OnQ winter spring 2016

Spring 2016

CROSSING DISCIPLINES THAT’S WHEN BIG THINGS HAPPEN

START ME UP:

page 14

SMARTLAB:

page 18

HACKATHON:

page 22

ALUMS take the road less traveled

‫حينما تلتقي التخصصات‬

The coding and decoding of BIG DATA

‫تتحقق كبرى اإلنجازات‬

Teamwork + Caffeine = GENIUS

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Leadership

Dean and CEO

Ilker Baybars Associate Dean

John O'Brien Associate Dean, Education

Selma Limam Mansar Associate Dean, Research

Kemal Oflazer

Editor

Kara Nesimiuk Managing Editor

Angela Ford Print Design

Empire Advertising Qatar Sam Abraham Digital Design

Stephen MacNeil Contributors

Hannah Diorio-Toth Feras Villanueva Photography

Sam Abraham Adrian Haddad Khalid Ismail Stephen MacNeil Administrative Assistant

Marissa Edulan Contact:

Dean’s Office: deans-office@qatar.cmu.edu Research Office: cmuq-research@qatar.cmu.edu Admission Office: ug-admission@qatar.cmu.edu Media Inquiries: mpr@qatar.cmu.edu

www.qatar.cmu.edu OnQ Magazine is published twice a year by the Marketing and Public Relations Office, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar.

Copyright 2016 Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar has a unique opportunity for cross-disciplinary invention.

With all of our programs housed in one building, our students and faculty have easy access to myriad perspectives and areas of expertise.

Carnegie Mellon is known for teamwork and interdisciplinary problem solving, and CMU-Q continues this tradition.

This edition of OnQ Magazine looks at CMU-Q’s cross-disciplinary approach from three different angles.

First, we have a growing group of alumni who are pursuing entrepreneurial, innovative ventures. These young professionals have backgrounds in business, information systems and computer science, and they draw from the CMU-Q teamwork approach as they build their start-ups.

Our faculty members model the interdisciplinary spirit on a daily basis, and SmartLab is a prime example.

John O’Brien and Fuad Farooqi spearheaded this project in an effort to better teach financial markets. As SmartLab evolves, it brings together students from diverse backgrounds.

Cross-disciplinary collaboration is the hallmark of one of our largest student-run events, the CarnegieApps Hackathon.

This annual event is a 24-hour race of creation and innovation.

Over the Hackathon weekend, students put into practice all they have learned in the classroom—teamwork, problem solving and adaptability—skills they will need in the workplace.

As always, OnQ Magazine touches on each aspect of CMU-Q, from faculty activities and research to student life and alumni accomplishments. I hope you enjoy learning about all of these elements that together create our vibrant campus community.

Ilker Baybars Dean and CEO

CONTENTS 2

Spring 2016

On the record

26 On business

22

Teaching Arabic to young professionals

28 On science

WiFi can measure breathing rate

30 On student life

Outdoor experience in Oman tests students’ leadership

32 On faculty

14 Start me up:

Alums take the road less traveled

18 SmartLab:

Decoding big data

22 Hackathon:

A conversation with John O'Brien

34 On outreach

Ibtikar, CS4Qatar for Women, Executive Education

36 On Qatar

CMU-Q celebrates Qatari culture and heritage

Teamwork + Caffeine = Genius 38 On Pittsburgh

Mental miscues

39 On alumni

Inspiring women in computer science, Alumni set sail on annual dhow cruise, Congratulations Class of 2010!

On the record

Fall 2015

Minister of Economy and Commerce inks agreement with CMU-Q His Excellency Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, Minister of Economy and Commerce (back right), and Mr. Abdulrahman M. Alyafei, Director of Human Resources, Ministry of Economy and Commerce, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CMU-Q that lays the foundation for a solid partnership in the fields of scientific research, strategic studies and scholarships. Dean Baybars and Farnam Jahanian, provost of Carnegie Mellon, represented CMU-Q at the signing ceremony.

CMU-Q and AlFaisal Without Borders launch entrepreneurship center His Excellency Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, chairman of AlFaisal Without Borders Foundation, and Dean Baybars, inaugurated the AlFaisal – Carnegie Mellon Innovation Entrepreneurship Center aimed at fostering an entrepreneurial environment and inspiring innovation among Qatar’s university students. The collaboration is a result of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organizations.

QInvest and CMU-Q join forces to promote learning in business Tamim Hamad Al Kawari, CEO of QInvest, and Dean Baybars signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will offer QInvest the opportunity to make use of CMU-Q’s educational programs, research and strategic studies. QInvest in return offers CMU-Q’s new graduates and students in their final year the opportunity to spend one month working at QInvest under the bank’s QTalent initiative.

2

George White receives Prestigious Appreciation Award George White, distinguished career professor at CMU-Q, received a Prestigious Appreciation Award for his contribution in creating a supportive environment for entrepreneurship in Qatar.

White is the founder of Al Fikra, a business development competition that incorporates education and coaching: “As an educator, I encourage entrepreneurship through my classes, and competitions like Al Fikra provide a platform for students to put their theory to practical use.”

Teresa MacGregor appointed to Qatar National Library’s Executive Committee Teresa MacGregor, director of the CMU-Q library, has been appointed to Qatar National Library’s Executive Committee as a representative of Education City institutions. The committee, chaired by His Excellency Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, Minister of Culture, Arts, and Heritage, is responsible for guiding the general strategies and business plans of the library.

Maher Hakim delivers the inaugural Research Dialogue lecture Maher Hakim, associate professor of entrepreneurship, presented the inaugural session of Qatar Foundation Research and Development’s Research Dialogue. Hakim’s presentation, “Building an innovation ecosystem in Qatar,” discusses how to foster creativity and entrepreneurship.

“Qatar Foundation has many of the key components of a vibrant innovation entrepreneurship hub: world-class scientific research, top global universities, financial resources, a diverse community, and an open free zone.

We just need to bring these components together and complement them with the right processes and incentives to excel and reward entrepreneurship and risk taking,” he remarked.

Workshop to reduce the Arab digital gap Divakaran Liginlal, teaching professor of information systems, led a workshop titled “Content strategies for Arabic e-commerce websites,” which included the findings of a National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) study of over 3000 Arabic e-commerce websites.

Liginlal and research collaborators Rizwan Ahmad and Robert Meeds of Qatar University, Yasir Suleiman of Cambridge University, Kassim Shaaban of American University of Beirut, and Alexander Cheek of CMU-Q spoke to an audience of content strategists and web designers from 14 organizations in Qatar. The workshop stressed the importance of speaking to the customer in Arabic with culturally-relevant content, and developing visual imagery and interface icons that appeal to the Arab eye.

Spring 2016

3

On the record

CMU-Q welcomes Class of 2019

In August, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar formally welcomed the Class of 2019, which is made up of more than 100 students, including the largest number of Qataris since Carnegie Mellon Qatar opened its doors in 2004.

Convocation is a long-standing tradition that marks the beginning of the first-year class’s academic career at Carnegie Mellon. Dean Ilker Baybars, faculty and student representatives officially inaugurated new students into the Carnegie Mellon community of more than 13,000 students and 100,000 alumni worldwide.

CMU-Q wins third at Enterprise Challenge Qatar 2015 CMU-Q students Awais Shamim, Faran Farooq, Mounir Sheikh, Sherif Rizk and Ibrahim Soltan placed third in Enterprise Challenge Qatar 2015. CMU-Q was the only college to have two teams in the top six. The second team included Osama Qureshi, Saad Asim, Taimoor Zahid, Sulaiman Mehmood and Sohaib Ahmed.

4

Information Systems student wins big at SAP Innojam

Campus Scholars announced The 2016 Campus Scholars are Aya Hassan Ali Abd Elaal, Dana Al-Muftah, Hamad Al-Noaimi and Sana Britto. These four individuals were chosen from a senior class of about 100 students for their academic excellence, leadership, volunteerism and extracurricular involvement.

Sana Britto was also selected as the Andrew Carnegie Society Scholar for 2016.

CMU-Q’s Ibrahim Soltan and his team placed first at the SAP Innojam in Germany in September, winning the opportunity to compete in the worldwide SAP Innojam in Barcelona. In November, Soltan’s team won the SAP Innojam Barcelona. They went on to present to 5,000 investors and clients at DemoJam, eventually placing third.

CMU-Q team places third at Y-Hack

Qatar student wins Tepper UBA Case Challenge

A team from CMU-Q took third place at YHack 2015, the annual Yale University hackathon, in November. Team members Maher Khan, Musab Ahmed Popatia and Qasim Nadeem developed a group vacation planner during the 36-hour competition that hosted more than 1,500 students from around the world.

Business administration junior Yousuf Akhlaq (left) was part of the winning team, Gamma, at the Tepper UBA Case Challenge in Pittsburgh. Akhlaq, along with fellow Qatar BA students Fazail Ahmad, Tehseen Niaz and Sanjeet Sahni, travelled to the main campus to participate in the event.

Dean’s List for spring 2015 Dean Baybars announced the Dean’s List for the 2015 spring semester in a ceremony that honored 155 students for exceptional work.

Spring 2016

5

On the record

Dean’s Lecture Series

Minister of Finance confirms commitment to education The Minister of Finance for the State of Qatar, His Excellency Ali Shareef Al Emadi, presented a Dean’s Lecture confirming Qatar’s commitment to education.

“We are pushing government agencies to become more efficient, and we are encouraging the private sector to take the lead to diversify the economy,” he remarked to about 200 guests, including students, faculty, business leaders and international dignitaries.

6

‫وزير المالية يؤكد‬ ‫على التزام قطر‬ ‫بجودة التعليم‬ ‫استضافت "سلسلة محاضرات العميد" التي تنظمها جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في‬ ‫قطر سعادة وزير المالية السيد علي شريف العمادي والذي شدد على التزام قطر‬ .‫الراسخ بجودة التعليم‬ ‫ ضيف ًا من الطالب‬200 ‫ خاطب سعادته كوكبة من الحضور ضمت‬،‫وفي هذا اإلطار‬ ً ‫وأعضاء هيئة التدريس وكبار الشخصيات الدولية وقادة األعمال قائ‬ ‫ " نعمل على‬:‫ال‬ ‫رفع كفاءة الجهات الحكومية كما نشجع القطاع الخاص على أخذ زمام المبادرة‬ ."‫لتنويع االقتصاد‬

Qatar Stock Exchange CEO encourages smaller businesses

Governor of Qatar Central Bank remains optimistic

Rashid Ali Al-Mansoori outlined a plan to help diversify the Qatar economy by encouraging small- and medium-sized companies, as well as local family-owned businesses, to participate in the QSE.

His Excellency Sheikh Abdulla Bin Saoud Al-Thani remained optimistic about Qatar’s economy, citing moderate growth and a strong banking sector in spite of lower oil prices.

Minister of Development Planning and Statistics calls for regional coordination

Minister of Economy and Commerce promotes economic diversification

His Excellency Dr. Saleh bin Mohammed Al-Nabit stressed the important role that academic institutions play in improving Qatar’s development challenges.

Spring 2016

His Excellency Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani said that Qatar has accomplished a great deal in terms of promoting economic diversification and sustainable development within the framework of the Qatar National Vision 2030.

7

On the record

Technology will focus on core human experience, says Facebook’s Serkan Piantino I have used literally everything I learned at Carnegie Mellon at some point in my career.

At a roundtable discussion, Serkan Piantino, Facebook’s New York site director and a CMU alumnus, provided a glimpse into a more nuanced, human-focused world of technology.

SERKAN PIANTINO Facebook’s New York site director and CMU alumnus

Led by Khaled Harras, associate teaching professor of computer science and director of the computer science program, the discussion frequently turned to mobile: “I think we’ll start to see more nuanced uses for mobile technology, where mobile becomes more about augmenting life than just being an escape.”

“The questions we are asking of technology are becoming more complicated.

The demands are getting closer to what humans want in their daily lives and thus we can expect computers to start answering more human questions,” said Piantino.

Piantino developed the Multifeed system powering Facebook News Feed, the EdgeRank algorithm for ranking social content, and led the infrastructure engineering behind Timeline and Messenger.

8

Wilfried Sieg delivers distinguished lecture Wilfried Sieg, Patrick Suppes Professor of Philosophy at CMU, spoke to CMU-Q about the move from mathematical thinking to computing and back to thinking, an evolution that has uncovered a refined proof search procedure.

This in turn has been used as the basis for dynamic intelligent tutoring to support students’ efforts to learn logical and mathematical argumentation.

Yale’s Susan Gibbons: how students use the modern library Susan Gibbons, university librarian and deputy provost for libraries and scholarly communication at Yale, shared how she has used anthropological and ethnographic methodologies to study the way students write and research. Her findings are helping to shape the way libraries serve the university community.

Gibbons’ talk was a Gloriana St. Clair Distinguished Lecture on 21st Century Librarianship.

Exploring the science of learning: Richard Scheines Richard Scheines, dean of CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, discussed the concept of “learning engineering,” which combines science, psychology and education to examine learning experiences and create better, more effective teaching methods.

John Hooker discusses the comparative economic advantages of different cultures John Hooker, T. Jerome Holleran Professor of Business Ethics and Social Responsibility at CMU, discussed the way cultural differences have helped shape the new economic order.

Hooker’s address was the inaugural Thomas M. Kerr, Jr. Distinguished Lecture in Ethics, named in honor of Thomas Kerr and his lifelong commitment to teaching law, ethics and civil liberties.

Spring 2016

Keith Webster introduces IDeATe to Qatar Keith Webster, dean of university libraries and director of emerging and integrative media initiatives, visited Doha to discuss the Integrative Design, Arts and Technology Network (IDeATe), an innovative program that is gathering steam in Pittsburgh.

The IDeATe program brings together students from arts and technology through studio courses that promote collaboration and hands-on learning.

9

On the record

Orientation week welcomes Class of 2019

65 learners complete Language Bridges program

The week-long orientation event was a warm welcome to new students, helping them transition into CMU-Q with a variety of activities and games that included a cafĂŠ cĂŠramique activity, dodgeball and flag painting.

CMU-Q honored 65 learners for completing Language Bridges, a program that offers English classes to service workers. The ceremony, held on November 29, was the capstone of a semester that saw 42 CMU-Q students teach English to service attendants, cleaners, contractors and Education City security guards.

Tarnival draws students, alumni, faculty and staff

CMU-Q celebrated Tarnival on October 29, an annual carnival for students, staff, faculty and alumni. The student government-led event featured great food, games, entertainment and lots of fun.

10

Lunch and Learn: breast cancer awareness Biological sciences students, with the assistance of Amie Rollins, director of health and wellness, hosted a lunch and learn event that included a short presentation and discussion with faculty about breast cancer awareness, detection and prevention.

Doctors from Hamad Hospital, Qatar Foundation Clinic and Aster Clinic formed a panel and answered questions.

Tartans Got Talent

The CMU-Q community showed off their wide range of talents at the annual talent show.

Student involvement awards

The Student Majlis clubs and organizations awards ceremony recognized club leaders who have excelled in their positions, actively transformed their clubs, and consistently interacted with the student body to increase the Tartan spirit on campus.

Spring 2016

11

On the record

Dudley Reynolds urges educators: “Teach new topics, try new strategies” Dudley Reynolds, teaching professor of English, delivered the keynote address at the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) conference in Kuwait on November 7.

Reynolds’ address considered the trends that are driving change in English teaching, including student demographics, student needs, technology, and different models for funding education. He is the president-elect of TESOL International.

Presentations Hasan Demirkoparan, associate teaching professor of mathematics, Ashraf Hadoush (CMU-Q), and Thomas Pence (Michigan State University). “Straightening an annular cylindrical sector that is composed of an internally balanced compressible elastic material,” 9th European Solid Mechanics Conference (ESMC 2015), Leganes-Madrid, Spain.

Divakaran Liginlal, teaching professor of information systems, Rami Yousef (Lusail), Simon Fass (University of Texas at Dallas), and Chadi Aoun (CMU-Q). “Combining morphological analysis and Bayesian belief networks: A DSS for safer construction of a smart city,” Americas Conference on Information Systems, Puerto Rico.

Hasan Demirkoparan, associate teaching professor of mathematics, and Thomas Pence (Michigan State University). “Hyperelastic swelling modelling of multilayer tubes with fibrous structure,” Modelling across the Biology– Mechanics Interface, Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, Spain.

Divakaran Liginlal, teaching professor of information systems, Maryam Al-Fehani, Preetha Gopinath, and Alexander Cheek (CMU-Q). “Wish lists and shopping carts: A study of visual metaphors on Arab e-commerce websites,” Workshop on e-business at the International Conference on Information Systems, Dallas, Texas, USA. A research outcome of a QNRF-sponsored project from Cycle 5 titled “Raising language effectiveness in Arabic e-commerce websites.”

Amal Helu, visiting associate professor of statistics. “The inverse Weibull distribution as a failure model under various loss functions,” Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM), Seattle, USA. Keynote address.

Adam Hodges, visiting assistant professor of English.

“Reinforcing dominant understandings of racism: The intertextual circulation of small stories about George Zimmerman,” American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Denver, CO. Ludmila Hyman, assistant teaching professor of English.

“Gorbachev’s argument for Perestroika: Forgotten or remembered?,” NCA/AFA (Alta) Summer Conference on Argumentation, Alta, Utah, USA. Onur Kesten, associate professor of economics, and Yan Chen (University of Michigan). “College and high school admissions reforms in China,” Departmental seminars at Qatar University and Georgetown University.

Divakaran Liginlal, teaching professor of information systems, and Aisha Al-Missned (CMU-Q). “Voices of AlKhor - A study in digital cultural heritage,” Digital Heritage International Congress 2015, Granada, Spain, derived from Aisha Missned's senior honors thesis.

12

Dudley Reynolds, teaching professor of English. “What shape is your teaching in? Taking stock and making plans in an age of innovation,” TESOL Kuwait 2015 Conference “Reshaping English Teaching in An Age of Innovation,” Kuwait. Keynote address.

Dudley Reynolds, teaching professor of English. “Language and content teacher development through lesson study,” TESOL International Association Regional Conference, “Excellence in Language Instruction: Supporting Classroom Teaching & Learning,” Singapore.

Alicia Salaz, reference and instruction librarian, and Teresa MacGregor, director of the library. “ACRL’s framework in the Arab Gulf: A practitioner view on national frameworks in transnational higher education,” European Conference on Information Literacy, Tallinn, Estonia.

Publications Articles and Book Contributions Alexander R. Wilcox Cheek, assistant teaching professor of information systems, and Carola Verschoor. “The business

Starling David Hunter III, visiting associate teaching professor of business administration, and Susan Smith (American

designer hybrid.” In Change Ahead.

University of Sharjah). “A network text analysis of David Ayer's Fury.” In Advances in Language & Literary Studies.

Benjamin Collier, assistant teaching professor of organizational behavior, and Julia Bear. “Where are the

women in Wikipedia? Understanding the different psychological experiences of men and women in Wikipedia.”

In Sex Roles.

Hasan Demirkoparan, associate teaching professor of mathematics, and Heiko Topol (CMU-Q), Thomas Pence (Michigan State University), and Alan Wineman (University

of Michigan). “Uniaxial load analysis under stretch dependent fiber remodeling applicable to collageneous tissue.”

In Journal of Engineering Mathematics.

Amal Helu, visiting associate professor of statistics. “The

inverse Weibull distribution as a failure model under various loss functions and based on progressive first-failure censored data.” In Quality Technology & Quantitative Management.

Benjamin James Reilly, associate teaching professor of history.

Slavery, Agriculture, and Malaria in the Arabian Peninsula.

Oxford University Press.

Benjamin James Reilly, associate teaching professor of history.

“Arabian travellers, 1800-1950: An analytical bibliography.”

In British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.

Benjamin James Reilly, associate teaching professor of history.

“A well-intentioned failure: British antislavery measures and the Arabian Peninsula, 1820-1940.” In Journal of Arabian Studies.

Dudley Reynolds, teaching professor of English. “Human subjects review.” In The Cambridge Guide to Research in Language Teaching and Learning.

Onur Kesten, associate professor of economics and Yan Chen (University of Michigan). “College and high school admissions reforms in China: A theoretical analysis.” In Journal of Political Economy.

Ramesh Krishnamurti, professor of architecture, and Kui Yue (Microsoft). “Developing a tractable parametric shape

grammar.” In Environment & Planning B: Planning and Design.

Ramesh Krishnamurti, professor of architecture. “Mulling

over shapes, rules and numbers." In Nexus Network Journal.

Divakaran Liginlal, teaching professor of information systems, Lara Khansa (Virginia Tech), Xiao Ma (University of Arkansas), and Sung Kim (University of Wisconsin-Madison).

“Understanding members’ participation in online questionand-answer communities: A theory and empirical analysis.” In Journal of Management Information Systems.

Divakaran Liginlal, teaching professor of information systems.

“HIPAA and human error: The role of enhanced situation awareness in protecting health information.” In Medical Data Privacy Handbook. Gkoulalas-Divanis and Loukides (Eds.).

Adam Hodges, visiting assistant professor of English.

“Ideologies of language and race in US media discourse about the Trayvon Martin shooting.” In Language in Society.

Adam Hodges, visiting assistant professor of English.

“The paranoid style in politics: Ideological underpinnings of the discourse of second amendment absolutism.”

In Journal of Language Aggression & Conflict.

Adam Hodges, visiting assistant professor of English.

“Accusatory and exculpatory moves in the hunting for ‘racists’ language game.” In Language & Communication.

Starling David Hunter III, visiting associate teaching

professor of business administration. “Combining theoretical perspectives on the organizational structure-performance relationship.” In Journal of Organization Design.

Spring 2016

13

Start me up:

Alums take the road less traveled

Abdulla AlKhenji and Haris Aghadi of Meddy.co

M

aher Hakim spent nearly two decades in Silicon Valley building tech companies from the ground up. There, in the birthplace of the high-tech start-up, a culture of mentoring young entrepreneurs has emerged. “Taking your idea to the next level and turning it into reality is a full-time job that requires a lot of dedication and support,� said Hakim, associate professor of entrepreneurship at CMU-Q. When he arrived in the Middle East, with its nascent tech entrepreneurial sector, Hakim set out on a mission to help new graduates find mentorship and guidance to build their ideas into solid, impactful businesses.

14

Start-ups offer new grads limitless possibilities: These are ventures that disrupt and redefine the way people perceive the world, do their work, communicate with their friends and spend their recreation time. For new CMU grads who have spent four years creating and finding solutions, a start-up is an opportunity to use every part of their newfound knowledge and expertise.

Two groups of CMU-Q alumni have taken on the challenge of the start-up, and both are mentored by Hakim. The start-ups are called Metis and Meddy and, although they are very different concepts, the paths of these two ventures have been twisted, bumpy and full of the unexpected. Each still has a long way to go, but these two start-ups are blazing the trail for other budding entrepreneurs.

Sabih Bin Wasi, Jiyda Moussa and Rukhsar Neyaz Khan of Metis

The early days of Metis: Course planning for careerminded students The concept came to Sabih Bin Wasi during his first semester at CMU-Q: Facing a bevy of course choices, he wanted a way to plot out his options, play with the different pathways and feel like he was making strategic decisions. “I have a passion to change things that affect me, and I saw how course selection can have a huge impact on where you end up when you graduate,” he said.

These initial ideas grew into a concept called Metis, an app to help guide students to the optimal selection of courses by learning about their personalities, likes and interests.

This is where we as CMU grads have an advantage. Our education has not been about specific content, but how to learn, think and problem solve.

SABIH BIN WASI METIS

During his time at CMU-Q, Bin Wasi worked on Metis a little at a time, and a multi-disciplinary team gathered around the project. Bin Wasi is a computer science graduate with a minor in business, while co-founder Rukhsar Neyaz Khan is a computer science graduate with a focus in math. Co-founder Jiyda Moussa is a graduate in information systems, concentrating on graphic design. Each brings a different perspective to the project.

“It’s not enough to build a solid AI system.

The design must be intuitive, usable and fun to entice students to plan,” said Bin Wasi.

Spring 2016

“This is where we as CMU grads have an advantage. Our education has not been about specific content, but how to learn, think and problem solve.”

By the time its creators graduated in 2015, Metis had progressed through to the alpha launch stage. On average, students spent more than 17 minutes in each of their sessions, and two-thirds of registered students returned to the system after using it for the first time. With a system independent of the university’s course and curriculum structure, Metis could be extended to other universities easily.

For many students, this is the make-it or break-it point, and many choose to set aside the idea and find a job instead.

The tech start-up Tech start-ups are more than new businesses, they are teams of people who are developing ideas into something that will turn into highgrowth ventures.

The path of the tech start-up is uncertain, at times imperceptible, and rife with challenges and obstacles.

15

The case of Meddy: Doctor disruption in Doha

Meddy received a boost when it was accepted by the Digital

The idea for Meddy came from a snippet of conversation Haris

DIC offers Aghadi and AlKhenji mentoring and a connection to

Aghadi overheard at a family gathering: "Could you recommend a

experts in law, consulting, accounting, and other areas where a

good doctor?"

start-up may need help. Meddy now operates out of the DIC with

He had heard similar conversations for years—Aghadi, a Pakistani national, was born and raised in Qatar—but this particular day, the question struck a chord. He and Abdulla AlKhenji, then

Incubation Center (DIC), formerly under the ictQatar banner.

several other start-ups, together occupying a floor of the ictQatar building where they can work, meet with clients, and listen to talks by mentors and industry experts.

students in the Information Systems program, were investigating

“The Digital Incubation Center has been great. They take early

the feasibility of a professional network for physicians, a type of

start-ups, help to improve the products, introduce us to investors and experts in business and marketing. The purpose is to foster entrepreneurship in the country,” said Aghadi.

With the support of the Digital Incubation Center, as well as Hakim, who continues to advise the project, Meddy has grown to more than 1,000 doctors and 130 private clinics, and they will soon launch the site in Arabic.

LinkedIn for doctors. Unfortunately, the idea was fizzling. “We soon realized that doctors are not very tech savvy, they don’t use the internet to market and network the way they do in other industries,” said Aghadi.

This one question by a family member turned Aghadi and AlKhenji in a different direction. If doctors are not tech savvy—few have websites and even fewer keep them current—how are new expats supposed to find them? This was the beginning of Meddy, an app that works like a word-of-mouth recommendation, providing a list of doctors by specialty, credentials and reviews from patients.

Aghadi and AlKhenji launched the app in September 2014 with a list of 200 doctors. Meddy began to gather steam almost immediately, spurred on by the Doha media, which recognized the potential.

“Our next step was to aggregate data, to learn what people want to see on the app. We ended up revamping the entire technical infrastructure so we could add information like subspecialty and residency or fellowship training,” said Aghadi.

Each start-up, including Meddy, comes with a unique set of challenges. With no established business model, the path forward involved solving a series of new, unexpected problems. For Meddy, one of the looming challenges was government relations: “We wanted to partner with the Supreme Council of Health. There were so many levels of bureaucracy we faced, it was a much bigger job than we anticipated,” said Aghadi.

16

Haris Aghadi presents the Meddy concept while still a student at CMU-Q

Sabih Bin Wasi and Rukhsar Neyaz win second place for Metis at Meeting of the Minds, 2015

Innovation entrepreneurship: Metis and the AlFaisal – Carnegie Mellon Center

think, which may be different for a business student or a biological

Metis, the app for course planning, was at a crossroads. While at

During the incubation year, the team is gathering user data

CMU-Q, the team took the project quite far, but was still a long way

and learning more about student perspectives. They are also

from the stage where they could present to investors.

working with faculty members at CMU-Q, who advise on topics

These struggles spurred Hakim to find a way to support the incubation phase of idea development. “I felt that Education City needed a platform that provides early-stage support for start-ups,

sciences student. It’s a purpose-driven approach,” said Bin Wasi.

like application design and preparing a revenue model. At the end of the incubation year, Bin Wasi is confident the team will be ready to approach investors.

which is a crucial time for graduates who want to develop their

“The incubation phase is not really about the idea, it’s about

projects,” he said.

the team. If we can help them develop innovative mindsets,

With the help of the CMU-Q administration and long-time collaborator AlFaisal Holdings, Hakim created the AlFaisal – Carnegie Mellon Innovation Entrepreneurship Center,

collaborative problem solving, rapid experimentation and intense customer development focus, they will be well-positioned for careers as tech entrepreneurs,” said Hakim.

which provides mentorship and support for select projects. The center will also provide education and programming to help shape the mindset of would-be innovation entrepreneurs.

Metis is now developing three separate interfaces: one for students, a second for advisers to view the students’ plans and provide input, and a third that allows the university administration to update information on courses and class schedules.

“The challenge for us is the question, ‘how do we make students

I felt that Education City needed a platform that provides early-stage support for start-ups, which is a crucial time for graduates who want to develop their projects.

MAHER HAKIM ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

love it?’ We spend a lot of our time learning about how students

Spring 2016

17

SmartLab:

Decoding big data

Room 1181 of the Carnegie Mellon building opens onto the bustle of the majlis area, a typical seminar room in many ways: 12 chairs in a U-shape around a boardroom-style table, a whiteboard on one wall and a large, 85� screen on the other. Look more closely, however, and you will see that on the screen, stock market figures from around the world are flickering and changing in real time. You can click on a figure and drill down one layer for more details, then another layer and another until you can see the minute pieces of information that, when taken together, make up the big picture.

This is SmartLab, a visual interface for big data created by Carnegie Mellon Qatar. SmartLab was created to be a teaching tool for students studying financial markets, the first of its kind in the region. Even before it debuted in the classroom, it was recreating itself, finding new applications both within and beyond the university.

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CMU-Q is unique in that we have four big programs in one building.

We have a huge untapped potential to work across disciplines.

JOHN O’BRIEN ASSOCIATE DEAN

‫المختبر الذكي ‪ -‬قطر‪:‬‬

‫لتحليل وعرض قواعد البيانات‬ ‫تفتح الغرفة رقم ‪ 1181‬في مبنى كارنيجي ميلون أبوابها في منطقة المجلس التي تعج‬ ‫بالحركة والنشاط والتي تعتبر غرفة مثالية لعقد الندوات حيث يمكن أن تتسع الغرفة‬ ‫لحوالي ‪ 12‬مقعداً وطاولة أنيقة على غرار طاوالت مجلس اإلدارة كما تضم الغرفة أيض ًا‬ ‫لوحة بيضاء على أحد الجدران تقابلها على الجهة األخرى شاشة كبيرة بحجم ‪ “ 85‬بوصة‪.‬‬ ‫وبالنظر إلى الشاشة عن كثب‪ ،‬سنجد أنها تحتوي على العديد من البيانات ألسواق األوراق‬ ‫المالية من مختلف أنحاء العالم والتي يتم بثها وتحديثها بشكل مباشر وفوري‪ .‬ولالطالع‬ ‫على المزيد من التفاصيل عن البيانات المعروضة‪ ،‬يمكنك النقر عليها لتأخذك إلى واجهة‬ ‫افتراضية أخرى أكثر تفصي ً‬ ‫ال عن هذه البيانات‪ ،‬وفي كل مرة يتم النقر على البيانات تنقلك‬ ‫إلى واجهة مرئية جديدة فيها المزيد من التفاصيل والتي إذا ما تم وضعها جنب ًا إلى جنب‬ ‫ترسم لنا صورة أكبر وأشمل عن الوضع العام لألوراق المالية‪.‬‬ ‫وعند الحديث عن هذه المميزات الحصرية‪ ،‬فهذا يعني أننا نتحدث عن المختبر الذكي‪-‬‬ ‫قطر (‪ )Q-Smartlab‬والذي يحتوي على واجهة مرئية لعرض الكثير من البيانات‪ .‬في‬ ‫البداية‪ ،‬قامت جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر بإنشاء المختبر الذكي‪ ،‬األداة التعليمية‬

‫تتفرد جامعة كارنيجي ميلون بأنها تضم أربعة‬ ‫برامج كبرى في مبنى واحد‪ .‬كما تزخر الجامعة‬ ‫بإمكانيات هائلة غير مستغلة يمكننا االستفادة‬ ‫منها من خالل العمل المشترك مع مختلف‬ ‫التخصصات‪.‬‬

‫جون اوبراين‬ ‫العميد المشارك‬

‫األولى من نوعها في المنطقة‪ ،‬لمساعدة الطالب الذين يقومون بدراسة األسواق المالية‪.‬‬ ‫وقبل استخدام المختبر في الفصول الدراسية‪ ،‬تمكن المختبر من أن يحفر لنفسه اسم ًا‬ ‫من ذهب وأن يحقق هذا التطبيق الجديد العديد من النجاحات داخل وخارج الجامعة‪.‬‬

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‫‪Spring 2016‬‬

When the typhoon hit SmartLab was created in early 2015 as a teaching tool for the capstone financial markets course scheduled for spring 2016.

Well before the course started, however, the team realized they had created something that has a much wider application.

“In October, CMU-Q was invited to set up a booth at the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) meeting in Doha. We decided to feature SmartLab at the booth, to showcase it as a tool to teach financial markets, but that’s when things started to evolve,” said Farooqi.

The SmartLab team: John O'Brien, Fuad Farooqi and Zeeshan Hanif

The spark In January 2015, John O’Brien, associate dean, and Fuad Farooqi, associate teaching professor of finance, had a discussion about data, specifically the huge amount of financial information available to students and faculty. CMU-Q subscribes to databases like Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters that provide massive amounts of financial information. The quantity of data was so large that it seemed inaccessible to their students.

“We needed some sort of mechanism to deliver the data to the students and faculty, a formal platform that allows us to put big data to practical use,” said O’Brien. He and Farooqi reasoned that if market data were presented so students could see the big picture, they could more easily find the detailed information they need.

O’Brien and Farooqi are experts in finance and big data, but to create SmartLab, they needed someone who could approach the problem from the angle of a programmer.

“CMU-Q is unique in that we have four big programs in one building. We have a huge untapped potential to work across disciplines,” said O’Brien.

O’Brien and Farooqi reached out to CMU-Q alumnus Zeeshan Hanif, a computer science graduate, to brainstorm ways to present the data in a more visual manner.

Together, the three developed a visual dashboard that is based on the Reuters database. The original concept was like looking at global markets through a powerful camera lens: zoom out for a wide-angle view of the world’s financial status; zoom in to see each little bump and dip in the day’s activities.

Cross-discipline is very important.

This is not just a business lab, we encourage students from any discipline to come in and share their ideas.”

JOHN O’BRIEN ASSOCIATE DEAN

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The WFE conference led to an invitation to the Civil Defence Exhibition and Conference. During that conference, a typhoon was moving toward the coast of Oman. O’Brien used the SmartLab to access live satellite weather images that showed not only the typhoon, but the locations of the tankers in the area as they moved to avoid the storm. Combined with data from global markets, the SmartLab could show how a non-financial event like a typhoon affects economies in the region and around the world.

“The typhoon during the conference propelled us to visualize different types of data. We started to imagine entirely new uses for SmartLab,” said O’Brien.

A few weeks later, O’Brien, Farooqi and Hanif presented an entirely different side of SmartLab at the International Traffic Medicine Association (ITMA) conference. With an audience interested in road safety, they used SmartLab to showcase driverless car technology. Carnegie Mellon University has been a leader in researching driverless cars for more than 30 years, and SmartLab’s interface provided an interactive exploration of the topic.

Not just a business lab “Cross-discipline is very important,” stated O’Brien. “This is not just a business lab, we encourage students from any discipline to come in and share their ideas.”

The first test of SmartLab’s interdisciplinary breadth came in February 2016 at the first Algorithmic Trading Hackathon. In many parts of the world, financial markets operate according to trading algorithms—programs that buy or sell stocks based on pre-set conditions. This type of trading is still quite new in Qatar, but O’Brien and Farooqi believe it is the perfect concept to bring together the disciplines.

“Computer science and information systems students worked with business students to create the algorithms. We ran the algorithms at the same time and saw whose work won big in an electronic market. They had to work together, it’s a very Carnegie Mellon way to approach a problem,” said O’Brien.

Farooqi and O’Brien envision SmartLab becoming a resource for all faculty and students at Carnegie Mellon. “We see the lab as a space where you can share your research with those with different skill sets, and open it up to collaboration. CMU is about crossing disciplines and usually that’s when big things happen,” said O’Brien.

‫نقطة االنطالق‪:‬‬ ‫في يناير ‪ ،2015‬دارت مناقشة بين جون اوبراين‪ ،‬العميد المشارك‪ ،‬وفؤاد فاروقي‪،‬‬ ‫أستاذ التمويل المساعد بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر حول البيانات‪،‬‬ ‫وبالتحديد عن الكم الهائل من المعلومات المالية المتاحة للطالب وأعضاء‬ ‫هيئة التدريب والسيما وأن جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر تشترك في العديد‬ ‫من قواعد البيانات الكبرى مثل بلومبرغ وطومسون رويترز والتي بدورها توفر‬

‫قال الدكتور فاروقي معلق ًا‪“ :‬في أكتوبر الماضي وجّ ه االتحاد العالمي‬ ‫للبورصات دعوة لجامعة كارنجي ميلون إلقامة جناح على هامش اجتماعاته‬ ‫في الدوحةـ وقررنا أن نقدم المختبر الذكي في جناحنا لتسليط الضوء على‬ ‫أهميته كأداة تعليمية تفاعلية لألسواق المالية‪ ،‬وفي هذه المرحلة فقط بدأت‬ ‫األمور تتطور وتأخذ بُعداً أكبر»‪.‬‬ ‫وقد كان المؤتمر السنوي لالتحاد العالمي للبورصات سبب ًا في دعوتنا إلى‬

‫كم ًا هائ ً‬ ‫ال من المعلومات المالية التي بدونها قد يصعب على طالب الجامعة‬

‫معرض ومؤتمر الدفاع المدني‪ .‬وخالل مشاركتنا في المعرض‪ ،‬تعرضت‬

‫الوصول واالطالع عليها‪.‬‬

‫الشواطئ العمانية إلعصار‪ ،‬وفي ذلك الوقت قام أوبراين باستخدام المختبر‬

‫وفي هذا اإلطار‪ ،‬أوضح الدكتور أوبراين «إننا في أمس الحاجة إليجاد آلية ما‬ ‫لتقديم البيانات للطالب وأعضاء هيئة التدريس من خالل منصة رسمية تسمح‬ ‫لنا بوضع هذا الكم الكبير من البيانات بشكل يمكن االستفادة منه واستخدامه‬ ‫بشكل عملي»‪ ،‬وقد ارتأى كل من الدكتور أوبراين والدكتور فاروقي أنه إذا ما تم‬ ‫تقديم بيانات السوق بحيث يتمكن الطالب من تكوين فكرة شاملة وواضحة‪،‬‬

‫الذكي الستعراض صور مباشرة لإلعصار عن طريق األقمار الصناعية والتي‬ ‫أظهرت بوضوح أماكن اإلعصار كما أظهرت أيض ًا مواقع الناقالت في المنطقة‪،‬‬ ‫وتحركاتها لتجنب العاصفة‪ .‬باإلضافة إلى ذلك‪ ،‬قام أوبراين من خالل المختبر‬ ‫الذكي بجمع البيانات من األسواق العالمية والتي تظهر إلى أي مدى تؤثر‬ ‫األحداث غير المالية مثل اإلعصار على اقتصادات المنطقة والعالم‪.‬‬

‫فإنه سيمكنهم أن يحصلوا على أي معلومات مفص ّلة يرغبون باالطالع عليها‬

‫وأضاف أوبراين «لقد ألهمتنا أحداث اإلعصار األخيرة التي وقعت أثناء مشاركتنا‬

‫بكل سهولة‪.‬‬

‫في المؤتمر إلى إضافة أنواع مختلفة من البيانات‪ .‬وبالفعل بدأنا نطور من‬

‫ويتخصص ٌ‬ ‫كل من أوبراين وفاروقي في مجال التمويل والتعامل مع حجم كبير‬

‫مفهوم المختبر الذكي من خالل وضع تصورات جديدة تمام ًا الستخداماته»‪.‬‬

‫من البيانات‪ ،‬غير أن إنشاء المختبر الذكي يتطلب وجود مبرمج حتى يتمكن من‬

‫وبعد أسابيع قليلة‪ ،‬قدم أوبراين‪ ،‬وفاروقي‪ ،‬وزيشان إضافة جديدة ومختلفة تمام ًا‬

‫معالجة المشاكل البحثية المتعلقة بالبرمجيات وعلوم الحاسوب‪.‬‬

‫للمختبر الذكي على هامش فعاليات مؤتمر االتحاد الدولي لطب المرور حيث‬

‫وفي هذا الصدد‪ ،‬قال أوبراين‪“ :‬تتفرد جامعة كارنيجي ميلون بأنها تضم أربعة‬ ‫برامج كبرى في مبنى واحد‪ .‬كما تزخر الجامعة بإمكانيات هائلة غير مستغلة‬ ‫يمكننا االستفادة منها من خالل العمل المشترك مع مختلف التخصصات»‪.‬‬ ‫ولتحقيق هذا الهدف‪ ،‬تواصل ٌ‬ ‫كل من أوبراين وفاروقي مع زيشان حنيف والذي‬ ‫تخرج من قسم علوم الحاسوب من جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر لتبادل‬ ‫األفكار ومناقشة أفضل الطرق لتقديم هذا الكم من البيانات في صورة مرئية‬

‫قاموا باستخدام المختبر الذكي لعرض تكنولوجيا السيارات بدون سائق على‬ ‫الجماهير المهتمة بالسالمة المرورية‪ .‬وقد قدمت جامعة كارنيجي ميلون‪،‬‬ ‫المعروفة بريادتها في مجال بحوث السيارات بدون سائق ألكثر من ثالثين عام ًا‪،‬‬ ‫من خالل المختبر الذكي عرض ًا تفاعلي ًا لتسليط الضوء على الموضوع‪.‬‬

‫أكثر من مجرد مختبر لألعمال‬ ‫وفي هذا السياق‪ ،‬يقول أوبراين «إن تعاون كافة التخصصات في غاية األهمية‪،‬‬

‫أكثر منها كتابية‪.‬‬

‫معني فقط باألعمال التجارية‪ ،‬ولذا فإننا نشجع الطالب من‬ ‫فهذا المختبر ليس‬ ‫ٌ‬

‫وبفضل الجهود البحثية المشتركة بين األطراف الثالثة‪ ،‬تمكنوا سوي ًا من تطوير‬

‫كافة التخصصات األخرى على المشاركة وتبادل األفكار»‪.‬‬

‫لوحة قيادية مرئية موجودة في قاعدة بيانات رويترز‪ .‬وتستند فكرتها على إظهار‬ ‫بيانات األسواق العالمية وكأنها تحت بؤرة عدسة تصوير قوية حيث يمكن من‬ ‫خاللها تصغير البيانات للحصول على رؤية أكبر وأشمل عن الوضع المالي في‬ ‫جميع أنحاء العالم كما يمكن تكبير أي من البيانات المعروضة للحصول على‬ ‫معلومات تفصيلية لكافة التعامالت واألنشطة التي حدثت أثناء اليوم‪.‬‬

‫وسيكون االختبار األول لنسخة جديدة من المختبر الذكي يمكن من خاللها دمج‬ ‫أكثر من تخصص في فبراير ‪ ٢٠١٦‬مع انطالق الدورة االفتتاحية لمسابقة هاكاثون‬ ‫للتداول اآللي‪ .‬تعمل األسواق المالية في أجزاء كثيرة من العالم بنظام التداول‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫يمكن من إتمام عمليات البيع والشراء بشكل إلكتروني وفق ًا‬ ‫اآللي والذي‬ ‫لشروط تم تحديدها مسبق ًا‪ ،‬وال يزال هذا النوع من التداول جديداً في قطر‪ ،‬غير أن‬

‫عندما ضرب اإلعصار‬

‫أوبراين وفاروقي يعتقدان أنه يمكن دمج تخصصات أخرى معه بشكل مثالي‪.‬‬

‫وفي أوائل ‪ ،2015‬تم إنشاء المختبر الذكي‪ -‬قطر كأداة تعليمية ليتم استخدامها‬

‫وأضاف أوبراين‪“ :‬سيعمل طالب علوم الحاسوب وأنظمة المعلومات مع طالب‬

‫في دورة عملية عن األسواق المالية والتي كان من المقرر عقدها في الفصل‬

‫إدارة األعمال إلنشاء قواعد بيانات للتداول اآللي‪ .‬ومن جانبنا سنقوم بتشغيل‬

‫الثاني من سنة ‪ .٢٠١٦-٢٠١٥‬وقبل انطالق فعاليات الدورة التدريبةـ‪،‬أدرك الفريق‬

‫قواعد التداول اآللي في نفس الوقت لمعرفة أيّ من أعمال الطالب ستحقق‬

‫أنهم تمكنوا من إنجاز شيء هام له تطبيقات واسعة وكثيرة‪.‬‬

‫أكبر النجاحات وستفوز في أنشطة السوق اإللكترونية‪ .‬مؤكداً أن العمل‬ ‫الجماعي والتعاون المشترك بين الطالب هو الوسيلة التي تنتهجها جامعة‬ ‫كارنيجي ميلون في التعامل مع المشكالت البحثية “‪.‬‬

‫إن تعاون كافة التخصصات في غاية األهمية‪ ،‬فهذا‬ ‫معني فقط باألعمال التجارية‪ ،‬ولذا‬ ‫المختبر ليس‬ ‫ٌ‬ ‫فإننا نشجع الطالب من كافة التخصصات األخرى‬ ‫على المشاركة وتبادل األفكار‪.‬‬

‫وفي مسابقة هاكاثون للتداول اآللي‪ ،‬سيكون المختبر الذكي‪ -‬قطر بمثابة‬ ‫مركز للبحوث ولرصد أداء الفرق وما حققته من نجاح‪.‬‬ ‫وقد تصور كل من فاروقي وأبراين أن يكون المختبر الذكي مصدراً هام ًا للبيانات‬ ‫لكافة أعضاء هيئة التدريس والطالب في جامعة كارنيجي ميلون «‪ .‬وفي‬ ‫هذا الصدد‪ ،‬قال أوبراين «نحن نرى في هذا المختبر مساحة يمكنك من خاللها‬ ‫مشاركة البحوث الخاصة بك مع مجموعة من الباحثين ممن يتمتعون بمهارات‬

‫جون اوبراين‬ ‫العميد المشارك‬

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‫وإمكانات متنوعة لتكون متاحة أمام أي إضافة أو تعاون‪ ،‬وهذا النقطة هي ما‬ ‫يميز جامعة كارنيجي ميلون وهي أيض ًا السر وراء النجاحات البحثية الكبيرة‬ ‫التي تحرزها»‪.‬‬

‫‪Spring 2016‬‬

Hackathon:

Teamwork + Caffeine = Genius

F

riday, 11:00 a.m.: The organizers from the student club

CarnegieApps arrive early to take care of last minute details—

putting up signage, setting out lanyards—for the biggest hackathon in CMU-Q history. At 2:00 p.m. they are ready, and at 2:15 p.m. participants start to arrive. There are 74 students who will compete in CarnegieApps Hackathon 2016: most are from CMU-Q, many from other universities in Qatar, and one from Abu Dhabi.

Hackathons are exhausting odysseys of 24 hours, 36 hours, sometimes 48 hours of creativity, hair-pulling and problem solving.

They are caffeine-fueled, sugar-driven intellectual marathons that

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generate ideas and spark innovative thinking. And Carnegie Mellon students are very, very good at them.

In a hackathon, participants compete to make something—a game, an app, a digital tool of some sort—that is innovative, surprising and well thought-out. Students work in small teams planning, coding, testing and fixing until time runs out.

Dan Phelps, associate teaching professor of information systems at CMU-Q, was faculty advisor for this year’s hackathon. He says Carnegie Mellon students do well in hackathons because “from Day 1, they are exposed to problem sets that need solutions. Their entire education is driven by the notion of solving problems.”

Friday, 3:30 p.m.: First on the agenda is a mixer, where participants meet and mingle. Some students come with teams and ideas already formed; others join together at the mixer when one participant’s ideas and another’s skills seem well-matched. By 4:30 p.m. the teams are formed and they receive their room assignments.

Sponsors can help transform a hackathon from a small, student-run competition into an event. The sponsor for this year’s CarnegieApps Hackathon was Ooredoo, who provided prizes—Macbooks, iPads or iPhones for each member of the winning teams—as well as an expert who sat on the judging panel.

The importance of sponsors runs deeper than financial support.

These are not theoretical competitions: The heart of a hackathon is to create something truly innovative, and sponsors provide crucial representation from industry.

Some sponsors harness the creativity of a hackathon in order to develop their own technologies. SAP is an international software

solutions enterprise that runs several InnoJams each year. Taking place all over the world, InnoJams are focused hackathons, where competitors use SAP technology as a starting place.

In September, Ibrahim Soltan, a junior in information systems, travelled to Berlin to compete in the SAP Innojam. Soltan and his team developed an app called Learn and Earn in the education category. They won, earning a spot at the larger SAP Innojam in Barcelona. Once in Barcelona, Soltan formed a new team, and they tackled a problem in the energy category. They won as well, and went on to place third in the final phase of the competition.

Friday, 5:00 p.m.: As students begin to brainstorm, there are several mentors available to listen to ideas and offer advice. Mentors work in various fields, and many are CMU-Q alumni. The mentors work as a team, sending specialists to assist when the students get stuck. Many will stay all night. “Why do they stay? They love the hackathon culture,” said Anas Farah, a CarnegieApps organizer.

Ibrahim Soltan’s winning idea at InnoJam Berlin Soltan and his team created an app that solves a real-world problem: Many companies have coding problems they need resolved, and many talented students need a little money. To ensure students have the appropriate skills, the app requires they first take a short course. Then they tackle the company’s coding problem and earn some cash along the way.

Haris Aghadi and Ali Naqi, CMU-Q alums and hackathon mentors

Participants register at the beginning of CarnegieApps Hackathon 2016

Spring 2016

23

CarnegieApps Hackathon 2016 organizers (left to right): Zanib Khalid, Ashwini Kamath, Anas Farah, Farjana Salahuddin, Fariya Shabbir, Professor Daniel Phelps, Syed Hassan Mehdi and Yousuf Akhlaq

CMU-Q students Maher Khan, Musab Ahmed Popatia and Qasim Nadeem spent the fall 2015 semester at CMU Pittsburgh. “There are American college students who do a hackathon every other weekend,” said Khan. For most participants, the costs to compete in hackathons are negligible: The organizers provide plenty of food and sleeping accommodations are not necessary. Many colleges even provide buses to their events, eliminating any travel costs for students.

Khan, Popatia and Nadeem boarded the Yale-provided bus from Pittsburgh to New Haven, Connecticut, for Y-Hack in November. The event hosted 1,500 students from across the US, and took place in Yale’s cavernous gymnasium complex with a second-floor running track.

Students stay in the gym for two days, working at tables that line the perimeter. Sponsors are set up in the middle, food is plentiful, and the track forms a makeshift bunk area for competitors to recharge.

The CMU-Q team spent their first three hours on just the idea. They focused on the end-user’s needs, developing a web-based vacation planner for groups.

“Some teams take on too much, they fall behind and if they don’t have a working app, it can’t go in for judging. We think the app needs to be relatable, it needs to solve a problem,” said Khan.

Popatia continued: “Computer science students can make some cool things, but can you do anything with them? We considered commercial applicability.”

The app came together and the CMU-Q team took third place in the Best Overall category.

Saturday, 1:00 a.m.: Panic sets in, the organizers have run out of karak: “We thought we had enough, but we had to do an emergency run for more,” said Farjana Salahuddin, president of CarnegieApps.

“The food is very important. The participants expect unlimited coffee and snacks.”

The karak arrives around 1:30 a.m., and the competitors refuel.

They slowly trickle back into their rooms to work. Around 4:00 a.m., the building is quiet. Some participants are deep at work. Some are catching a quick nap before the final push.

The maker movement of the last decade is a subculture that focuses on making rather than consuming. Artisans, craftsmen, inventors and innovators fall under the banner of the maker movement, and hackathons are a natural outcropping.

“In the last decade we have seen the maker perspective come to fruition. The ubiquity of the world wide web and tools like 3D printers give nearly anyone the ability to create prototypes. It spurs innovation and invention,” said Phelps.

Maher Khan, Musab Ahmed Popatia and Qasim Nadeem’s third-place idea at Y-Hack The CMU-Q team at Y-Hack created a group vacation planning app. Friends who want to travel together each choose a budget, preferred dates and preferred locations. The app decides on the intersections, and gives flight and hotel suggestions.

24

Hackathon judges (left to right): Munera Fahad Al Dosari, assistant director in the program management office of Ooredoo Qatar, Khalifa Saleh Al Haroon, founder of I Love Qatar and chief executive officer of Haroon United Group, Indica Amarasinghe, head of the Digital Incubation Center, Ahmed Elmagarmid, executive director of Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), and Francisco Guzman, a QCRI computer scientist

Saturday, 4:30 p.m.: Time is up. Competitors have

Saturday, 7:00 p.m.: The presentations are over and the

15 minutes to gather their thoughts before presentations begin.

participants relax and eat dinner. In another room, the organizers

Each team has three minutes to present, and then two more

crunch numbers and determine the winners. When the dinner is

minutes for the judges to ask questions. With each presentation, the

over, Munera Fahad Al Dosari, assistant director in the program

excitement builds in the room. Competitors are supportive, cheering

management office of Ooredoo Qatar, announces the awards. The

on each team as they share their ideas.

winner of Best Overall App is The Walking Coders. The four first-

The hackathon culture is infectious, and it extends beyond universities. In October 2015, Serkan Piantino, Facebook’s New York site director, spoke at a roundtable discussion at CMU-Q. In passing, he mentioned that to come up with new ideas, Facebook holds hackathons; he clarified that these are internal competitions for Facebook employees, to the audience’s audible disappointment.

year students sit stunned and motionless for a moment: they are a

Facebook is only one of many companies that hold hackathons to solve problems, brainstorm and create new ideas. “Hackathons are about much more than coding, the team must satisfy the needs of the end user,” said Phelps. The time pressure forces employees to look at the big picture, create the broad strokes of an idea, and work out the details later.

After the awards are announced and the participants leave, the

As hackathons become more prolific in business, students who participate are, in effect, preparing themselves for working in the real world. “Students don’t realize how proficient they are until they have the opportunity to test their skills,” said Phelps.

an idea.”

freshman team, and the win is a surprise.

“They created something the judges had never seen before, something very useful that could have a big impact,” said Salahuddin.

organizers make sure the space is tidied up and all the loose ends are taken care of. At 9:30 p.m., they are finished.

“I have been involved with CarnegieApps Hackathon since my first year,” said Salahuddin. “I find it inspiring, you learn the value of

Rachel Marella, Sungho Park, Eishaank Gakhar and Shaden Shaar’s winning idea The winning team at CarnegieApps Hackathon 2016 created a way to navigate through a YouTube video. The app uses voice recognition to transpose the video’s spoken words into text, which is easily searchable for a keyword. Once found, the app takes you exactly to the point in the video where the word is spoken.

Spring 2016

25

On the business On record

Teaching Arabic to young professionals

At January’s Renaissance of Arabic Language Forum, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, stated that Modern Standard Arabic has become a foreign language to many Arabs, so it is important for Arab youth to learn and maintain the language. CMU-Q’s Zeinab Ibrahim, teaching professor of Arabic studies, served on the paper selection committee for the forum and puts Her Highness’ recommendations into practice with a unique course called "Arabic for the Professions."

When Ibrahim first came to CMU-Q in 2009, she was asked to explore the demand for Arabic language courses. “Georgetown University has Arabic language courses for non-native speakers and heritage learners, but we wanted to create something unique that was filling a need,” said Ibrahim.

Ibrahim conducted a survey of students and alumni to determine their Arabic needs when they entered the workplace. To her surprise, it was mostly Qatari students who expressed interest in improving their Arabic. Alumni commented that when employers hire Arabs, they consider them to be bilingual, and call upon them to read and translate documents.

Unfortunately, the students found that as they studied in English, they improved their reading, writing and speaking skills in English but their Arabic skills diminished. Arabic, particularly when written, is more formal in the workplace, and uses language that is quite distinct from the dialects used in casual conversation.

Based on these findings, Ibrahim developed a new course that would build the language skills students would need in the workplace.

“This is the latest trend for education in the west, to tailor courses according to the needs of the students,” she commented.

The original course was titled Business Arabic, the only one of its kind in Education City, and was geared toward students in the Business Administration program. “The focus of the course is the Arabic content, and their Arabic language skills improve while they are studying the content,” she added.

26

Qatar is an Arab country. This is our language and we should be able to use Arabic to do business.

KHALIFA AL-NAIMI SOPHOMORE, BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION The course proved popular with students in other majors, too.

“We found that students from all of the programs were interested, so we now call it Arabic for the Professions and it has a broader focus,” said Ibrahim.

Students in the course echo the importance of Arabic language skills that Her Highness is emphasizing.

“The language of business in Qatar is English, yes,” said Khalifa Al-Naimi, “but Qatar is an Arab country. This is our language and we should be able to use Arabic to do business.”

In a class of 15 students, each of the four majors is represented.

The students take turns choosing articles from within their fields to read and discuss in class.

“I find it much faster and easier to read articles in English, so I am taking this course so my Arabic skills stay current,” said Zamzam AlAssmakh, a business administration senior.

Since she first taught the course in 2010, Ibrahim has created a suite of Arabic content courses that encourage students to read, write, speak and think in the formal language. Students can now take courses like Language Literature and Culture, Modern Arabic Literature and Arabic Socio-Linguistics.

“We must look at the issue from a global perspective,” said Ibrahim.

“At CMU-Q, we are looking at the demands of the market and giving our graduates the skills to raise the level of the language in the workplace.”

‫تعليم الشباب‬ ‫مهارات استخدام‬ ‫اللغة العربية في‬ ‫المهن المختلفة‬ ‫السمو الشيخة موزا بنت ناصر‪ ،‬رئيسة مجلس اإلدارة‪ ،‬أن اللغة العربية الفصحى‬

‫الدراسي الجديد بقولها‪" :‬يعتبر هذا النوع من الدورات التعليمية من أحدث النظم‬ ‫صمم المقررات الدراسية والتعليمية وفق ًا الحتياجات‬ ‫التعليمية في الغرب‪ ،‬حيث تُ ّ‬

‫أصبحت أقرب إلى اللغة األجنبية لكثير من أهلها‪ .‬ولذا‪ ،‬بات من األهمية أن يتعلم‬

‫الطالب في سوق العمل"‪.‬‬

‫الشباب العربي لغتهم األم ويبذلوا الجهد في الحفاظ عليها‪.‬‬

‫كانت المادة التعليمية األصلية‪ ،‬وعنوانها «اللغة العربية لألعمال»‪ ،‬هي الوحيدة‬ ‫من نوعها في المدينة التعليمية‪ .‬وهي مُعدّ ة خصيص ًا للطالب في تخصص‬

‫في المنتدى الثاني للنهوض باللغة العربية في يناير الماضي‪ ،‬صرحت صاحبة‬

‫وعندما انضمت الدكتورة زينب إبراهيم إلى هيئة التدريس بجامعة كارنيجي ميلون‬ ‫في قطر عام ‪ُ ،2009‬‬ ‫طلِب منها استكشاف مدى إقبال الطالب على صفوف اللغة‬ ‫العربية‪ .‬وفي هذا السياق تقول الدكتورة زينب‪ « :‬تقدم جامعة جورجتاون صفوفا‬ ‫لتعليم اللغة العربية لغير الناطقين بها ولوارثي اللغة ‪ ،‬غير أننا أردنا أن نقدم شيئ ًا‬ ‫فريداً من نوعه يلبي احتياجات الشباب»‪.‬‬

‫إدارة األعمال‪ .‬وتضيف الدكتورة زينب قائلة‪« :‬يتمثل المحور الرئيسي لهذه المادة‬ ‫التعليمية في تقديم محتوى مهني باللغة العربية‪ ،‬وقد تحسنت بالفعل مهارات‬ ‫الطالب باللغة العربية مع استمرار تقدمهم في دراستها»‪.‬‬ ‫شهدت هذه المادة التعليمية إقبا ًال كبيراً من الطالب من مختلف التخصصات‬

‫ولتحقيق هذا الهدف‪ ،‬أجرت الدكتورة زينب إبراهيم استطالع ًا آلراء الطالب‬

‫األخرى‪ .‬وتقول الدكتور زينب عن ذلك‪« :‬لقد لمسنا اهتمام عدد كبير من الطالب‬

‫والخريجين و مدراء الشركات التي تعين خريجي الجامعة لتحديد احتياجاتهم‬

‫من مختلف التخصصات بهذه الدورة التي غيرنا اسمها إلى «اللغة العربية للمهن‬

‫المهنية باللغة العربية عند التحاقهم بسوق العمل‪ .‬وتفاجأت أن معظم الطالب‬

‫المختلفة» بعد توسيع نطاقها»‪.‬‬

‫القطريين أعربوا عن اهتمامهم ورغبتهم في تحسين لغتهم العربية‪ .‬وعلق‬ ‫بعض الخريجين و كذلك المدراء على ذلك بأن الشركات تسعى لتعيين العرب‬

‫وقد شدد الطالب على أهمية تعلم مهارات اللغة العربية التي أكدت عليها‬ ‫صاحبة السمو الشيخة موزا‪ .‬وفي هذا السياق‪ ،‬يقول الطالب خليفة النعيمي‪،‬‬

‫باعتبارهم ثنائيي اللغة وتتوقع منهم قراءة وترجمة الوثائق‪.‬‬

‫«نعم‪ ،‬اللغة اإلنجليزية هي لغة األعمال في قطر‪ ،‬ولكن قطر دولة عربية في‬

‫ولألسف الشديد‪ ،‬أصبح الطالب الذين يدرسون باللغة اإلنجليزية تتحسن لديهم‬

‫النهاية‪ ،‬واللغة العربية هي لغتنا األولى‪ .‬ومن ثم يجب علينا اكتساب القدرة على‬

‫مهارات القراءة والكتابة والتحدث باللغة اإلنجليزية بينما تتضاءل في الوقت نفسه استخدامها في األعمال والمهن المختلفة»‬ ‫مهاراتهم في استخدام اللغة العربية‪ .‬ومن المعروف أن اللغة العربية الرسمية‪،‬‬

‫ضمت قاعة المحاضرة خالل الدورة التعليمية ‪ 15‬طالب ًا من مختلف التخصصات‬

‫المحلية التي تستخدم في المحادثات اليومية‪.‬‬

‫األكاديمية األربعة التي تدرسها الجامعة‪ .‬ويتناوب الطالب في اختيار األبحاث‬ ‫والمقاالت‪ُ ،‬‬ ‫كل في تخصص دراسته الجامعية‪ ،‬لقراءتها ومناقشتها في الصف‪.‬‬

‫التي تستخدم في مكان العمل ال سيما المكتوبة منها‪ ،‬تختلف عن اللهجات‬ ‫وبناء على هذه النتائج‪ ،‬وضعت الدكتورة زينب مقرراً لدورة تعليمية جديدة لتعزيز‬ ‫المهارات اللغوية التي يحتاجها الطالب في عملهم‪ .‬وتحدثت عن هذا المقرر‬

‫تقول زمزم األصمخ‪« :‬أجد قراءة المقاالت باللغة اإلنجليزية أسرع وأسهل من قراءتها‬ ‫باللغة العربية‪ .‬ولذا قررت االلتحاق بهذه المادة لتحسين مهاراتي في اللغة العربية‬ ‫لمواكبة المتطلبات الحالية لسوق العمل»‪.‬‬

‫نعم‪ ،‬اللغة اإلنجليزية هي لغة األعمال في‬ ‫قطر‪ ،‬ولكن قطر دولة عربية في النهاية‪ ،‬واللغة‬ ‫العربية هي لغتنا األولى‪ .‬ومن ثم يجب علينا‬ ‫اكتساب القدرة على استخدامها في األعمال‬ ‫والمهن المختلفة‪.‬‬

‫خليفة النعيمي‬ ‫طالب سنة ثانية‪ ،‬ادارة اعمال‬ ‫‪27‬‬

‫قامت الدكتورة زينب إبراهيم‪ ،‬منذ بدأت تدريس هذه الدورة في عام ‪ ،2010‬بتصميم‬ ‫محتوى عربي ًا يشجع الطالب على‬ ‫مجموعة من المواد التعليمية التي تضم‬ ‫ً‬ ‫القراءة والكتابة‪ ،‬والتحدث والتفكير باللغة العربية الفصحى‪ .‬ويستطيع الطالب‬ ‫اآلن االلتحاق بالمواد التعليمية في األدب والثقافة العربية‪ ،‬واألدب العربي الحديث‬ ‫باإلضافة إلى علوم اللغويات االجتماعية للغة العربية‪.‬‬ ‫تقول الدكتورة زينب‪« :‬يجب علينا أن ننظر إلى األمر من منظور شامل‪ .‬ومن هذا‬ ‫المنطلق‪ ،‬تعمل جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر على دراسة سوق العمل‬ ‫ومتطلباته‪ ،‬وتسليح الخريجين بالمهارات الالزمة لرفع مستوى اللغة العربية في‬ ‫مكان العمل»‪.‬‬

‫‪Spring 2016‬‬

On science

Wi-Fi can measure breathing rate

UbiBreathe began with the idea that since the lungs are large organs, the inhaling and exhaling motion will affect the Wi-Fi RSS.

A patient’s breathing rate is a crucial vital sign, one that is an important predictor of serious health problems like cardiac arrest, stroke or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In hospitals, doctors use breathing monitors that attach to the body, usually with a mask or nasal cannula. Such contact-based devices are uncomfortable or limit the patient’s movement. Sometimes they are not possible to use, as with babies with sensitive skin or those born prematurely. Moreover, these devices are not appropriate for monitoring out of the hospital setting.

Creating a simple, cost-effective, non-intrusive and reliable method for monitoring respiration in the home would be a huge benefit to people with sleep apnea, a potentially serious sleep condition in which a person’s breathing repeatedly stops and starts again. As well, respiration monitoring could help prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), the leading cause of death among infants one month to one year old.

Researchers have been looking into ways to measure respiration rate without direct body contact.

A mobile phone camera has been used to analyze a person’s chest motion, but this approach requires a certain amount of light to work properly, so would not be appropriate, for instance, to monitor a sleeping infant in a dark room. Furthermore, the mobile phone camera would quickly consume battery power and raises privacy concerns.

Khaled A. Harras, associate teaching professor of computer science at CMU-Q, Heba Abdelnasser of Alexandria University and Moustafa Youssef of the Wireless Research Center at the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology have created a system that could revolutionize home monitoring of respiration.

Together they have created UbiBreathe, a system that extracts the breathing signal and respiratory information from the noisy Wi-Fi received signal strength (RSS). UbiBreathe is a software-only solution that can work with any Wi-Fi-enabled device without any special hardware. It can monitor multiple people in parallel, detect breathing anomalies, and display the full breathing signal in real time.

UbiBreathe began with the idea that since the lungs are large organs, the inhaling and exhaling motion will affect the Wi-Fi RSS. To test this, they placed a Wi-Fi receiver on a person’s chest, and detected a dominant and periodic fluctuation in the received Wi-Fi signal. They then analyzed this modulated Wi-Fi signal to extract information about the person’s breathing pattern.

28

On: Science

With this level of accuracy, UbiBreathe is a promising tool in the monitoring of apnea and infant sleeping.

RSSI dBm

-32 -33 -34 -35 -36 -37

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

25

30

Time in Seconds

(a) Raw measured WiFi signal strength.

0.4 0.2 0 -0.2 -0.4

0

5

10

15

Time in Seconds

20

(b) The breathing waveform after processing by UbiBrethe.

Figure 1: UbiBreathe can extract the embedded breathing signal from the noisy signal strength. The ground truth breathing rate is 18 bpm.

The team found that the effect also occurs when the person is not touching the device, but within the line-of-sight between the wireless access point (AP) and a Wi-Fi-enabled device.

There were several practical challenges: In a real world scenario, people move and external events occur that will disturb the signal. UbiBreathe employs a number of processing modules and conducts signal analysis, filtering and processing to extract useful information about a person’s breathing pattern: rate, depth, timing and consistency of breaths. It then analyzes the extracted breathing signal and applies denoising techniques to check for the absence of typical breathing patterns, as would happen during an episode of apnea. The software raises an alarm if there is loss of the breathing signal.

UbiBreathe’s early results are very promising. The system can achieve a high breathing rate detection accuracy, with fewer than one breath-per-minute error. In addition, it can detect apnea with more than 92 percent accuracy and less than 10 percent false-positive and false-negative rates, based on the readings of a single access point. This accuracy goes up to 96 percent, with less than 4 percent false-positive and false-negative rates, based on the RSS of five overhead APs. With this level of accuracy, UbiBreathe is a promising tool in the monitoring of apnea and infant sleeping.

The technology could also be used in diverse scenarios like remote patient monitoring, detecting health issues at an early stage and fitness monitoring. The team continues to expand UbiBreathe in different directions, including detecting exact types of apnea and performing clinical trials with real patients.

Spring 2016

29

On student life

Outdoor experience in Oman tests students’ leadership and team-building

Fourteen students traveled to Jebel Shams, a mountainous area outside of Muscat, as the capstone activity to the semester-long GPS program. Students worked as a team to set up camp and complete a series of mental and physical challenges over the three-day experience.

The GPS program is designed to guide first-year students through leadership training and personal development with weekly activities throughout the fall semester. Students learn how to collaborate, explore their values and strengths, and commit to self-improvement.

“GPS Oman is the final activity in the program, and we put all the skills they have learned to the test. The purpose is to build community in an environment that is completely different from what they’re used to,” said Kevin D’Arco, director of student activities and first-year programs.

While in Oman, students rappelled down a cliff face, a 30-meter drop, and climbed back up through a mountainside climbing course.

They also did a balcony walk, a three-hour hike up a mountain along a narrow pathway. Back at camp, they took first aid training and reflected on the challenges of the outdoor experience.

Most GPS students use their leadership skills as a springboard to other activities on campus. Many go on to become counselors during Orientation Week, and in turn promote GPS and being active on campus.

“Some of the activities are difficult and frightening, and the trip can be uncomfortable—the temperature dipped below 10°C at night— but the students finished the trip thinking, if I can rappel down a cliff, I can do anything,” D’Arco continued.

Dina Al-Tarawneh, a first-year biological sciences student, reflected on the GPS experience: “GPS gave me the insight to act in congruence: with nature and its harsh weather, with people and their different personalities, but most importantly, with myself.”

30

Spring 2016

31

On faculty

A conversation with John O’Brien OnQ sat down with John O’Brien, associate dean of CMU-Q, to talk about how Reader’s Digest and a trailer full of 386 computers landed him in the Smithsonian.

OnQ: Tell us about your background.

John O’Brien: I’m from Sydney, Australia, and I went to the University of Sydney for undergraduate. I studied mathematics and statistics, and when I graduated I went to work with the magazine Reader’s Digest as a statistician.

OnQ: Why did Reader’s Digest need a statistician?

John O’Brien: Reader’s Digest took a quantitative, big data approach to marketing, it was way ahead of its time. We kept a database with order histories on customers and potential customers for all of Australia, and we constructed sample tests with different headlines and content. I don’t think anyone else in the world was approaching direct marketing this way in the mid 1970s.

It was a fantastic experience.

OnQ: You ended up going back to school to do graduate work. How did that happen?

John O’Brien: Macquarie University in Australia was interested in the work I did at Reader’s Digest, so they hired me as a statistician. I was thinking of going into investment banking, but unbeknownst to me, Macquarie sent my honors thesis to the University of Minnesota and they accepted me into the Ph.D. program.

OnQ: That’s a big decision, to move from Australia to Minnesota.

That was the birth of Financial Analysis and Security Training, or FAST. CMU didn’t have space for it, so we set up in a trailer on campus.

You had to be careful because if you kicked out the wires, you brought down the whole network.

John O’Brien: It happened very fast.

We just came back from holiday, we had a new baby and a new house. I took my wife out for dinner, and we thought, why not, let’s go. It was just for three years, but that turned into about thirty.

OnQ: Was the weather a shock to the system?

John O’Brien: Yes! I went to Minnesota with just a leather coat thinking that would cut it, but it didn’t even last until September. Minnesota’s weather is the opposite of Australia’s.

32

OnQ: How did you end up at Carnegie Mellon?

OnQ: Did you take information from the New York Stock Exchange?

OnQ: As a professor you teach and do research. Do you prefer one?

John O’Brien: My doctoral committee chairman and one other member of my committee (a subsequent Nobel prize winner) were from Carnegie Mellon. They kept telling me how great Carnegie Mellon was, so that’s where I ended up.

John O’Brien: No, initially these were self-contained markets in the lab, with 16 students on the virtual trading floor.

The learning curve was quite severe. These were MBA students in competition with each other and if they were unprepared, they were arbitraged by other traders in the market.

John O’Brien: Starting off my career I would have definitely said research, but with FAST, I personally got increasingly involved in the use of technology in the classroom, learning by doing.

OnQ: How did word spread about the lab?

John O’Brien: It’s funny, algorithmic trading accounts for about 70% of the trades in the world. Computer trading is a lot more efficient, it can seize on opportunities that might last for a millisecond.

OnQ: Tell us about the course you developed.

John O’Brien: At CMU, one of my research interests was studying markets in the laboratory, and Sanjay Srivastava was on a committee that was reviewing me.

He was also interested in this work.

OnQ: What year was this?

John O’Brien: This was in 1987, and in those days there weren’t readily available networks. We had access to four old PCs, and we got the idea to link them and get them talking to one another.

We had the help of Tom Bielek, a hardware expert at GSIA (Graduate School of Industrial Administration), who literally soldered the pins while Sanjay and I played with the communications programming. We got those four computers to communicate together using only three pins, and we figured, if we have four connected PCs, we could run a market.

OnQ: Is this where the idea of the course came from?

John O’Brien: At first we wanted to do research. We asked the associate dean at the time for a dozen 386 computers, which cost $85,000 in those days. He agreed to fund it if we would design a course entirely around electronic markets.

That was the birth of Financial Analysis and Security Training, or FAST. We called it Simulab at the time, but it became FAST. CMU didn’t have space for it, so we set up in a trailer on campus. You had to be careful because if you kicked out the wires, you brought down the whole network.

John O’Brien: The dean of the Japanese Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo was visiting Carnegie Mellon and asked if he could be part of it. We ended up running joint trading sessions between Carnegie Mellon and Tokyo. Then a contingent from Mexico—the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM)—asked if they could join in.

With them, we had problems with noisy phone lines, so we ended up communicating through ITESM’s communication satellite, which I recall was Morales II. By then we had shown that virtual markets were a very good teaching tool. The former Eastern Bloc countries, including Russia, were just becoming market-oriented, so we came across and trained them. Because of that work, the CEO of a database company in the US nominated us for the Smithsonian.

OnQ: What happened with the Smithsonian?

John O’Brien: We received an award from the Smithsonian for innovative uses of information technology and we became part of the permanent archives of the Museum of American History. It was quite an honor.

They created a time capsule to be opened in 100 years, and we were asked to contribute. We gave them working code, photos, a description, that sort of thing.

If anyone is around in about 2096, you will see what we included.

Spring 2016

OnQ: Are computer traders smarter than human traders?

In terms of creating the strategy, however, humans are still required. We don’t have artificially intelligent computers that can design the strategy. Yet.

The Smithsonian created a time capsule to be opened in 100 years, and we were asked to contribute FAST. If anyone is around in about 2096, you will see what we included.

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On outreach

Ibtikar On October 31, CMU-Q held its annual interaction design and UX workshop for high school students. During the one-day workshop, teams of students explored the creative design process.

CS4Qatar for Women CS4Qatar for Women took place on November 7. The popular one-day workshop introduces prospective students in secondary schools to the basics of computing.

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‫ابتكار‬ ‫ عقدت جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر ورشتها السنوية في التصميم‬،‫ أكتوبر‬31 ‫في‬ ‫ التي استمرت‬،‫ واستكشف الطالب خالل الورشة‬.‫التفاعلي لطالب المدارس الثانوية‬ .‫ الطرق اإلبداعية في التصميم‬،‫ليوم واحد‬

‫ورشة علم الحاسوب من أجل قطر‬ ‫ ) للطالبات‬CS4Qatar( ‫ نوفمبر وهي عبارة عن ورشة عمل عامة‬7 ‫عقدت ورشة "علم الحاسوب من أجل قطر" في‬ .‫لمدة يوم واحد لتعريف طالبات المدارس الثانوية على أساسيات علوم الحاسوب‬

‫برنامج التعليم التنفيذي‪:‬‬ ‫تقدم جامعة" كارنيجي ميلون" في قطر سلسلة من الدورات التدريبية في التعليم‬ ‫التنفيذي والتي يتم تقديمها بالتعاون مع شركاء في القطاعين الحكومي‬ ‫والصناعي‪ .‬و في الفصل األول من سنة ‪، ٢٠١٦-٢٠١٥‬قامت الجامعة بتقديم الدورات‬

‫‪Executive Education‬‬ ‫‪Carnegie Mellon Qatar offers a series of executive education‬‬ ‫‪courses delivered by faculty to its strategic partners in industry and‬‬ ‫‪government. In the fall 2015 semester, CMU-Q offered courses in:‬‬

‫التدريبية التالية‪:‬‬

‫ •‬ ‫• ‬ ‫ •‬ ‫ •‬ ‫ •‬ ‫ •‬

‫‪35‬‬

‫التصميم والتحليل التنظيمي‬

‫‪Organizational Analysis and Design‬‬ ‫‪Quality, Innovation, Service and Leadership‬‬

‫ •‬

‫‪Managing Change in Organizations‬‬

‫ •‬

‫‪Cross Cultural Management‬‬

‫ •‬

‫‪Introduction to Business Strategy and Tactics‬‬

‫ •‬

‫‪Innovation in Groups and Teams‬‬

‫ •‬

‫الجودة واالبتكار والخدامات ومهارات القيادة‬ ‫إدارة التغيير داخل المؤسسات‬ ‫اإلدارة الثقافية والمجتمعية‬ ‫مقدمة في استراتيجيات وتكتيكات األعمال‬

‫ •‬

‫خلق روح االبتكار بين الفرق والمجموعات‬

‫‪Spring 2016‬‬

‫‪On the‬‬ ‫‪Qatar record‬‬ ‫‪On‬‬

‫‪CMU-Q celebrates Qatari heritage and culture‬‬ ‫‪CMU-Q celebrated Qatar National Day with cultural festivities organized by the Qatari Student Association.‬‬ ‫‪Students, faculty, staff and the wider QF community experienced the rich heritage of Qatar at an evening‬‬ ‫‪that included sword dancing, henna and traditional Qatari food. A highlight of the evening was an‬‬ ‫‪exclusive performance by local singer Nasser Al Kubaisi.‬‬

‫جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر تحتفل بالتراث والثقافة القطرية‬ ‫نظمت جمعية الطلبة القطريين في جامعة كارنيجي ميلون في قطر حف ً‬ ‫ال خاص ًا إلحياء التراث والثقافة القطرية‪ ،‬بمناسبة اليوم‬ ‫الوطني لدولة قطر‪ .‬وشارك في االحتفال الطالب وأعضاء هيئة التدريس والعاملون من الجامعة ومؤسسة قطر للتربية والعلوم‬ ‫وتنمية المجتمع‪ .‬وشهد الحفل العديد من األنشطة‪ ،‬منها الرقص بالسيوف‪ ،‬ورسم الحنة‪ ،‬وتقديم الطعام القطري التقليدي كما‬ ‫تخللت الفعالية مشاركة مميزة للفنان القطري ناصر الكبيسي‪.‬‬

‫‪36‬‬

Spring 2016

37

On Pittsburgh

Mental miscues

By Hannah Diorio-Toth

A study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University investigated the brain’s neural activity during learned behavior and found that the brain makes mistakes because it applies incorrect inner beliefs, or internal models, about how the world works. The research suggests that when the brain makes a mistake, it actually thinks that it is making the correct decision—its neural signals are consistent with its inner beliefs, but not with what is happening in the real world.

“Our brains are constantly trying to predict how the world works. We do this by building internal models through experience and learning when we interact with the world,” says Steven Chase, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. “However, it has not yet been possible to track how these internal models affect instant-by-instant behavioral decisions.”

The researchers conducted an experiment using a brain-machine interface, a device that allows the brain to control a computer

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cursor using thought alone. By studying the brain’s activity, the researchers could see how the brain thinks an action should be performed. The researchers report that the majority of errors made were caused by a mismatch between the subjects’ internal models and reality. In addition, they found that internal models realigned to better match reality during the course of learning.

“To our knowledge, this is the most detailed representation of a brain’s inner beliefs that has been identified to date,” says Byron Yu, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

The results from this study have wide-reaching applications. Notably, the results have the potential to improve the performance and reliability of current brain-machine interfaces that assist paralyzed patients and amputees.

On a more fundamental level, the results can inform our understanding of how the brain learns: for example, how we acquire knowledge or develop new skills.

Because the study allows for a better

understanding of why the brain makes mistakes, the results also can be a powerful tool to improve how we learn to perform new tasks. “For example, a doctor may be trying to learn how to use a new robotic surgical device,” explains Matthew Golub, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“If you can take a snapshot of how the doctor thinks the device works, you can identify mismatch in his or her internal model and more efficiently train the doctor to use the device.”

The study, which was published in eLife, was conducted as part of Carnegie Mellon’s BrainHub, a university initiative that focuses on how the structure and activity of the brain give rise to complex behaviors.

The team included Golub, Yu, and Chase.

Research funding was provided by The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the PA Department of Health Research, and the National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program.

This article originally appeared on www.cmu.edu/news on February 2, 2016.

On alumni

Alumna inspires women in computer science Class notes 2009 Rana El Sakhawy (BA) is now business development lead, Middle East, at Uber.

Dana Haidan (BA) was named a CSR leader for her work as head of corporate responsibility at Vodafone Qatar at the CSR Qatar Awards.

2010 Arsalan Arif (BA) is now corporate audit staff at General Electric.

2011 Hanan Alshikhabobakr (CS), class of 2013, is passionate about inspiring women to join the field of computer science. Last year she was selected as the ambassador of the recently launched Arab Women in Computing Association (ArabWIC) Qatar chapter, and recently was chosen as secretary of ArabWIC. “The ArabWIC community was really small before, specific chapters didn’t exist. When we met at the Grace Hopper Celebration Conference for Women in Computing in 2014, we discovered that there is a definite need for specific chapters by country in the region, which would fall under a bigger umbrella globally,” said Hanan.

ArabWIC is an official chapter of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (Systers).

The organization aims at supporting women in technology through monthly gatherings and various events, including the Grace Hopper Celebration, that allow women to network with industry leaders and inspire them to achieve their career goals.

“We are trying to inspire a computer science community of women here in Qatar,” said Hanan.

“We want to facilitate learning and introduce women to technology and empower them with the basic foundations of computer science.”

To this end, the Arab chapter has begun hosting networking events and workshops such as Django Girls, a free programming workshop to introduce women to the fundamental skills to harness the power of computers and technology. Hanan hopes that ArabWIC will encourage women in computing not only in Qatar, but the world.

Spring 2016

Asma Al-Kuwari (BA) is now a senior analyst, mobile service of marketing, at Ooredoo.

2012 Zaid Haque (IS) served as creative director on the team that won the Red Dot Award for Communication Design. The winning project was a fully revamped Flight Information Display System at Hamad International Airport, Qatar.

2013 Mohammed Al-Rawahi (BA) is now in retail change and controls at Commercial Bank.

Dalia Hassan (BA) is now an event manager at Al-Damgha, Exhibitions and Events Organizer.

Amal Osman (BA) is now a senior research consultant at Intelligence Qatar (IQ).

2015 Noor-ul-huda Admaney (BA) is now an analyst at Ernst and Young.

Mohammed Al-Emadi (BA) completed Kawader at the Qatar Finance and Business Academy and is now financial analyst at Qatar Shell.

Eman al-Kuwari (IS) was selected for the yearlong Learner's Voice Program, an initiative of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE).

Ali Al-Majed (BA) completed Kawader at the Qatar Finance and Business Academy.

Noura Aljurdi (BA) is now an administrator in marketing and communications, University of Calgary in Qatar.

Francine Dinglasan (BA) is now a marketing assistant at Siemens.

Sama Kanbour (IS) is now in the Information Technology Leadership Program at General Electric.

Hassan Salatt (BA) was selected for the yearlong Learner's Voice Program, an initiative of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE).

39

On alumni

Alumni set sail on annual dhow cruise CMU-Q alumni enjoy an evening of visiting, networking and connecting at the annual dhow cruise.

40

Spring 2016

41

On alumni

42

Congratulations Class of 2010! The Class of 2010 celebrated their five-year reunion by sharing memories and catching up with classmates, faculty and staff members.

Spring 2016

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Ideas that shape your world start here.

A global leader in education with 13,000 students across the globe

19 Nobel Laureates and 12 Turing Award winners

More than 400 students from 37 countries on the Qatar campus

Programs: Biological Sciences Business Administration Computer Science Information Systems

www.qatar.cmu.edu