Doha: Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), a Qatar Foundation partner university, hosted its flagship undergraduate research symposium, Meeting of the Minds 2026.
This year’s event brought together 65 research projects across two presentation streams—in-person and online—to showcase academic ingenuity during a challenging semester. The event included an online stream for students who, because of the regional conflict, completed the final weeks of the semester remotely.
In the in-person presentation stream, Khalid Al-Abdulla, a Biological Sciences graduate from the Class of 2026, earned first place in the Extensive Research category for his honors thesis, “Two isoforms, two functions? Investigating hnRNPA2B1 roles in triple-negative breast cancer.” Mentored by Professor Ihab Younis and Mariam Elesnawi, Al-Abdulla’s oncology research investigated overexpressed biological mechanisms to reduce aggressive tumor cell progression.
In the online stream, first place in the Extensive Research category went to Information Systems sophomores Iroda Ibrohimova and Madina Mirzatayeva, mentored by Professor Gianni Di Caro, for their innovative computational work titled, “Generating synthetic datasets to train deep models for counting in large-scale animal groups.”
The prizes for Meeting the Minds 2026 were provided by Al Rayyan Bank, a long-term supporter of undergraduate research at CMU-Q. Al Rayyan Bank’s multi-year generosity helps foster a culture of regional innovation, rewarding the university’s top undergraduate researchers for their ingenuity and hard work.
Michael Trick, dean of CMU-Q, commended the student researchers’ remarkable resilience and focus during his address..
“At Carnegie Mellon, we aim to have a transformative impact on society through learning and inquiry,” he said. “I am very proud of these students who prioritized knowledge during weeks of uncertainty. As an educator, I am deeply touched when I see students clear-eyed and focused in challenging times.”
The award-winning projects were determined by an extensive panel of judges from academia, healthcare and industry in Qatar.
The symposium also recognized foundational work for projects in the early stages. For the in-person stream, the top Early Research award went to Mohamed Waiel Shikfa, mentored by Professor Ryan Riley, for his project, “Magnobots: Scalable 3.” In the online stream, Ragad Sadaqa claimed the top spot for the biomedical study, “Effects of ECM proteins on PSMB8 expression in metastatic breast cancer,” under the guidance of mentors Professor Mohamed Bouaouina and Humera Inayat.
Two specialty awards were also presented. Julia Nicole Castillo won the Social and Environment Impact Award for the in-person stream for “Building a sustainable foundation: Replicating sustainability research in marketing,” mentored by Professor Varun Sharma.
Jawaher Alsayed won for her project in the online stream, “Investigating the solubility of flavonoids in proline and glycerol deep eutectic solvents for antibacterial therapy,” mentored by Professor Simon Faulkner.
The Best Poster Design Award went to Ghani Raissov in the in-person stream for “EMG-based motor intent decoding for assistive robotic hand control, mentored by Professor Jennifer Bruder. In the online stream, the award went to Peidi Dong for the artificial intelligence inquiry, “TartanMaroon: When is multi-agent AI actually worth it?,” mentored by Professor Houda Bouamor, Yunze Xiao, and Devi Kurup.
The Meeting of the Minds symposium began at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1995 as a way to open up the world of research so the community can see the questions students are asking. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar has continued this tradition. Each year, students present their work to an audience of faculty, students, family, and members of the community, as well as a judging panel of industry experts and faculty members.
Source: CMU-Qatar