A study into Qatar’s air quality received the ‘Best Project’ award at the ninth annual ‘Meeting of the Minds’ undergraduate research symposium of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMUQ).
The ‘Particulate Air Pollution in Qatar and the Air Quality Index’ project was a collaboration between biological science students, Syed Abbas Mehdi and Nourhan El Khatib, under the mentorship of Terrence Murphy, teaching professor of chemistry at CMUQ.
The year-long study, which concluded in April this year, showed the annual average air pollution in Qatar exceeds not only guidelines set by Qatar’s National Standards but those of the World Health Organisation and the US Environmental Protection Agency. El Khatib said: “With the results and information gathered thus far, we hope to expand on our research and help establish a set of guidelines for air quality in Qatar. We are also looking forward to improving our research in order to learn more about the molecules that are causing the pollution.”
The study was one of five projects recognised by Dr Barak Yehya, expert, institutional development, at the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics, for their alignment with Qatar’s National Development Strategy.
Metis, a digital academic planner for college students, created by computer science students, Rukhsar Neyaz Khan and Sabih Bin Wasi, was awarded second place in the ‘Best Project’ category. A study titled, ‘Bacteriophage Diversity in the Ecology of Qatar,’ conducted by biological sciences student Umm-Kulthum Umlai took third place.
The award for the ‘Best Poster’ went to ‘Designing Qatar’s Infrastructure in a Human Centred Way,’ by information systems student Noshin Anjum Nisa.
“Meeting of the Minds is a great platform for sharing research that has the potential to yield viable commercial results,” said Dr Abdul Sattar al-Taie, executive director of Qatar National Research Fund, who recognised two projects with awards.
‘Meeting of the Minds’ is an initiative that originates from the Carnegie Mellon University main campus in Pittsburgh, US, which hosted the first annual Meeting of the Minds in 1995.
The first place winners with a faculty member.
