|
Carnegie
Mellon University in Qatar is teaming up with the Qatari
Businessmen Association (QBA) and Qatar Science & Technology
Park (QSTP) to organize the second New Venture Competition May
27-28 at Education City. In the competition, university students
will have the opportunity to present their business plans to a
panel of judges who are venture capitalists, successful
entrepreneurs and leading educators.
The goal of the competition is to
help students who have a great idea for a new venture move it
from the classroom to the boardroom. The competition also
creates an environment that helps bring new businesses to life,
thus contributing to a more vibrant entrepreneurial culture in
Qatar.
|
|
|
“This is a wonderful initiative
for Qatar Foundation and for the Qatari society. The ideas we
have come across are fresh, new and innovative, said Sheikh
Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, Chairman Al Faisal Holding and Aamal
Holding, who judged the competition last year. “It is a new
milestone for Qatar. We hope to see more and more exciting
projects in the future that will contribute to Qatar’s national
vision and mission.”
The New Venture Competition is an
initiative launched by Carnegie Mellon Qatar in partnership with
the Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) and with support from
Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP).
The inaugural competition took
place in May 2008. The first prize of QR 100,000 was awarded to
CliniPharma for its plan to introduce a new treatment for asthma
to the market. CliniPharma also won the Best New Technology
prize, which entailed a year of mentorship to support technology
and business development, offered by QSTP. A second place prize
of QR 15,000 was awarded to KlearGreen, a façade cleaning robot
for buildings. Third place and a cash prize of QR 10,000 went to
QALAM, a project that aims to develop educational software
infrastructure for schools.
This year’s teams will have a
chance to win money prizes, sponsored by participating members
of the QBA, as well as in-kind prizes from QSTP, to help them on
their way with their new ventures. The New Venture Competition
is open to students from Carnegie Mellon Qatar, College of the
North Atlantic Qatar, Georgetown School of Foreign Service in
Qatar, Northwestern University in Qatar, Qatar University, Texas
A&M University at Qatar, Virginia Commonwealth University in
Qatar, and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. This event is
not open to the public. For more information please visit
www.qatar.cmu.edu/bpc.
ABOUT CARNEGIE MELLON
With more
than a century of academic excellence and innovative research,
Carnegie Mellon University is a global leader in education with
real-world applications. Consistently top ranked, Carnegie
Mellon offers a distinct mix of programs to its 10,000 students
around the globe. Core values of innovation, creativity, problem
solving and collaborative teamwork provide the foundation for
everything we do.
At the invitation of Qatar
Foundation, Carnegie Mellon joined Education City in 2004. Here,
Qatar Foundation has created a world-class center for
scholarship and research that is the ideal complement to
Carnegie Mellon’s tradition of innovation through collaboration.
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar offers its highly regarded
undergraduate programs in business administration, computer
science and information systems to students in Qatar and the
Gulf Region.
|
|
Visit of Thai Business Delegation to
QBA |
|
The
meeting was attended by Sheikh Faysal Bin Qassim Al Thani
Chairman of QBA, Mr. Hussein Al Fardan Deputy Chairman & QBA
members: Sheikh Abdulla Bin Ahmed Bin Abdulla Al Thani, Mr.
Khaled Ahmed Al Manaee and Mr. Shreeda Saed Jibran Al Kaabi.
The visit aimed to exchange views
on enhancing business between the private sectors of the two
countries.
QBA Members updated the visiting
delegation on the advantages that the new regulations offer to
foreign investors in the sectors of tourism industry and both
sides agreed to exchange visits to promote the activities of the
private sectors in the two countries. Also Sheikh Abdulla Bin
Ahmed Bin Abdulla Al Thani proposed opening a trade center in
Doha to create a direct link between the business committee of
both countries.
Mr. Alongkon expressed his
gladness toward the growth of touristic market between the 2
countries & promised to work personally on inforcing the
business relation between Italy & Qatar.
Moreover
Mrs. Michela expressed her admiration for the strategic vision
set by his highness the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
|
|
|
The
Qatari Businessmen Association judges and funds the 2nd round of
the New Venture Competition
Organized by Carnegie Mellon University
and Qatar Science & Technology Park |
|
The
final round of the second annual New Venture Competition
hosted by Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar took place
on May 28 at its new building in Education City. The
first prize funded by the Qatari businessmen
Association was awarded to UREX, a commercial moving and
storage service company with a strategy to offer
efficient and reliable relocation services to companies
in Qatar shifting to new office space. Second prize was
awarded to ROBISCAN, the first company to deploy robots
to perform internal pipe inspection in the primary sour
gas processing unit in LNG plants and the third prize
was awarded to opportFOLIO.com, a web-based network
service connecting training providers to learners for
career management and further education opportunities.
There were two winners
for QSTP’s New Venture Technology Award: ROBISCAN and
Equinelife, a company providing a wireless solution for
monitoring and tracking horses. Both companies will
receive QR100,000 of support, including office space and
business services as well as a professional mentor in
technology and business sponsored by QSTP. In addition,
the winners have the opportunity to apply for
Proof-of-Concept funding at QSTP.
WellneSpot, a proposal to
set up wellness centers in Qatar for preventative health
measures, won a special mention for their Elevator Pitch
(a brief overview of an idea for a product or service). |
|
|
The New Venture
Competition is an initiative launched by Carnegie Mellon
University in Qatar in partnership with the Qatari
Businessmen Association (QBA) and Qatar Science &
Technology Park (QSTP) offering an opportunity for
university students to present their business plans to a
panel of judges including venture capitalists,
successful entrepreneurs and leading educators. All the
finalist teams consisted of students of the Corporate
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program, a 9-month
executive program taught at Carnegie Mellon Qatar in
partnership with QSTP. This year’s judging panel was
made up of 11 members. Representing the QBA were Sheikh
Abdullah Bin Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al Thani (General
Trading group), Ashraf Abu Issa (Blue Salon), Salah
Murad (Al Ahli Bank), Suleiman Al-Khateeb (Salam
International), and Mohammed Shafiq (Al Faisal Holding).
Completing the panel were Sheikh Mansoor Bin Khalifa Al
Thani (Ruling Council Family Affairs), Bowman Heiden
(QSTP), Sean Sebastian (Birchmere Ventures), Kevin
Higgins (LargeDay Ventures), Rehan Atiq (Region
Holdings), Stephen Carriere (Qatar Financial Centre
Authority), and Mazen Dauleh (Qatar Telecom).
“This is a wonderful
initiative for the Qatar Foundation and for the Qatari
society. The ideas we’ve come across this year are new
and innovative. We hope to see more and more exciting
projects in the future that will contribute to Qatar’s
national vision and mission,” says Sheikh Abdullah Bin
Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al Thani, who judged the competition.
The goal of the
competition is to help students who have a great idea
for a new venture move it from the classroom to the
boardroom. The competition also creates an environment
that helps bring new businesses to life, thus
contributing to a more vibrant entrepreneurial culture
in Qatar.
The first-prize winners
in team UREX, Reem Al-Sai, Yousef Murad, and Tilal Nasr,
said about winning the New Venture Competition:
“Together with the skills learned and the experience
gained, the Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Program has taught us how to bring innovation to the
market. We now not only have the skills but also the
power to become successful entrepreneurs in the region.”
ABOUT CARNEGIE MELLON
With more than a century of academic excellence and
innovative research, Carnegie Mellon University is a
global leader in education with real-world applications.
Consistently top ranked, Carnegie Mellon offers a
distinct mix of programs to its 10,000 students around
the globe. Core values of innovation, creativity,
problem solving and collaborative teamwork provide the
foundation for everything we do.
At the invitation of
Qatar Foundation, Carnegie Mellon joined Education City
in 2004. Here, Qatar Foundation has created a
world-class center for scholarship and research that is
the ideal complement to Carnegie Mellon’s tradition of
innovation through collaboration. Carnegie Mellon
University in Qatar offers its highly regarded
undergraduate programs in business administration,
computer science and information systems to students in
Qatar and the Gulf Region. |
|
|
