Winners of the Best Poster Competition, 3-minute Thesis Competition, and Research Excellence Awards were announced during the recent Qatar University Annual Research Forum organized by QU Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies on May 3.
VP for Research and Graduate Studies Prof Mariam Al-Maadeed presented the best poster winners with certificates in the presence of an audience comprising QU president Dr Hassan Rashid Al-Derham, VPs, deans, industry representatives, and guests from institutions and universities in Qatar and the GCC including Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) executive director Dr Abdul Sattar Al-Taie, Sultan Qaboos University Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Postgraduate Studies and Research Dr Rahma Al-Mahrooqi and Kuwait University Vice President for Research Dr Taher Ahmed Al-Sahaf.
160 posters were submitted for the poster competition in three categories -- undergraduate, graduate, postdoc students, and faculty under the headings Science and Engineering, Medical and Health Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences. (Winners and their poster titles are listed below).
In the Thesis Competition, Sadaf Riaz from the College of Pharmacy won first place with “A Big Heart: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly” while her colleague Ayat Hammad won 2nd place for “Synthesis and Pharmacological Screening of Different Piperine Analogs for Potential in Vitro Protection from ER Stress”. 3rd place was computing student Farah Al-Qawasama for “Optimizing Number of Sensors in Wireless Sensor Networks of Structure Health Monitoring Systems”. The Research Excellence Award was presented to College of Engineering Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Prof. Abdel Magid Hamouda.
Six graduate students were also recognized: civil engineering student Khaled Hassan Rabie received the Outstanding Thesis Award of QR10,000 for “Drained Residual Shear Strength of Fine-Grained Soils and Soil-Solid Interfaces at Low to Medium Effective Normal Stresses: Analyses and Applications”. Materials science and engineering student Anchu Ashok received the Graduate Research Award, which is accompanied by funding to present her research poster on “Synthesis of Cobalt Catalysts Using Combustion Synthesis for Hydrogen Production” at the 2016 International Conference on Advanced Energy Materials in London this fall. The Graduate Assistant Award of QR 5000 was presented to biological and environmental studies student Balsam Rizeq.
Best Poster winners
Science and Engineering
Undergraduate students:
Dina Abunahia, Hala Abou El Oula, Tasnim Ismail (Computer Science & Engineering) -- ‘A Reconfigurable Connected Health Platform Using Zynq SoC’.
Fatima Elzahra Hashim Mahmoud (Chemistry & Earth Sciences) -- ‘Synthesis of CdS-Modified TiO2 nanostructures and their photocatalytic applications’.
Graduate and Postdoc students:
Nagla Mohamed (Civil & Architectural Engineering) -- ‘Influence of Flow Rate and Temperature on Flux Behavior in Forward Osmosis’.
Mohammad Tariq, Eihmear Connor, Jillian Thompson, Majeda Khraisheh, Mert Atilhan, David Rooney (Chemical Engineering) -- ‘Ionic Liquids: Novel Inhibitors for Natural Gas Hydrates’.
Faculty members
Samahat Samim and Samer F. Ahmed (Mechanical and Industrial Engineering) -- ‘Investigation of Laminar Flame Speed of Alternative Liquid Fuel Blends’.
Osama Halabi, Hena Alpona, Moza Al-Hemaidi, Dabia Al-Hassan (Computer Science & Engineering) -- ‘ Immersive Virtual Reality in Improving Communication Skills in Children with Autism’.
Medical and Health Sciences
Undergraduate students:
Farah Zahrah, Nawal BenSmail, Monica Zolezzi (College of Pharmacy) -- ‘Awareness and attitudes of Qatar University students on mental health’.
Madan D, Rizk N, Zakaria E (College of Health Sciences/Biomedical Sciences) -- ‘On the Effect of Glycine on Age-related Endothelial Cell Dysfunction’.
Postdocs and graduate students:
Fadheela DadBakhsh Mohammed, Nasser Rizk (Health Sciences/ Biomedical Sciences) -- ‘The Contribution of Toll-Like Receptors in the Pathogenesis of Diabetic Retinopathy in Human Microvascular Retinal Endothelial Cells’.
Maria Smatti, Sarah Taleb, Mohamed El Zowalaty, Asmaa Al Marwani, RaedAbuOdeh, Gheyath K. Nasrallah– College of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research Center for ‘Seroprevalence, Detection and Genotyping of Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) Among Blood Donors in Qatar’
Faculty members:
Ahmed Malki, Rasha Abu- El-Ruz, Yanyan Cao, Yunsheng Li, Yanrong QianCao, Xuan WangCao, Xiaozhuo (College of Health Sciences/ Biomedical Sciences) -- ‘Penta-O-galloyl-α-D-glucose attenuates obesity by inhibiting adipogenesis via mTOR , PPARγ and C/EBPα signaling pathways’.
Hany E. Marei, AsmaaAlthani (Biomedical Research Center) -- ‘Human Olfactory Bulb Neural Stem Cell Based Therapy for CNS Traumatic and Neurodegenerative Diseases’.
Humanities and Social Sciences
Undergraduate students:
Hala Emad Mousa (English Literature and Linguistics) -- ‘Myth of Radical Purity : Women and Decolonization, in Season of Migration to the North, and Middaq Alley’.
Abeer Ashor, Nora Omer, Loloa Al-Mana’i, Mariam Mohamadi (Department of Mass Communication) – ‘Awareness campaign on aggressive behavior and the consequences and effects of road rage’.
Postdocs and graduate students:
Simona Azzali (Architecture and Urban Planning) -- ‘The Role of Mega-Events in Urban Planning: Doha as a Case Study’.
Nasreen Abdulla Mohammed Guffa (Arabic Department) -- ‘The city in “The Neighing of the White Horse” series by Zakaria Tamer’.
Faculty members:
Maha Al-Hendawi, Clayton Keller (Department of Psychological Sciences) -- ‘A Psychometric Analysis of the Child Behavior Checklist for Elementary School Children’.
AshrafGalal (Arts and Sciences) -- The role of Qatari media in orienting the Qatari society to overcome the glocal/social challenges of hosting World Cup 2022’.
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