QNRF Celebrates 2021 Winners of UREP and BRIO Competitions

After an intense round of online presentations for the 13^th Annual Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) Competition, and online voting for the 5^th Best Representative Image of an Outcome Competition (BRIO), Qatar National Research Fund is pleased to announce the winners.

 This year, a total of 26 teams from different institutions in Qatar participated in the 13^th Annual UREP competition with 22 teams competing in the poster and four in the oral presentation categories. Based on the decision of the judging committee, the winners are:

Oral Presentations

• 1^st Place – Alisha Kamran & Halak Sheth from Georgetown University in Qatar for their project, “Investigating the resilience of Qatar’s trade network.”
• 2^nd Place – Zainab Al Ansari and Omna Sharma from Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar for their project, “Determining role of two genes, Lipocalin2 and GPNMB, in tumorigenesis and metastasis of lung cancer.”
• 3^rd Place – AlReem Al-Dosari and Najla Badar from Texas A&M University at Qatar for their project, “Study on the Influence of Nanoparticles in the Filtrate Characteristics and Filtrate Cake Formation of a Water-Based Drilling Fluid.”

Poster Presentations

• 1^st Place - Abdul Rehmaan Qayyum and Khansa Maria from Georgetown University in Qatar for their project, “Humanizing Resources: Analyzing Employment Opportunities for the Disabled in Qatar.”
• 2^nd Place - Rashid Al-Suwaidi, Mohamed Adalbi, Mohamed Khalil, Osama Durra, Omar Shehada, and Wardan Khatib from Qatar University for their project, “Utilization of recycled materials and industrial by-products as alternative construction materials at Qatar.”
• 3^rd Place - Hadeel Hendawi, Duaa Elshiekh, Dina Awartani, Aya Ghoul, Sumayya Joul, and Aysha Alsae from Qatar University for their project, “Effect of Diabetes on the Bioavailability of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase in Blood Outgrowth Endothelial Cells: Towards Blood Stem Cell-Based Gene Therapy.”

As for the 5^th edition of the BRIO competition, a total of eight shortlisted pictures were shortlisted to compete and members of the public were invited to vote online to pick this year’s winner. A total of 3.000 people from around the world participated to select this year’s winning images.

• 1^st Place - “A Cell Bouquet,” submitted by Abbirami Sathappan and Dr. Chiara Cugno from Sidra Medicine
• 2^nd Place - “Copper Nanoflowers as Glucose Biosensors,” submitted by Anchu Ashok and Dr. Anand Kumar from Qatar University
• 3^rd Place - “Polymeric Nanoparticles for H2 Generation from H2O,” submitted by Malek Hilali and Dr. Mohamed Al-Hashimi from Texas A&M University at Qatar

Congratulations to all the winners! Browse through our website to learn more about upcoming events and how can you be a part of them.