The Cloud Computing Lab (CLL) research initiative at Carnegie Mellon Qatar was founded in 2009. CCL spearheads research into enabling the use of the cloud model for regionally relevant applications. CCL pioneers cloud computing research in the region and is the founding member of the Qatar Cloud Computing Center (Qloud). CCL’s current focus is on performance analysis of scientific workloads, with regional relevance, on the cloud as well as solutions to overcome current limitations of the existing cloud paradigm.
The Networking Systems Lab (NSL) conducts research in several areas of Computer Networks with special emphasis on delay and disruption tolerant networks, multi-homed networking, social pervasive systems, multi-hop wireless mesh networks, and the interaction between mobile and social networking. The lab follows an industry model to a large degree where members include faculty, post-doctoral researchers, full-time research engineers and graduate students via internships.
Qatar Robotics Innovation Lab (Qri8)Since its inception in 2009, the Qatar Robotics Innovation Lab (Qri8) lab has had a threefold focus: 1) to advance the state-of-the-art in mobile robotics, 2) to create technology of impact to the community and to industry, and 3) to aid in the training of the next generation through education and outreach. Research includes developing assistive technology for the visually impaired, multi-cultural human-robot interaction, visual mapping algorithms for oil and gas pipe inspection and for autonomous industrial robots, multirobot algorithms for disaster response, and assistive technology for diabetics. These projects have led to numerous publications and have helped train several senior thesis students at CMU-Q and PhD students at the Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh.
The Human Language Technology Laboratory at CMU-Q does research on and promotes education about natural language processing. Research projects include development of core NLP technologies such as named-entity recognition and parsing for Arabic, Statistical Machine Translation into morphologically complex languages, development of parallel and comparable corpora for colloquial machine translation and developing advanced natural language processing tools for improving access to English language content. Educational activities range from public workshop series to formal courses on language technology.
Secure Programming LabThe Secure Programming Lab (SPL) conducts research that brings together programming languages and computer security, with a special focus on web and mobile programming and concurrency. It runs the gamut from foundational investigations of the theory behind these systems to the development of practical languages that users actually want to use. The lab has a large educational emphasis that encourages students to experiment and learn the underlying concepts through projects and tailored coursework.
The Learning Technology Lab (LTL) studies and develops innovative technology to enhance teaching and support learning. Research topics include intelligent tutoring systems, educational data mining, and educational assessment, with particular focus on Computer Science education.
The cloud computer lab is the home of the homonymous group. There, faculty, postdocs, researchers and students gather around solving concrete problems.
The computing infrastructure that supports the research work at the Cloud Computing Lab comprises of 20 Dell PowerEdge rack-mounted servers and a 14-blade IBM BladeCenter. All systems utilize VMware vSphere virtualization environment running ESXi 5.0 and 4.1. The Dells each provide 2 x 3.47 GHz 6-core Xeon CPUs, 48 GB of RAM, 2 x 10GbE, 4 x 1Gb NICs and 2 x 900 GB internal SAS storage. Each IBM blade provides 2 x 2.5 GHz quad-core Xeon CPUs, 8 GB of RAM, 2 x 1 Gb NICs and 2 x 300 GB internal SAS storage. There are 4 x iSCSI Equallogic SAN storage arrays- 2 provide 48TB (raw) each over 2 x 10GbE links; 2 provide 16TB each over 4 x 1Gb ethernet. Flexible software configurations are available, currently most virtual machines are running Fedora Linux with Apache Hadoop.
The networking lab is the physical space of the Networking Systems Lab. It is designed as an open space where researchers can spontaneously brainstorm on new ideas or gather around a terminal and monitor experiments.
The robotics lab supports the research programs and educational activities pursued by the Qri8 team. The lab contains a range of electronics and mechanical fabrication equipment for developing and maintaining robot platforms. We have a broad range of robots including Segway RMPs, Pioneer P3ATs and DX 3's, modified ER1's, and custom platforms developed for specific scenarios. Additionally, we have a range of mega-pixel monocular and stereo camera rigs including some custom configurations. The lab is equipped with video conferencing facilities, a range of high end desktop computers and adequate space to support development activities. On the education front, it supports the instruction of undergraduate robotics classes, and outreach activities including the robotics workshop for CS4Qatar and Botball. Educational equipment includes modified ER1's, amigobots, and iRobot create's along with laptops to support mobile robotics work.
A portion of the research infrastructure of the CS group at CMU-Q is hosted in a dedicated cutting-edge research data center, which mirrors and extends our educational data center. It has redundant UPS power and backup generator to power both the data center and cooling in the event of utility power loss. The data center also has a completely redundant network core in which there is no single point of failure allowing the systems to continue to operate in the event of equipment failure. Additionally the data center houses a highly virtualized infrastructure with more than 100 physical servers, 500 virtual servers and 140TB of storage providing services to students, faculty, research and staff.
