Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Hosts Conference on Information Systems

Doha, April 18 (QNA) - Information systems and communication technologies are key to the growth of all industries. Students in attendance at the 3rd Undergraduate Conference on Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar learned this firsthand from faculty and experts in the field from around the region. During the conference, they also presented their work and engaged in relevant discussions on information systems. Keynote speaker, Ali Abdulla Al-Siddiqi Al-Emadi, information systems manager for Qatar Petroleum, spoke about the importance of information systems to his company's operations and the need for more indigenous industry professionals. "Qatar Petroleum recognizes the inherent benefits of maximizing the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to not only enable, but to transform the business to meet and exceed our strategic objectives. Having a strong pool of ICT-qualified high-potential Qatari university graduates is one of the most important success factors in achieving this," he said. Qatar Petroleum makes effective use of information systems in all areas of its business to ensure optimal business performance and ready access to critical real-time information from the field. Khalid Al-Sooj, Carnegie Mellon information systems alumnus and a business systems analyst at Qatar Petroleum, who presented a paper at last year's conference, has been greatly affected by his studies at Carnegie Mellon. His current tasks involve "analysing current systems, identifying user requirements, proposing solutions, testing applications and training users" functions important to the oil and gas industry, as any other. Demonstrating the diverse career paths for information systems graduates, speakers at the conference included Eric Hoffman, head of new media and content for the Doha Film Institute, Asmaeil Kattan, director of information technology and telecommunications for Al Ahli Hospital, and Ahmed Ismail Ali, information and business application manager for engineering and production at Qatar Shell. As a global leader education with real world applications, Carnegie Mellon is developing leaders in information systems to support Qatar s strategic goals. None of these goals can be realized without the expertise of information systems professionals. Daniel C. Phelps, assistant professor of information systems at Carnegie Mellon and conference chair, said, "The annual Undergraduate Conference on Information Systems (UCIS) not only showcases the work being done by regional IS students, but through the interaction with industry representatives it also builds a bridge between the work of the students and the IS professionals with whom they'll eventually work." The Information Systems program at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar is an internationally-recognized Bachelor of Science degree for students who want to understand and solve information problems for organizations. (QNA)