The prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has awarded the LAU Student Branch the Exemplary Student Branch Award in Europe and the MENA region, attesting to the LAUers’ efforts in recent years to elevate opportunities, spread knowledge, promote collaboration and uphold the IEEE’s values and mission.

With the help of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), the IEEE Student Branch at LAU underwent a structural change in spring 2023, expanding and developing to include five clubs: IEEE Artificial Intelligence, IEEE Logistics Automation, IEEE Robotics, IEEE Power and Energy and the IEEE Women in Engineering clubs.

This move allowed the new leadership to organize diverse, multidisciplinary events and advance collaboration on a larger scale compared to previous years, significantly enriching campus life and engaging engineering students with more than 35 events last year alone.

Covering a wide range of topics, including AI, robotics, automation, power and renewables, the student branch engaged the community with social and educational events.

One highlight was the Disaster Assistance and Response Engineering (DARE) competition, which invited student engineers from LAU and five other institutions in Lebanon to build advanced robots that could navigate and perform critical tasks in a disaster context. The branch created a buzz at the School of Engineering (SOE) by inviting professionals for eye-opening talks, as well as organizing networking events with industry leaders and partnering with professional societies for the 2024 SOE Gala Dinner that brought together more than 500 attendees.

Other national-scale initiatives rendered the Byblos campus a hub for the IEEE Lebanon Chapter’s student-related activities. The IEEE University Officers Training as well as the IEEE Mentor Meetup both welcomed young engineers from across Lebanon to train, network and exchange knowledge at LAU.

The branch at LAU was also instrumental in introducing high schoolers who aspire for a career in engineering to the field. LAUers from the IEEE Student Branch were front and center at several student-recruitment events such as Open Doors, You @ LAU and high-school competitions, among others, where they motivated the young students and guided them to select the engineering field that best matches their skills and interests.

Former Chair of the LAU IEEE Student Branch Wajih Georges El Tayar reflected on his experience during the branch’s first transition year. “Although it was hectic and the next steps were unclear, I am proud and honored to have contributed to the visible change and growth in engineering student life,” he said.

For current Chair of the branch Taline Saad, the opportunity to build on the success of the previous leadership was a blessing. “Their dedication and hard work have inspired me to follow in their footsteps,” she said, noting that their focus for this year is to “push the boundaries through new events and collaborations, and to find yet more creative ways to connect with students to make the branch an even bigger part of campus life.”

El Tayar and Saad also expressed their deep gratitude to the School of Engineering for its steadfast support and specifically to the ECE Department, its faculty and IEEE club advisors.