Carnegie Mellon Celebrates Decade of World-Class Education in Qatar

An inside view of Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar

DOHA: Carnegie Mellon University celebrates the 10-year anniversary of its branch campus in Qatar this week. To mark this significant milestone, the university will be welcoming a number of distinguished international guests to its official anniversary ceremony on Tuesday, March 18.

Key leadership from Carnegie Mellon and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) will gather at the university's campus in Education City, alongside alumni, students, faculty and staff. The celebrations will highlight key achievements from a successful decade in Qatar and renew the university's pledge to shape the country's future through nurturing the next generation of young leaders.

Carnegie Mellon Qatar (CMU-Q) joined Education City in 2004 and began teaching 41 students in two academic programs. Today, it offers five top programs to 400 students from 42 countries in a truly multi-cultural environment.

Subra Suresh, president of Carnegie Mellon, and other senior leaders from the Pittsburgh campus spoke about the campus' achievements at an official press conference held on March 16.

"This campus has created living connections among faculty, students, and graduates across Carnegie Mellon's global network, sharing research projects, classes, and outreach activities," Suresh said. "The students and faculty have embraced Carnegie Mellon's interdisciplinary collaborative approach to problem solving, and they have enriched our entire university with new ideas, new ways of thinking, and an obvious passion for learning."

To date, almost 300 young men and women have graduated from the university. However, as Ilker Baybars, dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar, noted, success must be measured by more than numbers. "We must not only educate and graduate students, we must also create the next generation of researchers, entrepreneurs, leaders and problem solvers," he said.

Mark Kamlet, provost and executive vice president of Carnegie Mellon said, "Carnegie Mellon Qatar graduates are highly sought after. More than 90 percent of the university's alumni are either in graduate programs or employed in top organizations such as HSBC, Google, Microsoft, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Shell and Sidra Medical and Research Center amongst others.
"When CMU-Q students and graduates compete on the international level, they come out on top. Thanks to Carnegie Mellon, Qatar now boasts four Google Anita Borg scholars. This is just one example of our success," Kamlet said.
The partnership between Qatar Foundation and Carnegie Mellon Qatar continues to thrive. The university's goals as a global higher education and research institution align closely with the vision and mission of QF.
Engineer Saad Al Muhannadi, president of Qatar Foundation, said, "The dream of Qatar Foundation was to build a center of academic and research excellence for the country and the world, to build bridges across continents and cultures, bringing internationally established teaching and research institutions to our front door.
"As the foundations for the Carnegie Mellon facility were being laid in Qatar more than a decade ago, we turned this dream into a reality, brick by brick. Through hard work, dedication and the vision of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, our partnership with Carnegie Mellon Qatar has yielded great results and has grown from strength to strength," Al Muhannadi said.
The official ceremony to mark Carnegie Mellon Qatar's 10-year anniversary will take place at Carnegie Mellon Qatar on March 18 and will include live music, videos and speeches. To watch a live stream of the celebration.

To learn more about Carnegie Mellon Qatar's 10-year anniversary, visit www.qatar.cmu.edu/10.