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration to solve real-world problems.
Charles Thorpe, Dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar, said:
"Research is in the Carnegie Mellon DNA. We pride ourselves on being a problem solving institution. It is great when students are taking classes but it is even greater when we give them real world problems to solve."
Twenty-four posters were displayed in categories of Business Administration, Computer Science, Information Systems and Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Students demonstrated a wide range of projects including Dynamic Path Planning and Traffic Light Coordination for Emergency Vehicle Routing, making use of a camera's image sequence to convert photos into 2D images, studies on domestic and migrant workers in Qatar, the structure of covert networks in Doha and the translation of safety and security messages between English and Arabic to reach the broadest audience possible.
The projects were on display in the spacious walkway of Carnegie Mellon Qatar's new building. There were also live demonstrations of Qatar's developments on the Braille Tutor project and "Hala" the Roboceptionist.
At Meeting of the Minds, undergraduate students, as well as graduate students and Ph.D. candidates, present their work in a manner that can be easily understood by those who are not in that field. The annual research symposium gives the students an opportunity to present their work to a wide audience of faculty, fellow students, family members and industry representatives. The experience contributes to developing general leadership and decision making capabilities in addition to building research skills.
"Forty posters were submitted by various students and twenty-four were selected to present today. Most are team projects, we definitely promote collaborative research here at Carnegie Mellon," said John Robertson, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs.
Meeting of the Minds also helps members of the Qatar community understand the importance of conducting research, and see the numerous ways that research can benefit society. Meeting of the Minds has been held at the end of the spring term at Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh for several years, and has also become an annual tradition in Doha.
A review committee consisting of industry experts from Ras Gas, Exxon Mobil, Q-Tel, Shell and from outside of Qatar, representatives from the University of Arizona and the University of Toronto, in addition to faculty members from other Qatar universities reviewed the presentations and selected the best projects and posters. Awards and certificates were presented to the best poster design and best project. The winners were Rashid Alkaabi for the best project and Khalid Alsooj, Nasreen Zahan, Faiza Al Saeed, Amal Al Barwani and Naif Al Kaabi for the best poster design.
Rashid Alkaabi's project offers technology solutions to tackle communications issues faced by immigrant workers in Qatar.
"The aim of my project is to address immigrant workers with limited or no computer skills. I really searched for interviews in Bahrain and here in Doha. I went to Q-tel offices to interview laborers and their families." said Alkaabi. "Last year I was dreaming about being a Carnegie Mellon student and today I'm competing against seniors and winning."
Posted by Siba Sami Ammari
