DOHA: Seventy-five high school students in Qatar have been given a task: ‘Use Information Systems to improve awareness about environmental challenges in Qatar. The task is the focus of the new Ibtikar Qatar competition at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. Ibtikar Qatar was created by the Information Systems faculty at Carnegie Mellon Qatar as a way to get high school students involved in an environmentally focused competition, while at the same time peaking their interest in the field of Information Systems. “Since we just launched the Information Systems major this year, we wanted to find a way to inform students about the program and the field of IS,” said Selma Limam Mansar Information Systems faculty member.

“Instead of just holding an information session, we thought a competition would be fun and more engaging for the students.” Carnegie Mellon’s Information Systems program is an internationally recognized undergraduate major for students who want to design and implement eff and management needs for information and decision support. IS combines many of the technical aspects of Computer Science with the analytical and organisational skills of Business Administration in a way that yields real-world results.