The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) – Student Chapter at Beirut Arab University (BAU) was notified by a letter of Honorable Mention by the Committee on Student Members for its outstanding activities recorded in the annual report for the year of 2018. This recognition is only received by the top third of all Student Organizations around the world for its great accomplishments that are a result of a hard-working and a well-built team.
ASCE Student Chapter at BAU is the society that graciously unites all the Civil and Environmental Engineering students in Debbieh and Tripoli Campuses under one friendly and developed environment. The chapter was officially established on October 11, 2017 with the support of the ASCE Lebanon section. Currently, the chapter has more than 400 active and diligent student members from both campuses.
The ASCE student chapter has an organizational structure that consists of four main board members including president, vice president, secretary and treasurer, in addition to committee officers that are divided into six roles: activities officers, executive officers, organizers, community service officers, membership officers and publicity that works as one team to provide professional and effective work.
The main aim of the ASCE is to promote student life, to enhance volunteerism, to encourage involvement in the civil engineering world, to improve team development, and to strengthen the bonds between each of the faculty, students, staff and alumni. The latter is achieved through the organization of enriched activities and events through which students interact in academic and non- academic environments for them to develop and apply their Civil Engineering knowledge in various fields and to get involved in both societal and educational territory.
Throughout the journey of ASCE student chapter, enhancing the civil engineers’ knowledge in their domain is one of the main goals behind it, and for that about 12 technical seminars were organized throughout the year including “One Year in Industry” given by Mr. Sami Khatib,“Strengthen Concrete and Steel Structures with FPR" by Prof. Raafat Hacha ,”It's all about time” - Time management workshop presented by: Prof. Oussama Baalbaki, "Public Projects in Tripoli" by Eng. Ziad Hmouda, “The code of the Professional CV” by Mr. Nael Dandashli.
To integrate theory with practice, the ASCE student chapter has organized several site visits that increased the students’ interests in their domain. These included visits to wastewater treatment plants, to cement factories (“Ciment De Siblin” and “Al Sabeh Cement”), to “S.C.O.R.E” steel factory, to the highest bridge in the Middle East that connects Bkasrouna and Nemrin villages (Tripoli Campus), and lately to the construction sites of two reinforced concrete bridges on the Pan Arab Highway Project.
Since protecting the environment is a responsibility that every living person must hold, the ASCE student chapter sought to raise awareness about the importance of saving the environment and starting from our campus by organizing an “Environmental Day” event where an explanation was held by Mr. Mohammad Al Baba about the process of waste management and the importance of sorting wastes and then recycling it. After that, a representative of the Arcenciel NGO, introduced the idea of collecting water bottle caps in the Debbie Campus that will be recycled to be used for manufacturing wheelchairs for handicapped persons. Finally, the ASCE student chapter and under the title of a "Tree for Every ASCE Member" carried out a planting activity in the Debbie campus where 400 trees were planted in the Campus.
The ASCE chapter held awareness’s campaigns also such as “Road Safety” presented by Major Michel Moutran (VP, secretary general of National Road Safety Council in Lebanon) along with Mr. Kamel Ibrahim (Confounder and Manager of the Lebanese International Road Safety Academy).This event was held in parallel with the efforts of BAU towards the enhancement of traffic safety in Lebanon. A mock-up was held at the end of the seminar by the Internal Security Forces in collaboration with the Lebanese Civil Defense and the Lebanese Red Cross to show the crowd the requirements of site management after an accident and the process of rescuing the injured person. The Future TV covered the whole seminar.
One of the major events that occurred at Beirut Arab University was the visit of the ASCE international president, Ms. Kristina L. Swallow to Debbieh Campus. The visit also included ASCE governors in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe beside the president of ASCE Lebanon Section, Mr. Guy Tabet. The guests were introduced to the history and vision of BAU in general and to a briefing about the history of ASCE student chapter at BAU, the current activities taking place during this semester, and the future ambitions. Each of the guests discussed the benefits of being part of the ASCE community and the value it adds to one’s professional and social life by sharing some of their own experience.
The chapter also works on enlightening students to various software programs that can be used in their domain. “ETABS”, “SAFE”, and “S-concrete” software programs were the training sessions held throughout the year of 2018.
In addition, the ASCE student chapter organized various social lectures and interactive sessions such as life-coaching seminars including “Lies Vs. Lives” event presented by Dr. Khaled Ghattas and “Know Yourself, Know Your Why” event held in collaboration with all engineering societies and student activities department and presented by Dr. Hassan Shaker.
Community service and creating a sense of belonging are basic targets of ASCE student chapter. This section initiated recently in the structure of the chapter and is being worked on along with other sections. As a first step, the chapter organized for its first charity event, a bake sale entitled “Bake for Hope” to collect money and donate it to Balsam, a center of palliative care. Later, the chapter hosted a delegate from Balsam in order to shed light on its significant role in palliative care where also a member of the ASCE student chapter shared her personal experience of her mother who suffered from cancer.
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