Graduate students at the LAU School of Engineering (SOE) have started benefiting from a unique opportunity to earn a double degree, thanks to a partnership agreement with the Université Marie and Louis Pasteur (UMLP), which was signed last year and put into effect in fall 2025.

Through the Double-Degree Program, students from both universities can earn two degrees—a master’s in Internet of Things from UMLP and a master’s in Computer Engineering from LAU—by attending classes and connecting with faculty at both the LAU Byblos campus and the UMLP campus in Montbéliard, France. 

According to SOE Director of Research and Graduate Programs and Professor Chadi Abou Rjeily, this program enhances the appeal of the graduate engineering programs by attracting high-caliber students who seek added value beyond a standalone MS. “These programs,” he added, “enrich both the depth and breadth of students’ academic profiles by combining complementary curricula and expertise from LAU and UMLP, opening direct pathways to doctoral opportunities at UMLP and other French doctoral schools.”

Noting that the dual-degree program is part of a broader strategy for the SOE, Dean Michel Khoury stressed that the aim is to build integrated international pathways from high-performing BE and MS experiences to joint research and co-supervised doctoral opportunities. “This positions LAU as a regional gateway to globally connected engineering education and innovation,” he said.

Last fall, three LAU students who joined the program, Hassan Bazzi, Abbas Abdullah and Amir Amine, spent the semester at UMLP and came back this spring to complete the remainder of their courses, while working on their theses with faculty mentors from both universities. For the upcoming academic year, three new LAU students have been recently accepted to join the program, following in their colleagues’ footsteps.

Aspiring for international academic exposure, Bazzi joined the program hoping it would challenge and expand his perspective. He viewed the opportunity as a chance to grow academically and personally, and build a foundation for more advanced research tracks in the future.

For him, the Double-Degree Program allows students to become acquainted with “different teaching styles, evaluation methods, learning pace, and course structures within a short period of time.”

Among other rewarding parts of the experience for Bazzi were “building connections with professors, gaining a European perspective of the field, and living independently abroad, which helped build discipline, time-management skills and confidence.” An added bonus was the geographic proximity to Spain, Germany and Switzerland, which he visited during the vacations.

Abdullah stressed that being part of the inaugural cohort of the program was especially motivating. “It carries a sense of responsibility to represent LAU positively and help establish a strong foundation for future students.”

Beyond the program, Abdullah is looking forward to unlocking new academic and career prospects, including a PhD at UMLP. “Studying in France provides valuable exposure to the European academic and professional environment, offering opportunities to build connections with professors and researchers and explore future career paths both in France and internationally,” he said.

From a faculty perspective, Professor and Assistant Provost for Strategic Planning and Academic Initiatives and Partnerships Joe Tekli pointed out that these collaborations require motivated faculty from both institutions who share the same academic and research visions, and put in the legwork to realize them.

“We were fortunate in the case of UMLP, where we are successfully and incrementally building a strong collaboration with lead members of Programmable Matter group of the FEMTO-ST Institute,” he said. This, added Dr. Tekli, has enabled LAU graduates since 2006 to be involved in building and programming distributed intelligent micro-electro-mechanical systems.

This sentiment was reflected by UMLP Professor Abdallah Makhoul who described the collaboration with LAU as “highly productive, forstering strong academic ties, promoting knowledge exchange and creating valuable opportunities for students and research alike.”

He noted that participating students have had their work published in an international IEEE conference, under the guidance of their French supervisor and as part of the coursework for a research project course. Two co-authored papers involving the joint UMLP-LAU teams have also been been accepted for publication, with more research work underway in the field of Programmable Matter.