Zina Kamel Outscores Peers in the World of Computer Science

Pursuing a degree in the field of computer and information technology was not the sole objective of Zina Kamel when she first apply for the MEPI TL program at LAU. Fascinated about programming, algorithms and software engineering, Kamel wanted to hone her practical skills through grasping every opportunity offered by the program and by LAU. For Kamel, the 2020-2021 academic year- which was fully held virtual- was far from being “idle”. Kamel kept on challenging herself by participating in a series of workshops, joining clubs, participating in competition… all related to the digital world:

In December 2020, Kamel participated in the Hult prize competition and her team won first place in the Hult Prize on-campus competition. A few months later, she decided to grow her entrepreneurial skills more and joined INJAZ Company Program, where she attended different related workshops. She also participated in the Google Get Ahead program which included coding problems, workshops and challenges. Later on, Kamel has interned as a Junior Machine Learning Engineer where she collaborated with 40 other engineers from 9 countries to build an end-end ML project. Leaving a room for community outreach, Kamel has also volunteered as a web development mentor for women refugees where she shared her technical and leadership skills. During this experience, she could recognize the mentees’ interest in learning more about Android development which was not part of the program. To fill this gap, Kamel went beyond from what was assigned to her and founded an Android development track which was later on integrated into the mentor program. Moving back to theory and learning, Kamel applied to join the Microsoft Student Advocacy team and was selected to attend the Virtual Grace Hopper Celebration- the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. To Kamel, the wins she achieved so far are only a single step of a thousand-mile journey. As the new academic year kicks off, she has already a predefined list of initiatives she is willing to join while keeping up with her studies and retaining her high grades for her academic year.

Thanks to the LAU-MEPI TL program and its commitment to encouraging and supporting the up-and-coming generation of researchers in the MENA region, Kamel was able to capitalize on her talent and take her skills and knowledge in computer science to the next level.