“Several
years ago it was born, The Egyptian Engineering Day (EED), as of 2002…
A new event had come to reality … prior to youthful great hopes and
expectations equipped with strong will and faith”
By the time this History page was
written, EED has become a very special national event which receives a
very special deliberation from the Egyptian Government, Academia,
Industry and Media with both local and regional recognition. It’s
considered as the annual nexus for engineers in Egypt, an opportunity
for all engineering professionals to meet new associates in the field,
share ideas, collaborate on projects and learn something new. EED is
where industry and university enter a win-win situation.
the annual Egyptian Student Branches Meeting, ESBM 2002, where the IEEE
Student Branches meet to exchange best-practices and induce new ideas
that promote the engineering science and profession in Egypt. The EED
was suggested in ESBM 2002 to be an expo for engineering graduation
projects, as there was a usual complaint of spending too much effort
and time implementing a graduation project of no application in real
life.
With this simple vision, the first EED round
took place in July 2002, multiple graduation projects participated in
the expo, attendees were mostly from academia and scarce attendance was
from Industry.
As EED organizers, the IEEE Egypt GOLD team,
which was born with the EED idea, realized an obvious missing link between University Study represented by graduation projects, research and
development and Industryial application represented by private and public sectors and
attempted throughout the following two EED rounds to drag the attention
of industry, government and media towards the EED.
By the year 2005, the EED had a mature
attendance and IEEE Egypt GOLD succeeded in building a rigid network
all over Egypt that encloses delegates from all sectors who are
convinced that heaps of graduation projects with real industrial needs
are absolutely capable to change the map of the local market.
Although mingling all entities in the same
place in harmony was not an easy job, yet the Egyptian Engineering Day
(EED) team succeeded to make all players come together year after the
other with an eye-kept over the Egyptian market needs and variables. As
we – IEEE Egypt GOLD- believe in the key role of the civil community.
Varying between projects introducing new ideas
or products, replacing imported services or even presenting a core of
new business or startup, the EED gained a lot of practical credibility
from market in scope. Yet, still IEEE Egypt GOLD has seen that more can
be done on the Egyptian Industry account. Industry attends, shows
interest, claps, gives comments and then goes! That was not why EED had
been created for…
The Made in Egypt program, MIE for short, was
firstly introduced by IEEE Egypt GOLD in 2005 aiming at establishing an
actual link between university and industry and giving Industry a
higher probability of interaction in the graduation project life cycle.
The MIE Program takes the form of a competition among engineering and
computer science graduation projects, each of which competes to solve a
real industrial problem, fulfill an Egyptian industrial need,
substitutes a similar imported product, creates a new need in the
market or introduces a new service helping in the development of the
electronic and technological sides of the society. The first finals
were held in EED 2006 with participation of 19 engineering graduation
projects, each of which has a sponsor from industry who technically
mentors the project side to side with the academic professor throughout
all the competition phases. MIE phases start with a summer training
campus on soft and interpersonal skills besides, business and marketing
skills that helps the team to perceive better market opportunities and
effectively draw a winning plan.
With this new strategy, EED has proven a day
after the other that shelves are not the ideal place for engineering
graduation projects and still too much chances are open out there
awaiting in the local, and may be the international, markets.
One of the EED main objectives also is to
prepare fresh grads with the minimum skill sets needed to delve into
the market, thus on its first four rounds, the EED has been focusing on
soft and interpersonal skills as a good bulk of its Agenda besides
latest top notch technologies in different engineering related fields.
Also, EED has focused on developing the entrepreneurial spirit among
young engineers since 2006 and made its best to introduce the small and
medium enterprises concept to fresh grads as an alternative to the
normal employment option supported with real Egyptian Success Stories!
For freshly graduated engineers, the timing of
the event is suitably chosen to introduce them to the market and for
industry. The EED is a perfect chance for hiring, incubating low cost
R&D based on the exhibited graduation projects and getting latest
top-notch technologies and solutions fitting into current market needs,
purely delivered by fresh Egyptian hands and minds.
From 2003 on, the EED organizers – IEEE Egypt
GOLD – choose a slogan for the EED that incorporates with the
contemporary market variables that meet with EED objectives and stage.
Following are the slogans chosen up to the 7th EED round in 2008 with
an interpreting hint of the rationale/theme behind that slogan.
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Prof.Dr. Sameer Shaheen, Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo Univ. |
EED 2002 Expo, Conrad, Cairo |
“Get Ready”
saw to represent yourself and be eager enough to cope with industrial needs.
EED 2003 Volunteers
“Bringing together Engineers with Ideas…”
With the increasing attendance of industry in 2003, EED2004 will be the place where
professional engineers reap the latest fresh ideas introduced in the market.
H.E. Dr. Ahmed Darwish, Minister of State for Administrative Development,
Dr. Mohamed Yonis, IEEE Egypt Section Chairman, Dr.Mohamed AboulDahab, EED Chairman
And opened EED2004’s Expo
Interacted with the participating graduation projects
“Join the Success”
government attendance, media was massively there and the awareness of
the industry-university link case is now well-known. Come and join the
success.
Side of the conference
“It’s Your Turn”
your turn to cook it your way with a proactive taste, explore what you
can do to capitalize over the EED success and extracts all available
the opportunities. EED2006 was also a clear invitation towards a global
small and medium enterprises movement.
“Your next Step”
technical insight, more business, all helping you taking your next step
towards starting your own business. EED 2007 has accomplished the
following statistics:
82 Job Offers
21 Sold Projects
23 To-Be-Sponsored Projects
15 Incubated Projects
 Side of MIE Finals Judging Process |
 H.E. Dr. Tarek Kamel with one of Future City preparatory schools participants |
 H.E. Dr. Ahmed Darweesh at EED2007 opening session |
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 EED 2007 110 Volunteers |
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“Choices…Unlimited”
traditional employees, they should be creative about the way they
explore their talents and accordingly be creative about their job
selection. The choices also extend to reach Industry with unlimited
choices of calibrated graduation projects they can explore at the EED
2008 Expo, solving their problems and fulfilling their needs. EED
is also a good starting point for innovative business ventures and
relationships as it aims at spreading the entrepreneurial spirit among
engineers. This will be fulfilled through the coexistence of different
parties and delegates of different backgrounds from IEEE, industry,
university, ventures, funding entities, government, NGO’s, recruiters
and media and this is how the event’s Venue will interpret the
unlimited choices fresh grads and young professionals may explore at
the EED.
EED
“Bringing Innovation To Life”
That year, we had carefully chosen “Bringing Innovation to Life” to be our slogan, to highlight the importance of innovation as a great value needed to be applied in all our life aspects.
Year after year, EED was highlighting new slogans, adding new ideas, supporting more exhibitors and attracting more volunteers. Year after year, EED showed more professionalism, provided more opportunities and celebrated its illustrious success. And by 2009, it was time to celebrate 8 years of successive successes with 230 projects, 28 Universities, 142 volunteers, and 5000 visitors!