CMU-Q startup receives grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – The Peninsula

CMU-Q startup receives grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – The Peninsula

Doha: A business that started as a student project at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), a Qatar Foundation partner university, has been awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to identify technology challenges in the areas of student advising, degree progress and tracking.

Sabih bin Wasi, a co-founder of the technology firm, Stellic, said, “With this grant, we are hoping to learn the impact that current university data systems and infrastructure are having on students. We believe technology has a bigger role to play, like providing better information to advisers and people who support students. That’s what we hope to learn through this grant.”

Stellic is a student-centred technology solution provider in higher education. Co-founders Wasi and Rukhsar Khan graduated from CMU-Q in 2015 with degrees in computer science. Fellow CMU-Q alumni Jiyda Moussa and Musab Popatia were also instrumental in building Stellic into an international company. Today, the Stellic advising technology is used in 40 institutions, including colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Pakistan and Qatar.

Michael Trick, dean of CMU-Q, congratulated the Stellic team for its commitment to change and said, “At Carnegie Mellon, we encourage students to pursue work that matters. I