On Wednesday, September 9, the IEEE Cabinet hosted a New Student Orientation Session at ELH. In a few words, this session was an introductory casual presentation to all new engineering sophomores who have just entered AUB and have no clue about what awaits them. 

The presentation included parking spots, possible minors at AUB, common courses to ECE and CCE, points of contact at AUB, etc. The main points discussed involved information targeting the major, the department, as well as the faculty. 

The goal of this session was to get new students to familiarize themselves with the AUB system. As we were once in their shoes, we know what it’s like to get into AUB and have a billion questions to ask, but no one to ask. As IEEE AUB Student Branch, we feel it is our duty to gain the trust of students by offering them help and guidance every step of the way.

In case you missed it, here it is!

Orientation Session Presentation

Now, all you have to do is register for the IEEE Club (CRN 5038). We can’t wait for you to be part of the team!

IEEEXtreme is a global challenge in which teams of IEEE Student members compete in a 24-hour time span against each other to solve a set of programming problems. AUB students participated in the IEEEXtreme 12.0 on October 2018 aided by the AUB IEEE student branch that provided food and drinks during the 24 hour time span in addition to proctors that advised and supported the students. Antoine Z – the one man coding machine- participated on his own and snatched the first place in Lebanon along with the 18th place worldwide. Another AUB team made it to the top 100 worldwide and took the 2nd place nationally. In total 6 AUB teams made it to the top 10 places in Lebanon. IEEEXtreme ended on a positive note for the AUB participants after 24 challenging hours.

AUB IEEE student branch organized a winter ski trip on January 25 – 26 – 27 to Arez. It spanned 3 days in total and involved several activities. Participants enjoyed a nice welcoming dinner followed with an after party inside the hotel. The next day, members enjoyed the beautiful snow slopes of Arez Lebanon and participated in various winter activities like skiing only to come back to the hotel and refuel for the after party at storm where they danced the night away. Sunday, involved snowshoeing and taking in the breathtaking views of Arez before heading back down to Beirut ready to start another semester at AUB.

Into The AI World event took place this year on February 23 from 9:00 am till 1:00 pm at AUB.

Our AI event this year involved a packed back to back workshops that introduced IEEE members to this important topic. It kicked of with a presentation tackling the importance of AI in our lives and the future in which we see this technology is heading towards. Participants were then introduced to the basics of python before taking a small coffee break provided by the AUB IEEE student branch. Beirut AI provided experienced mentors for the workshops that tackled machine learning and data science topics. Finally, all 120 participants ended the day with a better understanding around artificial intelligence and what it takes to be in the field.

Event Pictures

Build it Weekend 3.0: The Home of Technical Innovation in Lebanon

Three days, a hundred and fifty people, free tools and equipment, and a desire to win; sounds like the plotline of a “Hunger Games” sequel but turns out to be much more demanding – and a lot less violent – It is IEEE AUB’s annual Build It Weekend in its 3rd edition!
The Build It Weekend is a yearly, national, university-level hardware hackathon weekend; organized jointly by the IEEE AUB Student Branch and the AUB Robotics Club. In its third iteration, we kicked things off by an opening ceremony explaining all rules of the Competition and then teams were granted access to the Labs at Oxy Engineering Complex and the race to vistory began. Teams were required to design, program and build a functional prototype that exhibited a sense of innovation, creativity, and usefulness.
After 48hrs, 100 gallons of Coffee, and 300 Burger King meals, five teams came out as winners with outstanding innovative prototypes that impressed our highly experienced pannel of judges. Surviving examination and evaluation from AUB’s very own Dr. Mazen Saghir, Dr. Imad El Hajj, Dr. Youssef Tawk and Dr. Bassel Jalaleddine, those are the top 5 teams that gave it their all and made it to the top:

1st place – $700 prize

“The Mechs” (USJ-ESIB) designed a virtual keypad security gate based on laser emitters and opto-sensors along with an app for security notifications. Not bad for mechanical engineers.

2nd place – $500 prize

“KEK” (AUST) presented a tailored V plotter which uses vectors instead of pixels to draw portraits. Tried to use it to draw my own portrait.

3rd place – $300 prize

“Requiem for a Click Here Machine” (AUB) came up with a smart Braille plotting machine based on a CNC and voice command app: English is translated to Braille language. Translated English to 300$$$.

4th place

“Late Registration” (AUB) built a dyslexic tailored piano with light commands and automated instructor guide lessons. A personal favorite! – My friends payed me to say so.

5th place

“Spidy” (AUB) for their work on a spider-looking robot with suction cup ends, camera, and ultrasonic sensors. The robot is tailored for duct and air vents inspection without having the air flow compromising the robot’s structural integrity. It comes with a software interface for remote control as well as image and video recording. Scarier than actual spiders!

But in the end, all teams that made it to the last day ended up benefitting from this enriching experience with a hope of participating again next year.
A final special thanks to our partners: Beirut Electronic Shop (BEC), Cube 3DB, Burger King, Lamba Labs and Light FM.
We are always proud of our young innovative tech participants and hope to see them and many more again next year.

—Kareem Ayoub

For more pictures of the event visit Mais Hatem Facebook Page!