The degree management tool, Stellic, started as a CMU-Q student project. Ten years later, more than a million students worldwide have used Stellic.

Doha, Qatar – February 1, 2025 - Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), a Qatar Foundation partner university, welcomed back computer science alums Sabih Bin Wasi, Rukhsar Neyaz and Musab Popatia, co-founders of the highly successful startup, Stellic.

Stellic is a degree-planning platform used by universities around the world, and more than a million students are on the platform. Bin Wasi and Neyaz founded the company in 2015–the year they graduated from CMU-Q—and received initial funding through Qatar Foundation’s Qatar Science & Technology Park’s (QSTP) intensive pre-startup program, XLR8. Today, the innovative degree management tool is based in Silicon Valley and serves more than 100 universities and colleges.

CMU-Q senior associate dean for education, Dudley Reynolds, introduced the session by reflecting on Stellic’s impressive growth.

“While they were students at CMU-Q, Sabih, Rukhsar and Musab observed a need for a better tool for degree planning,” said Reynolds. “This tool became an idea, and the idea became a class project. When they graduated, it became a startup, and now, 10 years later, that tool is Stellic.”

The talk was moderated by Maher Hakim, distinguished career professor of business administration at CMU-Q, who has advised the Stellic co-founders since their student days. “What an amazing example of the growth mindset,” Hakim remarked. “When Stellic started 10 years ago, they started like everybody else, as students, with eagerness and passion for learning.”

The co-founders attributed the success of Stellic to the skills and values they developed during their time at CMU-Q. Neyez explained that her undergraduate experience made her feel more comfortable facing challenging problems: “Going through the courses really made me push myself to solve hard problems,” she said. 

Popatia connected the high expectations set by CMU-Q to the recruitment process he uses for Stellic, as he searches for employees with a similar mindset. “This standard has not been shaken since then,” Musab said, alluding to the CMU-Q environment which induces a strong work ethic.

Looking back at his time on campus, Sabih expressed that CMU-Q instilled in him a strong work ethic and a drive to follow his passion. “Do the work because your heart is in it”, he advised students, pushing them to disturb the space and disrupt the status quo through their own startups.

The CMU-Q Dean’s Panel Series provides a space for experts from government, research, and industry to discuss pressing issues in science, business, and technology.

CMU-Q offers undergraduate degree programs in biological sciences, business administration, computer science, and information systems.