AUB and Beirut Digital District partnership in support of young entrepreneurs

The American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Beirut Digital District (BDD) launched last Wednesday a new partnership aimed at fostering young men and women entrepreneurs to help bridge gaps between academia and the entrepreneurial world. The announcement was made following a panel discussion within ArabNet 2017 forum on the role of universities in stimulating entrepreneurship among students. In this respect, Ayman Kaissi, associate professor at AUB school engineering and architecture, and Mohammad Rabab, general manager of ZRE, the developer of BDD, presented the new initiative under the title ‘be innovative at the school of engineering’. The project is educational in nature and targets third year engineering students with the aim to provide them with proper skills needed to start up and develop businesses. Rami Abu Jawdeh, deputy general manager at Berytech, pointed out that as owners of establishments often complain from shortage of graduates with the required skills, the BDD decided to select 30 to 40 student interns from AUB to train them at its premises. (The Daily Star, February 23, 2017 )