CMU-Q conducts 10th graduation ceremony

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) conducted its 10th graduation ceremony with its largest class to date.As many as 109 students were recognised in front of family, friends, faculty and alumni yesterday.CMU-Q dean and chief executive Ilker Baybars reminded students how far they have come since arriving at the university: “You worked hard from the start, learning to use creativity, collaboration and tenacity to solve problems. You have learned that leadership cannot exist without teamwork. Every one of you has added to the Carnegie Mellon community.”This year’s graduating class comprises students of business administration (41), information systems (33), biological sciences (19), and computer science (16).This is an accomplished class academically, with 70% completing a minor and 53% receiving university honours for earning a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.5.Keynote speaker Subra Suresh, president of Carnegie Mellon University, sent the students forth with a charge to participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution that involves bringing together the digital, biological and physical worlds: “Our challenge is to continuously strive to understand the far-reaching implications of this Fourth Industrial Revolution. I am confident that you are supremely prepared to take up this task and guide humanity to a more prosperous future.”The student speaker for the Class of 2017 was Ibrahim Soltan, an information systems graduate with a business administration minor.He remarked: “While it is true that individual classes taught us math, and science, and programming, and rhetoric, and biology, the overall CMU-Q experience has taught us how to identify and solve problems. “From small puzzles to grand challenges like autonomous cars or robotic limbs, we are at the forefront of entrepreneurship and innovation. And that is because we are taught how to solve problems.”The class of 2017 raises the number of CMU-Q alumni to 679.They join a worldwide Carnegie Mellon network of more than 100,000 graduates.