Engineering the future with Artificial Intelligence

June 19th and 20th 2025 at Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Sciences and Technology Campus

As part of the year-long celebration of our university's 150th anniversary, the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (FEA) at Saint Joseph University of Beirut (USJ) is pleased to organize a two-day conference exploring the opportunities and challenges of the broad and ever-evolving field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in developing countries.

This comprehensive event will bring together leading minds from academia, industry, and government to explore the multifaceted world of AI. It will delve into the technological aspects of AI, highlighting cutting-edge advancements and applications in various engineering fields.

The sessions will extend beyond the technical realm to address the challenging ethical and professional considerations surrounding AI, exploring the impact of this powerful technology on the future of design and innovation. The event will also examine the social, economic, and environmental influences of AI, its implications in workforce development, and the need for responsible implementation.

A key highlight will be the exploration of AI regulation, examining the evolving legal landscape and fostering dialogue on how best to govern AI for the public good. This cross-disciplinary approach aims to spark insightful conversations and collaboration, ensuring that AI continues to develop for the benefit of all.

The conference will take place at Jean Ducruet Auditorium, CST campus, Mar Roukoz – Dekwaneh, on June 19 and 20, 2025.

Audience and Key topics

EFAI25 conference is planned to engage a wide-ranging audience such as Engineers, Architects, Students, Academic scholars, Data scientists, AI / ML researchers, Industry experts, Executives and Policymakers. It will center around the following topics:

1) AI-based Design and Optimization, focusing on how AI and Machine Learning are transforming the whole design process driving increased efficiency and fostering innovation

2) Intelligent Automation and Robotics, emphasizing on the integration of intelligent robots in the human-machine collaboration

3) AI for Emerging Engineering Fields, centering around digital twins, autonomous vehicles and smart cities

4) AI and the Architectural Practice, directing attention on the role of architects in adopting a responsible use of AI to foster creativity while preserving the ethical boundaries

5) AI and the Engineering Workforce, addressing the impact of AI on engineering jobs, the emergence of new AI-centric engineering roles and the social impact of AI

6) AI in Education, targeting the AI-based transformation occurring across the academia from campus services to teaching, curriculum development as well as enhancement of student experience

7) AI for the Global South, tackling key challenges and new opportunities for developing nations worldwide

8) AI in Healthcare and Biomedical Engineering, exploring AI's transformative impact on healthcare, including predictive diagnostics, medical imaging, personalized treatments, robotic surgery, improved patient care, efficient hospital operations, and accelerated drug discovery

9) AI Across Industries, diving beyond engineering practice to show diversified real-world applications of AI in, finance, manufacturing, and/or sustainability

10) AI and Ethics, exploring critical ethical considerations in AI, including transparency in AI systems, bias and fairness, data privacy and security, regulatory frameworks, and the societal impact of AI on employment, decision-making, and safety

11) AI’s Next Frontier, exploring the future of AI through advancements in generative models, neuromorphic engineering, Human-AI collaboration and Advanced Machine Intelligence.

Sponsorship packages

Sponsorship package	Package description
Platinum, 15,000 USD	All benefits of Gold. Verbal acknowledgment at the introduction and closing ceremonies. Coffee break offered by your company, or corporation name as WIFI password or company name on the lanyard or badges. Logo on the physical & e-invitation cards at the header part. Larger company logo at the end of the teaser and trailer. Bigger logo on the unipole signs.
Gold, 10,000 USD	All benefits of Silver. Logo on social media posts. Bigger space for the Company/institution booth. Logo on physical & e-invitation cards. Logo at the end of the teaser and trailer. Logo on the main screen of the digital stage during breaks. Logo on the unipole signs. The option to participate as guest speaker or panelist or deliver a workshop in a breakout room
Silver, 5,000 USD	Logo on the conference website with a link to your website. Logo on the digital stage. Company/institution booth in the exhibition hall Logo on the conference program.

Program

DAY 1: JUNE 19, 2025

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Registration

10:00 AM – 10:45 AM

Inauguration Ceremony

Prof. Wassim Raphael, Dean of the Faculty of Engineeringand Architecture - ESIB at USJ
Eng. Charles Malek, Director of Structural & Bridge Engineering at Dar Al-Handasah
Prof. Salim Daccache, SJ, Rector of the Saint Joseph University of Beirut
H.E. Mr. Nawaf Salam, Prime Minister of Lebanon

10:45 AM – 11:00 AM

University Diploma in AI Graduation Ceremony

11:00 AM – 11:30 AM

KEYNOTE 1: AI-Driven Living Systems: Reimagining Industry and Reinventing Learning

Dr. Grace Metri, Principal Strategic Alliance Manager at NVIDIA

11:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Break

12:00 PM – 01:10 PM

PANEL 1: AI, Digital Transformation, and the Future of Public Services

Moderator

Mr. Ronnie Hammad, Managing Partner at The Sublime Institute

Speakers

Dr. Kamal Shehadi, Minister of Displaced and Minister ofState for Technology and Artificial Intelligence, Lebanon
Prof. Carole Alsharabati, Founding Partner at Siren Analytics and CME, Professor at USJ
Mr. Abdallah Jabbour, Senior Digital Specialist at the World Bank

01:10 PM – 02:00 PM

SPECIAL SESSION: AI and Computer-Aided Design

Design, Build, and Operate a Better Built Environment
(Online)

Mr. Naji Atallah, Head of Construction and Manufacturing at Autodesk

Accelerate Simulation with AI; Validate AI with Simulation

Mr. Tony Karam, Global Sales Director at ANSYS

02:00 PM – 03:30 PM

Lunch/Networking Break + Exhibition

03:30 PM – 04:30 PM

PANEL 2: AI Across Industries

Moderator

Dr. Nicolas Rouhana, Chairman & CEO of IM Fndng

Speakers

Mr. Yorgo Youssef, AI Solution Architect at Murex
Prof. César Yaghi, Head of Hepatology and Gastroenterology Department at Hôtel-Dieu de France
Dr. Nawal Zaher, Tech Expert/Data Analyst at Dar Al Handasah

04:30 PM – 05:15 PM

Guest Speaker

The Four Pillars of AI-Driven Innovation (Online)

Mr. Bill Schmarzo, Dean of Big Data, Customer AI and Data Innovation Strategist

05:15 PM – 05:45 PM

KEYNOTE 2: Optimizing Data for Decision-Making (Online)

Prof. Asu Ozdaglar, Department Head of EECS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

DAY 2: JUNE 20, 2025

09:00 AM – 09:30 AM

Guest Speaker

Operationalizing AI at Scale: From PoC to Business Value at TotalEnergies (Online)

Dr. Marc Hoballah, AI Scientific Lead at TotalEnergies

09:30 AM – 11:00 AM

Invited Researchers

The Architecture of Trust: Engineering Ethical Infrastructure for AI Governance

Prof. Mariette Awad, Director AI, Data Science and Computing Hub at the American University of Beirut

AI-Driven IC Design

Dr. Rayan Mina, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the Saint Joseph University of Beirut

Three Challenges in Multimodal Diffusion (Online)

Dr. Vicky Kalogeiton, Professor in AI at the Computer Science Laboratory of École Polytechnique, France

Fuelling the AI Revolution with Trusted and Interoperable Data Spaces

Dr. Rafiqul Haque, Senior Research Fellow, University of Galway, Ireland

11:00 AM – 11:30 AM

Coffee Break

11:30 AM – 12:00 PM

SPECIAL SESSION: Engineering Workforce in the AI Era

Mr. James Varnham, CEO & Partner at AI Academy

12:00 PM – 12:30 PM

Innovation Pitches

Moderator

Ms. Carla Saba, Deputy General Manager at Berytech

Speakers

Mr. Hussein El Hajj, CEO at HTech
Mr. Bryan Youssef, Founder & CEO at EduBolt
Ms. Lynn Farran, Co-founder & Lead AI developer at QanoonAI
Mr. Yorgo Salloum, Partner & CMO at AgriSmart

12:30 PM – 01:30 PM

PANEL 3: AI Security and Sovereignty

Moderator

Mr. Antoine Feghaly, Founder & CEO at Potech

Speakers

Dr. Hayssam Serhan, Chief of AI and Innovation at EXEO
Mr. Bassam Touma, Partner and Co-Founder at SHELT Global
Mr. Pejman Gohari, Partner and Founder at ORBii (Online)

01:30 PM – 03:00 PM

Lunch/Networking Break + Exhibition

03:00 PM – 04:15 PM

PANEL 4: AI in Construction and Urban Planning

Moderator

Mr. Ibrahim Mneimneh, Member of the Lebanese Parliament

Speakers

Dr. Nabil Mohareb, Associate Professor at The American University in Cairo
Mr. Ahmed Hegazy, Co-Founder & CEO at Opteam
Ms. Christelle Salame, Managing Partner - Global Industry Lead for Real Estate and Smart Cities at Artefact
Mr. Prakash Senghani, Co-Founder and CEO, NavaTech (Online)

Parallel Workshops

Workshop 1: Data Analysis with LLMs

Mrs. Amanda Hachem, Education Lead at Zaka

Workshop 2: ML for Everyone Using Google Sheets

Mrs. Dalia Jaber, Senior AI engineer at CME

Workshop 3: Machine Learning for Call Activity Prediction

Mr. Elio Hanna, AI Software Engineer at inmind.ai

04:15 PM – 04:30 PM

Break

4:30 PM – 4:40 PM

Upskilling for an AI World: A Human-Centered AI Journey at USJ

Mrs. Wadad Wazen, Director of the Center for Digital Innovationand AI at the Saint Joseph University of Beirut

4:40 PM – 05:20 PM

KEYNOTE 3: AI and the Future of Higher Education

Prof. Joseph Aoun, President of Northeastern University, Boston, USA (Online)

Moderator

Mr. Albert Kostanian, Managing Director of Levant Consult

05:25 PM – 6:00 PM

Students Awards and Closing Session

8:30 PM

Gala Dinner

For Online Participation

Zoom Link
Passcode:757454

Download the program

Workshops

Workshop 1: Data Analysis with LLMs – Unlocking Insights Without Coding

Facilitator:
Mrs. Amanda Hachem, Education Lead at Zaka

Overview:
This interactive workshop equips non-technical professionals with the skills to perform data analysis using Large Language Models (LLMs) through effective prompt engineering. Participants will learn how to communicate with AI tools to explore, clean, summarize, and interpret datasets without the need for programming. The session covers practical strategies for crafting clear, structured prompts that guide the model to generate meaningful insights, visualizations, and reports. By the end of the workshop, attendees will be able to leverage LLMs as powerful analytical partners, enabling data-informed decision-making in any domain.

Why Attend?
Whether you're in business, education, policy, or research, this session will show you how to harness AI as a collaborative tool for smarter, faster data analysis. You’ll walk away with actionable techniques and a new perspective on working with data.

Who Should Attend:
Everyone is welcome! This session is accessible to all backgrounds, with no prior coding or data experience required.

Requirements:
Participants are kindly asked to bring their own laptops to get the most out of this interactive session.

Workshop 2: Machine Learning for Everyone – Using Google Sheets

Facilitator:
Mrs. Dalia Jaber, Senior AI Engineer at CME

Overview:
This workshop introduces briefly Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), including common ML types and the ML lifecycle. The session will include a practical walkthrough of Simple ML for Google Sheets, a no-code tool that enables anyone to apply ML directly within spreadsheets. Using a sales forecasting use case, attendees will learn how to leverage this tool to make data-driven predictions. This workshop is ideal for beginners and non-technical professionals looking to get started with ML in an accessible and impactful way.

Who Should Attend:
Everyone is welcome! This session is tailored for beginners and non-technical participants, making Machine Learning accessible to all.

Requirements:
Participants are kindly asked to bring their own laptops to get the most out of this interactive session.

Workshop 3: Machine Learning for Call Activity Prediction

Facilitator:
Mr. Elio Hanna, AI Software Engineer at inmind.ai

Overview:
Machine Learning for Call Activity Prediction" is a beginner-friendly workshop that introduces participants to the core concepts of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through a practical, real-world use case. Focusing on call and SMS activity data, the session will guide attendees through data exploration, preprocessing, and feature engineering. Participants will observe how machine learning techniques can be used to identify patterns in user behavior.

Who Should Attend:
Participants with basic knowledge of Python.

Requirements:
Participants are kindly asked to bring their own laptops and install the following python packages : “pandas, matplotlib, seaborn, kneed, pmdarima, prophet, scikit-learn, numpy”.