Fatima Al-Fawal, from the Faculty of Science, winner of the Inas Abou Ayyash Foundation (IAAF) Awards’ entrepreneurial contest

Fatima Al-Fawal, from the faculty of Science- Mathematics and Computer science department, won the first place in the Inas Abou Ayyash Foundation (IAAF) Awards contest, which was held in Tripoli Campus, for the best entrepreneurial idea presented among jury. The objective of the competition was to encourage the youth to develop their own creative ideas and to help them implement their projects as a first step to achieve financial independence and personal career growth. The event which was attended by BAU Vice-President for Tripoli Campus affairs Professor Khaled Baghdadi, Deputy Secretary-General Mr. Mohammad Hammoud, Campus Coordinator Mr. Ahmad Sankari, Faculty Directors, as well as university students and administrative staff, started by a welcoming speech from the Vice President Dr. Baghdady, who urged the students to be more responsible of their own decisions, and to take the lead of their lives, enabling them to achieve their dreams. Mrs. Inas Abou Ayyash president of IAAF in return, inspired students by sharing her personal story, influencing them to dare to dream big, as there will always be challenges in life, but that will never prevent anyone from reaching their ultimate goals in life if they dare to dream, and are persistent about achieving it. The competition, which included five short listed groups, presented their ideas among the jury members: Minister Jean Oghassabian, the entrepreneur Mr. Maroun Chammas Chairman& Manager of Medco Oil & Gas & Telecom, Berytech & Agritek, Dr. Osama Ziadeh Chairman of Intelligile Group, Mrs. Inas Abou Ayyash President of IAAF, and Dr. Nabil Mohareb Director of Faculty of Architecture- Design & Built Environment. The candidates explained in details their projects in aspects of the value that adds to the society, presented a complete study of their projects in terms of design, analysis and execution and furtherly discussed, what it requires in terms of human resources, marketing and finance. After evaluating the projects the judges announced the winner; Fatima Al-Fawal, a second year computer science student, who won the contest and received a prize worth of 10,000$ in order to execute her mobile software project, to end up to a real product that the society can benefit from. The idea of Fatima is to build a smart mobile commercial application enabling the users to buy crafts’ products made by local artisans on line.