November 10, 2008
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar student newspaper since 2004 Vol. 5 Issue 1
Batoul Khalife
Features editor
The results of the U.S. presidential race in the United
States are in, and Senator Barak Obama won by a lead of 186 votes. Obama received 349 electoral votes to McCain’s 163
(cnn.com).
Millions of democratic supporters greeted the new president elect with tears of joy and pride, and cheers for victory and trust while he gave his presidential speech in Chicago’s
Grant Park on the 5th of November.
President elect Obama expressed high hopes in what lies ahead for America, saying “The road ahead will be long.
Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.”
He adds that his initial concern is to work on America’s internal affairs, starting with the financial crisis threatening the
US economy, before going further with any foreign policy.
Obama had previously elaborated in many of his speeches on his plans for dealing with external issues left pending by his predecessor George W. Bush, such as the negotiations with
Iran about its nuclear development and the war in Iraq.
Perhaps Obama’s election was foreseen during the Doha Debates held on the 28th of October 2008, where the motion was
“This house believes the Middle East would be better off with
John McCain in the White House.”
The event hosted Danielle Pletka, Vice President for
Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the AEI, and Saad Al-
Ajmi, Kuwaiti academic and commentator, for the motion.
Hafez Al-Mirazi, vice chairman of Al Hayat Television in Egypt and the Senior Policy Adviser, and Michael Signer,
Director of the Homeland Security Presidential Transition Initiative, in opposition of the motion.
The results of the voting were overwhelmingly in favor of Obama with 87% of the audience’s votes.
Several people at Carnegie Mellon Qatar expressed their support for Obama as well. “I think it’s awesome! I feel much safer knowing that Obama will not abuse the Executive
Privilege as President Bush did, but rather will run a much more open administration. Our new president will bring us peace by offering peace,” says David Baker, ARC tutor.
Also, Rosemary Lapka, Communication Design Fundamentals teacher and Sustainable Systems Design tutor, says
“I believe that the gentleman we elected is going to improve the world perception of America and prove that we are willing to make peace with other countries, and I see that happen already.”

Page 2 November 10, 2008 www.theallaround.org
Maha AL-Moghany
Staff writer
When Carnegie Mellon University expanded its global footprint to include Qatar in 2004, its faculty, students and professionals had no real home in Education City in Doha. Now, entering its fifth academic year in Qatar, Carnegie Mellon moved into its new building in Education City.
“The building is awesome; it’s a big and cool configu ration of stone and marble,” says Marion Oliver, Ph.D., Associate Teaching Professor.
Architects Legoretta + Legoretta designed the new Carnegie Mellon to the university’s specifications. Being built for
Carnegie Mellon by Qatar Foundation, the building has many open spaces and is filled with natural light. The building was purposely built on the main east-west walkway of Education city so that people walking around campus would have to walk through Carnegie Mellon.
Ground was broken in the spring of 2006, and work has been going on round the clock ever since. When finished, the new Carnegie Mellon building will have 130 offices and workstations, a library, six lectures halls, five classrooms, an interdisciplinary lab, a robotics lab, a Subway sandwich shop, a coffee shop and a juice bar.
The building provides an academic and cozy environment that meets the needs of the students, as well as those of the faculty and staff. The students benefit from having comfortable classes and study rooms that are equipped with Internet connections, desktops, whiteboards and televisions. Most of the students feel comfortable in this building, which is a few minutes walk to other universities and dorms within Education City.
“Even though the building is still under daily construction, I feel I belong to this place. I usually spend more time in university than home because it’s a really comfortable place,” says Batoul Khalife (BA 2012).
However, because the building is under construction, many feel that it is too early to judge this facility, Khaled A.
After four years and two temporary homes, Carnegie Mellon has finally taken occupancy of its new building. Though it’s still under construction, the building is magnificent.
Harras, Ph.D., Associate Teaching Professor, deems that the university building needs to be completed, and then people can address their feelings toward it.
“It is a spacious and well-envisioned. It’s a long-lasting building that will hopefully educate or incubate future leaders of this region,” says Harras.
Lynn Carter, Ph.D., Principal Fellow, optimistically shared his beliefs toward this place. “I believe that this place is going to build successful leaders and we are honored to be the first to share it.”
Not only does having a new building provide a home for the university, its students, staff and faculty, even alumni are enjoying it.
“Based on my journey at Carnegie Mellon University in two different buildings (Weill Cornell and LAS), I think this new building is way more marvelous and more representative of the community spirit at Carnegie Mellon,” says Noura AL-
Moughny, a 2008 computer science graduate who has visited the building many times.
Mridula Mukundan
Staff Writer
Computer science junior Shahriar Haque has the unique credit of being the first student to initiate a StuCo at Carnegie
Mellon Qatar. A StuCo is like any other course in the university with one exception: a student teaches it.
Though there are many such courses on the Pittsburgh campus, very few students in Qatar know about this special opportunity. Haque was among the few, and the idea fascinated him since his freshman year.
He now teaches the Introduction to Game Designing in
Java course. He holds classes twice a week and has a total of six students, five from Carnegie Mellon and one from Weill Cornell
University.
Shariar Haque
(CS 2010) is the first student in Qatar to teach a course as part of the
StuCo program. Haque is teaching
Introduction to
Game Designing in Java to six students.
It was during spring break of his freshman year that
Haque learned the basics of making computer games, and began to use those skills to create his own games. This, and inspiration drawn from Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who gained international fame for his “Last Lecture,” gave Haque the idea to introduce this course as a StuCo in
Qatar.
Haque says it has not been easy to balance his studies and with his role as teacher. Designing the course syllabus and preparing notes for every class takes up a great deal of time from his daily schedule. He also faces difficulties in covering topics, as scheduled in the syllabus. However, at the end of the day, Haque is satisfied by the work he does. “I’m exceptionally happy when the students understand concepts faster than I expect them to,” he says.
So far Haque is pleased with this venture. He says that even those who were quite weak in programming have begun to show amazing results. This positive outcome has helped him overcome his disappointment regarding the low enrollment in his course, and triggered his confidence to move ahead.
However, this ‘student-sum-professor’ does not intend to continue to teach this course after this semester. He is currently planning to start a club to teach the fundamentals of designing computer games, because it allows him a lot more flexibility. He also believes that starting the club will attract more students to the course and maybe even to the StuCo program.

November 10, 2008 www.theallaround.org
Page 3
Making money and beating out the competition: that’s what business is all about. At least, that’s what it was about for a week at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. Students at the
Education City campus put their skills, instincts and business sense to work in the campus’s second version of the American reality show The Apprentice.
“The Apprentice is all about teamwork, collaborative planning and finding the individual strength of each team mem ber and using it for the greater good of the team,” says Saad
Al-Matwi, junior business administration major who served on the board of directors for the competition.
Forty-five Carnegie Mellon students were randomly split into nine teams and given QR 300 in Virgin Megastore gift vouchers. They then had three days to earn as much money as they could. Once the teams turned the vouchers into cash, they quickly set out to make their fortune. A perceived need for lunch and snack options led many of the teams to set up food stands in the atrium of Carnegie Mellon’s new building. Booths were hocking everything from ice cream sundaes and karak to falafels and candy bars.
“Food is an easy way to make quick money,” says Al-
Matwi. Other teams sold customized T-shirts, created unique laptop covers, charged to play video games and sold advertising. To keep things on the up and up, teams were required to keep detailed records of their business transactions, and had to submit documentation of their business concepts. At the end of
Round 1, the teams raised a collective QR 30,000: more than double the amount that was raised in the 2007 competition. But unlike last year, the game did not end there.
A second round was added to the competition to make it more challenging. However, based on what they earned in
Round 1, only the top four teams made it to Round 2. In this round, each team had to produce a television commercial to
Khaled Kiyaeen shows off a small percent of the money team Synergy took home for winning the competition.
market chewing gum to the business community. Five Carnegie
Mellon professors judged the television commercials on points such as creativity, brand recall, positioning, reaction and context.
“We added the second round to make The Apprentice about more than just raising money. It’s about marketing, planning and strategy, and it gives the students a chance to apply what they learn in the classroom,” says Omar El Zoheery, a sophomore business student on the board of directors.
Team Synergy’s commercial for a new ‘stick-free’ gum that opted for comical acting and the Pink Panther soundtrack in lieu of dialogue captured first place in Round 2. This win se cured the team a first place victory in the overall competition.
“Before the competition, most of us didn’t know each other. So we had to learn to work together while getting to know each other,” says Shweta Seetharaman, Synergy team member and business administration major. “We learned that even if we disagreed, we had to find a way around it to work toward our goal.
And it paid off.”
Seetharaman’s team members were business administration majors Dana Hadan, Mridula Mukandan and Mohamed
Al Saad; and Khaled Ziyaeen, who majors in both business administration and computer science.
Instead of awarding all of the money to the winning team, Al-Matwi says the board decided to split the cash among the four teams that made it to Round 2. “Everyone worked so hard and raised so much more money than last year, so we wanted them all to get some reward,” he says.
Team Synergy’s hard work and humorous commercial earned them QR 15,000; the second place team took home QR
6,500; the third place team took home QR 4,000; and the fourth place team took home QR 2,500. The Photography Club and the AV Club were each given QR 400 for their support and work on the Apprentice competition.
The Apprentice is one of the activities organized by the
Carnegie Mellon Business Association. CMBA is a student organization that aims to cultivate the strongest business students in the region, immerse business minds in a business culture and establish long-term relationships with the business community.
Events such as the Apprentice add another facet to the Carnegie
Mellon Qatar education by promoting teamwork, fostering relationships across majors, inspiring innovation and encouraging competition.
Batoul Khalife
Features editor
For the past six weeks, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar has been hosting debates run by students at the university. Each time these debates are held, they are with more and more expansion and involvement by the students who are hoping to make the most of their experience here at Carnegie
Mellon.
“Debating is a skill that scholars need to help them see both sides of an argument in order to develop a better argument for themselves,” says professor Ian Lacey, Carnegie Mellon
University in Qatar Debate Team coach.
Debates generally take place every other Wednesday.
Proposition and opposition teams of three each get a chance to argue about a motion relating to issues of international concern that is set by the first team, relating to issues of international concern
The motions so far have dealt with the government’s control over various sorts of communication and the sponsorship law in Qatar. At the end of each debate, the floor is open to the audience for voting for or against the motion, as a direct assessment of the debate.
During weeks when no debate takes place, students can practice their debating skills by participating in workshops sponsored by professor Ian Lacey.
Freshman Business Administration student Shweta
Seetharaman calls debating a sport. “It’s something that I’m really passionate about. And the way it’s done here at Carnegie
Mellon is not only enjoyable, but it has also enhanced my analytical thinking skills to a great extent.”
Fatima Nadeem
Staff writer
The global financial crisis, starting in the United
States due to the development of a housing bubble, has had adverse effects all over the world. Many threats to the Middle East have been analyzed, but at the same, according to some analysts, the Middle East has a chance to reap some benefits from this global financial meltdown as well.
Accounting for just 2.5% of the world’s economic growth (except for the oil), the Arab world could be said to be disadvantaged as it is not fully integrated into the finan cial markets. However, it is precisely this remoteness that
Prince El Hassan Bin Talal says, could protect the Middle
East from the impact of this financial crackdown.
"If this crisis does send real shockwaves through the region, and you start seeing that economies more closed to the world are more protected, people might start seeing open economies as a double-edged sword," David Levy a senior fellow and director of the Middle East Initiative at the Washington, D.C., told www.news.newameica.org.
The more open countries are suffering more; as are those closest to the United Sates. This is partly due to the pegging of their respective currencies to the dollar, which at the moment is deflating.
Stock markets and banks in the region have already suffered losses. As Robert Mabro, an economist tells BBC,
“Stock market indices have been falling in the Gulf by as much as 40% in some cases. Savers have become poorer.”
One of the other reasons that this crisis poses a big threat is because some of the Middle Eastern economies, Egypt in particular, have relied heavily upon foreign aid, which, with economies all over the world losing money, is now likely to reduce significantly.
Islamic banks however, so far have escaped the negative effects that banks otherwise in the region have suffered.
This is largely due to the Islamic guidelines that forbid the payment or collection of interest, and as www.middle-eastonline.com puts it, assert all transactions to be backed by real assets.
"Islamic banking has, thus far, remained positive, despite the current challenging global financial environment," said
Zeti Akhtar Aziz, the central bank governor of Malaysia, which is Southeast Asia's leader in Islamic banking, as he spoke to
Middle East Online.
Kuwait Finance House says in a report, "In the current financial turmoil, it is interesting to note that Islamic financ ing may have prevented a majority of the mess created by the conventional banking and financial institutions.”An opportunity that the Middle East region could avail from this crisis though, according to Prince El Hassan Bin Talal, is regional investment and reform.
He adds that the, “Middle Eastern nations could expand their regional collaboration in the fields of water, energy and the environment through intra-regional agreements focused on building trust, cooperation and security. This can be supplemented with intra-regional cooperation in other sectors, including agriculture, industry, information and education.”
The positive attitude with which the Arab world and leaders first viewed the financial meltdown has definitely dwin dled. In fact, worry has gripped the Middle Eastern economies as to the bleak future; which greatly depends on the extent to which the economy is open and attached to the US.

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November 10, 2008
Ushna Amer
Staff writer
The Computer Literacy and Instruction Program
(CLIP) started in the spring of 2008, the objectives of which were to teach basic computer skills to the workers in Education
City. The founders of CLIP were Carnegie Mellon University
Qatar students - Yasser Khan (CS, 2009), Ramsey Ramadan
(BA, 2009), Saad Al Matwi (BA, 2010), Sidharth Arora (BA,
2010) and Naif Al-Kaabi (IS 2011) under the assistance of Silvia Pessoa and Dave Stanfield.
Saad Al-Matwi, junior business administration major, helps an
Education City employee learn more computer skills. Al-Matwi is one of many
Carnegie Mellon students who volunteer their time in the CLIP program.
At its inception, the CLIP merged with a group of students from Georgetown that ran an English Teaching program to which CLIP “ran in parallel.” This helped the workers develop both the skills of communicating in English as well as the ‘basic’ need of being able to operate a computer.
The Reach Out To Asia organization has continuously supported CLIP. ROTA has donated computers that the members of CLIP plan to provide the workers for use during their free time. Regarding the short-term goals of CLIP, Khan says that currently “we only plan to start teaching the workers in the
Carnegie Mellon building.”
The students who have volunteered to be a part of CLIP are also from within the Carnegie Mellon vicinity, “but as the program evolves,” Khan says. “We hope to include everyone from all the other universities.”
The CLIP follows a set course. The workers are taught in specific areas of computer skills of which they are tested after the course. The exam board, European Computer Driving License (ECDL), is also internationally recognized.
The idea of initiating the process of examination after the course was brought up earlier this year and is expected to be implemented in the near future. The exams are planned to be carried out in the College of North Atlantic since it is an authorized testing centre.
Currently CLIP is facing an issue with the Qatar Foundation regarding the providence of enough employees to participate in the learning course. However, in the very near future,
CLIP is looking forward to be back on stage. As Khan concludes,
“the point is that you feel you make a difference for those who make an impact in our lives.”
Dana Hadan
Maha Mahmoud
Contributing writers
Since the first day we started taking Spanish classes in our freshmen year, we fell in love with it. And before we knew it, we found ourselves studying Spanish for the 4th semester in a row. Spanish became our lives. We literally eat, drink and breath
Spanish.
We even sometimes imagine that we heard someone speaking Spanish when we’re having dinner somewhere or shopping, even if no one actually did.
We soon found we wanted to speak in Spanish all the time, and that’s when we started asking ourselves: “Are there any Spanish-speaking people in Qatar who we can make friends with to practice our Spanish?” For us, Qatar seemed too small to be that culturally diverse. We really wanted to know if there was a Hispanic community in Qatar, and that’s how our research journey started.
We met with our Spanish professors, Silvia Pessoa,
Ph.D., and Erik Helin, to discuss the possibility of doing a research project to explore the characteristic and profile of the
Hispanic community in Qatar.
We noticed that there is a lot of research done about some expatriate communities in Qatar such as the South Asian community, but there is no research done about the rapidly emerging Hispanic community.
They were very supportive and assured us that we will find a lot of significant and interesting information about the small, but very active, Hispanic community in Qatar.
Our first step was to apply for a grant from Qatar Re search National Fund, which is a committee under Qatar Foundation that gives financial support for students who are inter ested in doing research in the fields of science, liberal arts and social studies. We submitted a detailed proposal and took tests that ensured that we would be aligned with the ethical guidelines of conducting research, especially that involving human subjects.
A few months after submitting the proposal, we got an affirmative response. We were thrilled because this research will give the opportunity to investigate a community we are very interested in learning about, practice our Spanish speaking and writing skills and use the quantitative and analytical skills that made our journey in Carnegie Mellon very rocky.
Until you actually apply those skills in a real life project, you won’t be able to realize whether all the hard work in your statistics and social studies classes is really worth it.
We have been working on the research for almost eight months now, and we are in our way to submitting the final re port. This research did not just help us explore the issues the
Hispanic community is facing in Qatar, but also helped us view the Qatari culture from an expatriate’s standpoint.
It was an eye-opener for us on so many issues going on in Qatar, and we hope through that research people will have the knowledge needed to find solutions for those issues. We en courage every student who is passionate about a certain subject and wants to explore it more to consider doing research in that area.
Maha Mahmoud (left) and Dana Hadan turned their love of the Spanish culture into a research project.

November 10, 2008 www.theallaround.org
Page 5
Maha Al-Mogheny
Staff Writer
All Around: Where are you from originally?
I was born in Seattle, Washington, which is in the Pacific North west of the United States. It is the largest city in that state. My family lived there for two years then we moved to Portland,
Oregon. I did all of my schooling in Portland.
All Around: At which universities did you study?
My bachelor’s and master’s degrees are in Mathematics specialized in Computer Science from Portland State University.
I got my Ph.D. in Computer Science is from the University of
Colorado at Boulder.
the best year so it took me a while to figure out what college is all about. In my sophomore year I started to figure it out. My grades went from C’s and B’s to pretty much A’s. During my senior year people were being drafted, including some professors who were top programmers. The school was scrambling to find people to teach so the department asked if I would be interested in teaching the programming sequence. So as a senior in I was appointed to the faculty and taught the class. It’s an unusual story because it’s not very often that an undergraduate gets appointed to the teaching faculty.
All Around: Why did you join at Carnegie Mellon?
Dr Raj Reddy. He and I have worked on number of projects over the years and he started talking to me about the Qatar from the moment it was open. He wanted me to introduce software engineering into the program.
All Around: What interested you in Computer Science?
That is interesting question because I started off thinking I was going to be a chemist because I really enjoyed chemistry in high school. My father and mother were divorced when I was young, so I really didn’t get to know my father much as a boy. He worked in computing and suggested I go into computing or computers because I could make a solid living programming and I have money to do whatever I liked. So I learned about programming much earlier than most people. I thought I would do programming with chemistry. I discovered that demand for chemists in the 1960s wasn’t very high. We started off with more than 300 students in chemistry and by the end of the first year there were fewer than 30 of us. I hated that experience because the teachers were more concerned about getting rid of us than educating us.
So I decided that chemistry is not going to be my future.
be disappointed when I don’t know their names. My opinion is: if you are fully covered you’re telling me you don’t want me to know your name, you even don’t want me to know who you are.
All Around: It’s kind of traditional thing that ….
I understand the tradition but they want the tradition on one hand and they want a close relationship on the other, so it’s kind of confusing. Back to the question: we have some students who are in your face and really want you to know who they are and what they believe, and we have everybody in between. So it’s really hard for me to find any common characteristics.
All Around: If you could go anywhere for vacation, where would you go?
Anywhere in the world for vacation, well, that’s interesting, where ever my family is. I’m missing my family a lot.
All Around: What common characteristic do you see in students at Carnegie Mellon Qatar?
First of all, all of the students are incredibly respectful, and I enjoy that. I have never had quite so many people interested and concerned about me, and I like that a lot. But other than that it’s hard to say common characteristic because there are so many different personalities here. We have a number of shy people, we have some ladies who are fully covered and they seemed to
All Around: Are there any interesting college stories that you would like to share?
My collage days were in the middle of the Vietnam War. There was a lot of unhappiness in the US about what we were doing
–we seem to be doing that again. My first year in college wasn’t
All Around: What are your leisure activities?
I really love reading, I enjoy music very much, photography is something that I really enjoy, I do needle work and I’ve created a number of pieces of fabric for friends and others. I really enjoy working with my hands.
All Around: What advice would you give to students who have had enough of studying and just want to quit?
It is easy to kill things. All you have to do is come in and say I want to quit and what ever you are working on just dies. Making something happen requires hard work. I recognize that college seems like a lot of work for some students but this is a life lesson that anything we are trying to achieve is going to take effort and dedication. Anything major requires hard work and nothing in life is easy. It is always about figuring out what is important to you and then working hard to make it happen.
Noor AlAthirah
Tepper 2008
Staring at my computer, I was hoping something will eventually pop up and give me an idea of how to begin this article. This sheer thought reminded me of how difficult it is to begin. The beginning, although a major determinant of long term success or failure, is one of the most difficult experiences a person goes through.
I am referring to the beginning of every phase of a person’s life whether it is starting a business, beginning of a relationship, starting on a new job… etc. It makes sense that the more approachable, outgoing, charismatic and energetic a person is, the easier it is to fit in but it does not really matter; difficulty is bound to strike.
As a Carnegie Mellon graduate, I thought I had what I needed to start any job without ever feeling uncomfortable. Little did I know. My very first day at work went well. I was asked to go late, a good accommodation for someone coming out of vacation. So I arrived on time, signed all the papers needed to make me an official employee, and then was shown to my tem porary seat.
I sat there contemplating how I should begin. Was I supposed to go around introducing myself to everyone in the department or request introductory material to read? Was I sup posed to put up a serious or a friendly face? I felt very awk ward.
Knowing that I am the new girl who everyone is watching worried me. So I decided to get to know those around so I would feel a little more comfortable and went around talking to random people on the floor. That put my mind at ease a little until I went back to my seat and realized that I have nothing to do. So I started contemplating again; am I supposed to ask for a project to start on or research information about the company by myself?
I kept thinking until I arrived at a mysterious question; why am
I here? I had no idea what my job description looked like for the longest time. I spent the first month at a different department than I am supposed to be at because my colleagues were all off on business trips. The month went well, with ups and downs like always.
I enjoyed being in the Human Resources department but I was eager to move to Strategy where I felt a sense of belonging. Whenever I thought of Strategy I remembered Professor Starling Hunter’s classes and the material we covered, which made me feel that moving to the department will be a piece of cake because I have sufficient background. Here again little did
I know.
My first day at Strategy was smooth sailing but the days after were not so easy. My team is highly experienced, talented, professional, yet friendly. They all have post graduate degrees and a minimum of four years experience in telecoms. And then there was me. I have good Strategy background, thanks to Professor Hunter, but I knew nothing about telecoms.
I felt like a kid standing among giants. There is so much to learn and so much to experience, but how was I supposed to start? Here again the difficulty of beginning prevailed.
One day during the first week, I realized that feeling lost and inexperienced was not helping me learn at all, so I decided to go easy on myself. I asked for some foundational readings and spent the entire day reading about the company and the department in particular. This helped me get in the picture but I can frankly say that I still have so much to learn.
I became very self-conscious because of my minimal experience but that is motivating me to learn and experience as much as possible. My insecurity is actually translating positively, which I am proud off. Nonetheless, there still is another obstacle, feeling alert from being the new girl.
My presence was a topic of discussion to a few groups around the floor during my first month, which came to my atten tion when a lady approached me saying that she was discussing my style with her girlfriends on the floor, and another warning me about the cultural conservatism adopted around the organization. Coming from an individualistic background, knowing that others are too concerned with my life bothered me. But soon enough I realized that it’s just a period of time, which they’ll get over as soon as someone else joins; exactly what happened three weeks later.
Generally, the beginning of my career is going well, but it is rough at times. Other alumni had different experiences when starting on their jobs. It was pure enjoyment for some and awfully stressful for others. These experiences, easy or difficult, motivate some while weaken others. An important factor determining this success is expectation.
Receiving much attention and mentoring when starting on a job are not the best treatments one should expect because they are not usually granted. Fresh graduates should not expect that they will be lectured like school, asked to finish their work on time, or, on a different note, walk down the corridor and know everyone. It is not that simple. Patience and commitment are two of the keys to experiencing a less stressful beginning.
My advice to everyone, specifically to seniors; enjoy your university years while they last. It is not every day that you are a student, but you can be an employee forever.

Page 6 November 10, 2008 www.theallaround.org
Mohammed Hussain
Opinion Editor
Omar Shaath
(IS 2011)
“A REC-
REATION
ROOM!”
Rana Khalil
(CS 2012)
“A warm place to study as the air conditioners are very high, along with a place to play basketball or volleyball in the campus itself and of course play stations.”
Mohammad Tayyab
(CS 2012)
“I believe the biggest improvement we need is a good cheap buffet service like
Cornell. That will be very appropriate and appreciated since our home is growing and now many staff and students have to waste time going to LAS everyday.”
Noor Al-Maadeed (BA 2009)
“Umm how about a lounge?! Coz the common area feels like the
CC food court, we need proper couches!”
Tarik Abou-Galala
(BA 2010)
“A nearby shaded parking, and all the free food that we used to have ofcourse!”
Omnia khalid
(Tepper 2011)
“The non-existing rec. room.”
Amal Al-Sulaiti (BA 2010)
“We honestly need a rec-room. Actually, any room with couches and a TV would be great. It is very difficult to find a place to chill in and be com fortable.”
Mohammed Fahad
Kamal (BA 2012)
“It is obvious that we are missing a student lounge.”
Keghani Kristelle
Kouzoujian
(CS 2010)
“Most obviously, we all need lockers!!
Also, a coffee machine and a vending machine please!
And working printers in all clusters would be helpful.”
By Mridula Mukundan
Staff writer
Honestly, joining Carnegie Mellon Qatar after high school was the last thing I had in mind. But, thanks to my parents’ determination to not send me to India, I am now a part of the university and, more importantly, a part of All Around.
When I was asked to write about my experiences so far in Carnegie Mellon, I faced a dearth of ideas. Finally, after a lot of trial and error, I decided to do a week by week recount of my feelings and experiences being in this place.
Starting with Breaking New Ground 2008, I would best describe it as four whole days of mixed feelings. I was excited about the ice breakers and other activities we did during orientation and more importantly, about the reality that I was finally in college, which meant I would be treated as a ‘mature’ person at last.
I was also anxious about how long it would take to get used to a place so different from the school I studied in. Adding to my anxiety, this was the first time that I was interacting with as many as 25 different nationalities. I wondered if I would ever make friends as good as the ones in high school.
However, due to the fantastic orientation team, I managed to get over most of my worries. ‘Ya Hala’ and the convocation were first-of its-kind events for me, and were truly unfor gettable.
Once classes started, every single day was a new learning experience. Having been in an Indian school for 12 years,
I was awed by the differences in the ambience of classrooms, the studentteacher relationships and the friendly nature of professors and students, regardless of their seniority.
I found the courses interesting and the professors, par excellence.
But, just as there has to be a villain in all good things,
I was and still am scared of the Business Administration course.
I wonder if I will be able to give in all the required “Hard Work” – the two words that have haunted me ever since I applied to this university.
However, so far, the faculty and seniors have helped me a great deal in coping.
The biggest relief after joining Carnegie Mellon Qatar was when Subway opened its branch here. That became an additional motivation to come to classes everyday. However, the environment is not complete without the coffee shop, because coffee is what every Carnegie Mellon student has to learn to live on, with all the assignments, quizzes and exams.
Last but not the least, what I love the most in this university is friends. Regardless of the many differences amidst us, as in culture and family background, everyone is really friendly to each other, and this makes student life all the more enjoyable and pleasant.
In short, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar is the best place to be.

November 10, 2008
Naif Al-Kaabi
Editor in Chief
As of Fall 2008 I will be the new editor in chief of All
Around. During the past year All Around saw many changes under the leadership of Noor Al-Jassim. The most obvious of which is the move to a newspaper look from the original newsletter format. There were also many improvements and changes to the paper’s quality and size.
Like All Around, Carnegie Mellon Qatar went through many changes throughout the years. Our community welcomed the Class of 2012 and our first batch of Information Systems stu dents. Another big addition is that Carnegie Mellon Qatar now has its own building, finally, after moving from the Weill-Cor nell Building to the LAS building. I hope that the new building will support the Carnegie Mellon Qatar community and allow it grow and be an integrated part of Education City.
Another subtle change in our community was in the junior class, or the Class of 2010. Many members of the class have now taken leadership positions in the community. Some of the juniors taking leadership positions include Saad Al Matwi in CMba; Amal Al Barwani in the IS club; Shahriar Haque in the CCSC club; Iyed Jouini on the football team; and Eatidel Al
Qatami in the Culture Club.
In these leadership positions I hope the Class of 2010 will be able to give back to the community as much as the past classes and become a model for the coming classes. As a member of the Class of 2010, I also would like to give back to the community that thought me so much, and hope that through All
Around, I will be able to achieve that goal. www.theallaround.org
Page 7
Noor Al-Jassim
Former Editor- in- Chief
I was running away form writing this article. Deep inside me, I knew how difficult this article would be to write. How can I say goodbye to the organization I joined on my first day in Carnegie Mellon? How can I say goodbye to the organization that I loved and still do from the bottom of my heart? How can
I say goodbye to the organization that grew year after year in front of my eyes?
All these questions were in my mind during the summer. Unfortunately, I did not find a single answer. At the begin ning of this semester, I came up with a solution to save me all this pain; I will be far away from All Around physically, but closer to it emotionally. All Around is now is in a process of transition as I am a senior now.
The new Editor-in-Chief, Naif Al-Kaabi, is a person who prior to be the Editor-in-Chief was waiting for each issue of All Around. I cannot forget how Naif was nagging me all the time on me saying: Noor when will the next issue be out?
Naif is the right person for the job. He has the leadership skills to head up All Around. Saying that, I cannot ignore how hard it is to be responsible for such a well-known organization at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. I have faith in Naif, his assistant
Omar Alouba and the current team, to take All Around to the next level.
I believe that this is the right time to say a big thank you to all the people who were next to me last year when I was the Editor-in-Chief. I would like to especially thank the following team members who I personally cannot forget every moment that I spent with them. They are Marium Chandna, Hind
Al-Khulaifi, Rifki Bahri, Olympia Datta, Omar Alouba, Aisha
Anani, Nada Al-Mahmeed, Saleh Al-Khulaifi, and Maryam Al-
Semaitt.
I cannot forget to thank Andy Zrimsek who was, and still is, supporting All Around in almost everything and anything we wanted. Another big thank you to David Stanfield, All
Around advisor, who was a team member and not the advisor.
Lastly, I cannot say thank you enough to the person who taught me how to love and care about All Around, to Noor Al-
Athirah, the founder of All Around and a member of the Class of 2008. Hope that I met your expectations with All Around as I promised.
Editor in Chief
Naif Mansoor Al-Kaabi
Assistant editor in chief
Omar Alouba
Secretary
Asma Al-Jassim
Business Manager
Maryam Al-Semaitt
Assistant business manager
Mai-Al-Neami
Layout and design
Nada Mohsin
News Editor
Ahmed Al-Dessouky
Features editor
Batoul Khalife
Political/ world events editor
Rifki Bahri
Opinion editor
Mohammed Hussain
Entertainment editor
Nada Al-Mahmeed
Marie-Joe Khachan
Asma Al-Kowari
Staff writers
Maha Al-Mogheny
Dania Abed Rabbou
Rana Khalil
Mridula Mukundan
Ushna Amer
Nada Mohsin
Yara Saeed
Publishing Manger
Khalid Al-Sooj
Photography
Saleh Al-khulaifi
(CMPC: Carnegie Mellon Photography Club)
The All Around is a bimonthly student
newspaper. It is Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s budding student body voice.
The first issue was published on the
28th of September 2004.
A team of four students were successful in publishing 8 issues in the first year along with the help of their advisor, Kristin Gilmore.
You may forward any contributions, enquiries, questions, or suggestions to our official e-mail address all-around@qatar.cmu.edu.

Page 8 November 10, 2008 www.theallaround.org
Students at Carnegie Mellon Qatar are working with fourth graders at Qatar Academy in a mini-entrepreneurship course this semester.
As part of the program, the QA students set up lemonade stands in the atrium to sell cold drinks to Carnegie Mellon students, staff and faculty. All proceeds were donated to Qatar National Cancer Society.
Memo
- The Giant cricket of Africa enjoys eating human hair.
- The only insect that can turn its head 360 degrees is the praying man-
- You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any other weather.
- The Ritz cracker was introduced to markets in 1934, but gourmets had to wait until 1953 for the invention of cheese in a can. - The fortune cookie was invented in 1916 by George Jung, a Los Angeles noodlemaker.
flavor are caused by their smell. To prove this - pinch your nose and take a bite from each. They will all taste sweet.
- In South Africa, termites are often roasted and eaten by the handful, like pretzels or popcorn.
- Medical researchers contend that no disease ever identified has been completely eradicated.
- Between 25% to 33% of the population sneeze when they are exposed to light.
- Of the 206 bones in the average human adult's body, 106 are in the hands and feet. (54 in the hands and 52 in the feet)
- The human brain stops growing at the age of 18.
- The world's largest coffee pot is located in Davidson, Saskatchewan. It measures 24 Feet (7.3 Meters) tall, is made of sheet metal and could hold
150,000 8 ounce cups of coffee.
- The longest Monopoly game in a bathtub was 99 hours long. - Howard
Kinsey and Mrs. R. Roark, during a game of tennis, batted the ball back and forth 2001 consecutive times.
- The largest school in the world is a k-12 school in the Philippines, with an enrollment of about 25,000.
funfacts: http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/uselessfacts/
Comic: http://www.explosm.net/