Faculty of Engineering and IT at Arab American University organizes two lectures as part of the 8th Engineering and IT Day, titled “Startups Companies – Reality and challenges”, “Applied Scientific Research and Opportunities to Engage with Business Market”.
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
First lecture titled, “Startup companies: Reality and Challenges” focused on entrepreneurship and emerging companies importance in Palestine for their role in providing new job opportunities. It was moderated by Director of Hassib Sabbagh Center for Excellence in Information Technology Alaa Hattab. Eng. Hasan Omar, CEO of Glow Innovations Business Accelerator, gave a glance on leadership and innovation reality and emerging companies’ importance through local and regional statistics and reports. Dr. Mahmoud Kayal, CEO of “Weqaya” and founder of WebTeb, addressed obstacles facing business entrepreneurs and how to overcome them specifically in finance and dealing with investors. To obtain financing and dealing with investors, while Sameh Al-Far Yamsafer CTO mentioned the value that must be added by emerging company, importance of having dedicated team to the project to succeed.
Second seminar titled “Applied Scientific Research and Opportunities to Engage with Business Market”. Participants talked about the importance to complete practical researches that contributes in serving private sector and society needs. The seminar was moderated by Head of Information Technology Department at Khadouri University Dr. Yousef Daraghmeh. Director General of Water Authority’s Technical Department Eng. Hazem Kitaneh mentioned the importance of establishing intelligent systems in the water sector, such systems serves Palestinian agriculture and water sectors. As for Director of Microsoft’s Research & Development project Ayman Saleem, he highlighted the importance of building systems based on computer intelligence. The most prominent was Cortana system, virtual assistant uses voice-to-text conversion technology. It was built for android devices by Palestinian hands.
By the end, participants gave recommendations, most notably, the need to expand entrepreneur and research projects in other sectors like agriculture and smart cars. Stressing on enhancing the culture of guidance, volunteering and build partnerships in Palestinian society. Pointing, we need cooperation and coordination among this field institutions, especially universities, for their role in developing innovation, research and leadership systems.