Hassan Al Zahabi Bridges Computer Science with Art

Computer science major Hassan Al Zahabi (Syria) joined the Tomorrow’s Leaders Undergraduate program in 2018 with a clear objective and determination: to use his acquired skills in technology at the service of education and develop further his passion-based talent in multimedia while keeping the Arabic language relevant in the digital era. During his time in the program, Al Zahabi grasped every opportunity that the program and LAU offered him to take his learning in technology to an advanced level: he participated in various tech-focused workshops, attended tech-related seminars, and partook in many events and activities organized by LAU such as Hult Prize. In this learning phase, Al Zahabi started to shape an innovative idea that can address three main components at once: Technology- Education- Arabic language, but he was waiting for an opportunity that will allow him to sketch a project plan. 

In January 2020,  Al Zahabi and two of his LAU colleagues participated in a startup innovation program organized by LAU Innovation Center in collaboration with UK Lebanon Tech hub and pitched for their project- an Arabic E-learning platform that offers bespoke online video production and editing courses focusing on artistic effects. The team reached the nine finalists out of more than eighty participants and therefore received intensive training on startups, business modeling, and startup financing that enables them to take the project to the next level. In June 2020, the team pitched the startup to the LAU investment committee and they were one of the two startups that received seed funding to further develop our project.

In January 2020,  Al Zahabi and two of his LAU colleagues participated in a startup innovation program organized by LAU Innovation Center in collaboration with UK Lebanon Tech hub and pitched for their project- an Arabic E-learning platform that offers bespoke online video production and editing courses focusing on artistic effects. The team reached the nine finalists out of more than eighty participants and therefore received intensive training on startups, business modeling, and startup financing that enables them to take the project to the next level. In June 2020, the team pitched the startup to the LAU investment committee and they were one of the two startups that received seed funding to further develop our project. During his time in MEPI TL, Al Zahabi was able to expand his knowledge above and beyond academia. Actually, the program capitalized on soft skills from time management to problem-solving, networking, public speaking etc. all of these skills combined helped Al Zahabi to learn and implement civic engagement and community service- which is the core objective of the TL program.