On Thursday, February 25, 2021, on the occasion of Engineering Week, the Faculty of Engineering hosted a special guest speaker, Professor Sir Saeed Zahidi, as a part of the Engineering Seminar Series organized weekly by Mr. AbdelMunim Alameddine. The seminar was entitled: “Biomimetic Systems Engineering Design: The Integrated Limb Design”.

Prof. Sir Saeed Zahedi, PhD, OBE, FREng, RDI, is a British-Iranian biomedical engineer and innovator who is the Technical Director at Chas A Blatchford & Sons. He was named Royal Designer for Industry in 2014 and in 2016 he appeared on Debrett's 500 List which recognizes Britain's 500 most influential individuals. He was responsible for the commercialization of the first Intelligent Prosthesis in the early 1990s and the world’s first fully integrated limb system, Linx, in 2014. In 2018, Professor Zahedi was knighted by the Queen "for services to Engineering and Innovation". Sir Saeed is a multi-award-winning author and presenter of over 170 papers, books and scientific publications and over 60 patents.

During his talk, Prof. Zahedi highlighted the engineering innovation that goes into the design of prosthetic limbs focusing on new approaches and design issues. He shared his venerable 40 years’ experience in the field of prosthetics where he and his team have created outstanding results for many thousands of amputees around the world, giving them back the opportunity to live their lives to the fullest. The presentation focused on systems’ design approach to modern challenges especially in the field of biomedical and rehabilitation engineering and in advancing the design and implementation of prosthetics.

The University of Balamand Vice President for Internationalization and Engagement and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Prof. Rami Abboud, welcomed his “long standing friend and colleague” highlighting Prof. Zahedi as a world-renowned pioneering authority in his field. In his welcoming statement, Prof. Abboud spoke of his long history of collaboration with Prof. Zahedi, “a remarkable scholar, researcher and a gentleman whose work and achievements will inspire generations of engineers to come”.


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