Remember when you were a student? As a library studies student, I recall this unique combination of overwhelmed excitement and earnest curiousity. Now, it is a pleasure to give back. Working and living in Qatar adds special dimension: everywhere you turn there is a priority focus on education. This is even more supercharged as I work at Qatar Foundation with the Qatar Computing Research Institute.
Summer is here and today was the first day of the QCRI Summer Internship program. Dr. Eman Al Fituri, QCRI’s Director of Education Initiatives, inspired students from many local universities to join the internships offered across the various divisions. The program is in its 4th year and has doubled in size of applicants and participants. My team at Social Computing has 14 students working including such diverse research topics from wearable eye tracking to twitter trends in the MENA region, show me healthy food in Qatar via Instagram, Summarizing the Perception of Qatar on Twitter, Mobile/wearable health sensing and interaction, and Political tweets in MENA countries. And, the Social Innovation team welcomes our Sysadmin intern. Over the course of the internship, I will highlight the amazing students and research outputs.
Each of us is focused on the learning journey for the students. Being a teacher and mentor is so rewarding on both parts of the engagement. We are delighted to contribute to the mission of QCRI and Qatar Foundation to build local technical capacity. Often I joke that I am here in Qatar to deliver Social Innovation programs and find a local leader to replace me someday. On a personal note, it has been very rewarding to work with the QCRI Social Computing team to review and coordinate the internship program. For the summer, I will be coaching and mentoring on presentation and career development.
So, welcome student interns: you are our teachers and the future!
