It is very rare, even impossible one might say, to stumble upon a phrase that perfectly describes the last fifty years of scientific progress. From computers to smartphones, electric cars to solar energy, inventions that were once the wildest fantasies of our ancestors have become a regular commodity in our everyday life. In the midst of these endless innovative achievements, the Student Startup Competition at MSFEA comes exactly to channel the innovative and ingenious minds of the faculty’s students to come up with bolder, and more daring designs that tackle some of the most problematic issues in Lebanon and the region.Set in a fun yet competitive spirit, Dr. Mona Itani, the coordinator of the Entrepreneurship Initiative, and Associate Dean Dr. Ayman Kayssi inaugurated the competition with inspiring words that accentuated how vital innovation is to MSFEA and AUB as well as the momentum this initiative has gained since its inception a few years ago. Twelve start-ups, with at least one MSFEA graduate or undergraduate student in the co-founding team, presented their innovative ideas and business models in three minutes each to the jury.

Relying on an image processing camera and a heart rate sensor, this device aims to detect the drowsiness of the driver. Once identified, it notifies the driver through an alarm and can send an emergency message in extreme cases. Then comes Jeminai. A startup that has come up with a flexible interface powered by AI software through which they supply diverse online business platforms with personalization services. These include but are not limited to recommender systems to elevate consumer-store interactivity, with the eventual goal of increasing sales. Finally, Petcrete, which came up with a brilliantly innovative mechanism to transform PET plastics into microfibers that reinforce concrete, replacing traditional steel fibers and providing a great way to handle used PET, material that has long proved very hard to recycle, bringing upon the planet and ecosystems disastrous effect.