Last spring, the LAU Engineering Labs and Research Center buzzed with students who worked tirelessly on developing their final projects. Their hard work paid off as they competed to address real-world problems and later reaped the fruit of their labor at the Engineering Capstone Design Project Poster Award Ceremony.

For some students, the work had only just begun, as they had qualified for a nationwide capacity-building workshop, held under the patronage of the Minister of Industry George Boujikian in late April. The workshop culminated in a pitching session where projects by three LAU student teams stood out. As a result, they joined nine student teams from other universities in Lebanon for an acceleration phase that spanned the summer months.

This fall, two of the LAU student teams made the shortlist of six projects that were awarded €10,000 worth of grants each, courtesy of the EU through the Industrial Research Achievements in Lebanon (IRALEB), along with incubation support within the context of Lebanon Innovate, a 42-month program funded by the EU to bolster the Lebanese production and its entrepreneurial ecosystem.

On November 26, the School of Engineering (SOE) Dean Michel Khoury joined the students and their faculty mentors, at a grant-signing ceremony at the Ministry of Industry.

The first team, comprising mechatronics engineering students Lea Youssef Baby, Angelo Yaghi and Fadi Kaafarani, were supervised by Assistant Professor Noel Maalouf. Addressing the critical need for affordable prosthetics, their project incorporates 3D printing, low-cost actuators and optimal control strategies to develop a low-cost bionic ankle. The project promises a cost reduction of about 80 percent compared to existing bionic prosthetics, which could make advanced prosthetics more accessible to financially disadvantaged patients.

Under the guidance of Associate Professor Roland Bejjani, mechanical engineering students Cynthia Al Labaki, Hassan Fakih and Christophe Abboud developed an intelligent texture tool that combines advanced texturing, image processing and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The tool would be able to analyze surfaces at a micro scale as well as extract and classify the features, making it very useful for industries that utilize sensors and semiconductors.

Congratulating the students, Dr. Maalouf, and Dr. Bejjani on these well-earned grants, Dr. Khoury underscored the importance of “exposing students early on to the gaps and challenges within the industry, and to offer them the tools and knowledge to address those needs with creativity and innovation.”