The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Balamand (UOB) commends the efforts of Mrs. Mantoura Nakad, Assistant Dean for Administration, for presenting her research on Sustainability in Engineering Education at the prestigious European Society for Engineering Society (SEFI) Annual Conference, entitled “Towards a New Future in Engineering Education”, which was held in Barcelona 19 - 22 September 2022. SEFI is an international association of more than 300 members, which consists of higher engineering institutions, professional societies, student associations, students, academic staff, engineers and companies within Europe and worldwide. SEFI has been actively advocating for quality of the engineering education since 1973.

Mrs. Nakad’s research paper was the only submission accepted from Lebanon. Mrs Nakad attended the conference virtually where she presented her research investigating the awareness, attitudes, and perceptions of engineering students towards sustainability and the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The research was conducted in collaboration with her Ph.D. supervisor Professor Klara Kövesi from ENSTA-Bretagne, France.

Mrs. Nakad’s research aimed to explore and understand engineering students understanding of sustainable development and SDGs. It examined perceptions toward considering sustainability challenges awareness of the role of the engineering profession in realizing the SDGs. In her research, Mrs Nakad compared her results obtained from surveying UOB students to those published from the European literature. The results highlighted some unique insights to improve students’ awareness for the role of engineers to promote SDGs.

UOB Vice President for Internationalization & Engagement and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Prof. Rami Abboud commended Mrs. Nakad on her research work and for her novel PhD project that will be co-directed between ENSTA-Bretagne and the University of Balamand and will be emphasizing the need for sustainability research to guide the development and advancement of Engineering Education.

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