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Issue #55 - Wednesday, October 28, 2009

On Thursday, October 22, 2009, AUST helda workshop to stimulate interaction amongvarious regional universities andorganizations, and to build up a Partnershipamong the attendees to embark on aprospective Tempus Joint European Projectsupported by the European TrainingFoundation. The event hosted 45individuals, representing academic andprofessional sectors from France, Belgium,Estonia, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Iraq, andLebanon. This workshop was organized byDr. Aziz Barbar, Chairperson of the CSIDepartment at AUST and Vice President ofthe Lebanese Information TechnologyAssociation (LITA), Dr. Ziad Abu-Faraj,Chairperson of the Biomedical EngineeringDepartment at AUST, and Dr. Mona Al-Achkar Jabbour, professor of Law at theLebanese University and President of LITA.This event succeeded the completion of thethird regional conference on “CyberSecurity: Protection of Private Documents,

Intellectual Property, and National Security”that was held at Saint Joseph University onOctober 20-22, 2009, and which hosted theaforementioned 45 members. Dr. Barbardelivered a welcoming speech on behalf ofAUST during the opening session that wasunder the patronage of H.E. ProfessorIbrahim Najjar, Minister of Justice.The participants were first treated to lunch,after which a gathering took place in thePresident’s Office, whereby President HiamSakr and Provost Dr. Nabeel Haidar gavewarm welcoming speeches.Subsequently, the attendees convened inthe Conference Hall at AUST for twoproductive hours. Dr. Abu-Faraj gave awelcoming speech, which included asynopsis about AUST, then a delineation ofthe role of AUST as the Grant ApplicantInstitution on this prospective project. Hethen emphasized that one of the mainobjectives of this meeting was to attempt todefine the role that each of the partners

would play in this project. He then gave thefloor to Dr. Jabbour, the PrincipalInvestigator of this Project, who touched onthe specifics of the project and itssignificance to the region.She then initiated an open discussion whichwas chaired and moderated by Dr. HeshamAuda, Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for General Assemblyand Conference Management, UnitedNations, NY, USA.Among the prestigious guests were: H.E.Dr. Adel Al-Touwaysi (Higher Council forScience and Technology, Jordan); ProfessorJos Dumortier (Director of K.U. LeuvenInterdisciplinary Center for Law & ICT,Belgium); Professor Jean-Jacques Lavenue(Director of “l’Institut de Recherche surl’Évolution de l’Environnement Normatif desActivités Transnationales”, France).The event was concluded by the distributionof a token of appreciation to each attendeeby President H. Sakr.

AUST Holds a Workshop to Stimulate Interaction AmongVarious Regional Universities and Organizations

In an effort to encourage cultural liaisons, Dr.George Massé, Chairperson of the InternationalAffairs Department, invited the new appointedUkrainian Ambassador, Dr. Volodimir Koval, toAUST.

The Ambassador had the chance to meetwith President Hiam Sakr and discuss thepossibility of cultural and educationalexchanges between the Ukrainianuniversities and AUST.

It was agreed to organize and hold a UkrainianDay at AUST soon, whereby the AUST studentswill be exposed to the different aspects of such arich culture.

It is worth noting that an AUST delegate, headedby President Hiam Sakr and Provost NabeelHaidar as well as the Chairperson of theInternational Affairs Department, is to visitUkraine and sign an agreement with the Instituteof International Relations of Kiev University.

The Ukrainian Ambassador Guest at AUST

Right to left: Dr. Barbar, Dr. Auda, Dr. Jabbour and Dr. Abu-Faraj.

From left to right: Provost Dr. Haidar, Ukrainian Ambassador Dr.

Volodimir Koval, President Sakr, Dr. Massé, & First Secretary

Eugeniy Tkachuk.