AUC’s Innovation Hub places students at the heart of innovation, transforming classroom theory into hands-on industry experience.
Just past the New Cairo campus portal stands a sturdy brick building housing the University’s hub for academic-industry collaborations: the AUC Innovation Hub. Inside, startups, multinationals and corporates work alongside students on real-world professional projects, without ever having to leave campus.
Smart tables, reservable offices and a gaming station fill the hub, where students and industry leaders meet, prototype and work with emerging technologies. All nine companies currently partnering with the AUC Innovation Hub fall within three focus areas: digital transformation, artificial intelligence and sustainability.
Dalia Abd-Allah, senior director of the AUC Innovation Hub, knows that providing students with experiential learning is essential to making them competitive young professionals. “Our aim is simple yet bold: to make AUC a place where innovation actually happens, where companies can work through real challenges and students gain practical experience along the way,” she said.
AUC architecture senior Maya Saad described the opportunities she gained while working at LAYN, an Egyptian startup specializing in 3D concrete printing and one of the Innovation Hub’s industry partners. “I got to develop my programming skills by actually working on projects that used the design programs I’d been learning about in class,” Saad explained. “When you work for a startup, you get to see how modeling functions in reality.”
LAYN operates partially out of the Innovation Hub and offers internships and curricular and noncurricular programs that immerse students in real-time innovation problem solving. Sama Abdelsayed, an architectural engineering student, reflected on her participation in the micro-internship program. “I learned a lot from the experience at the Innovation Hub about how my career doesn’t have to be dull or traditional,” she stated. “It is living proof that there are new ways to use our creativity and create successful collaborations between different companies.”
Two of the Innovation Hub’s partners, LAYN and SODIC, have collaborated with courses at AUC, including the Digital Design Studio and Workshop in the architecture department. Fatma Farrag ’19, ’23, senior computational designer at LAYN, is also an instructor for the course. “Normally in the classroom, we’re very limited to small models because so much of our work is experimental,” she explained. “But by partnering with LAYN, students are able to build actual prototypes. They get to see the application of their theoretical knowledge in a way that is essential before entering the field.”
“I got to develop my programming skills by actually working on projects... When you work for a startup, you get to see how modeling functions in reality.”
The architecture students designed and prototyped a pavilion using LAYN’s 3D concrete printing technology. They completed site visits, worked with professional software and participated in a jury review with judges from both LAYN and SODIC.
With so many companies collaborating in the same space, new partnerships are forming and finding creative ways to engage with students. “We’re all able to grow together — us as startups and the students as future professionals,” Farrag added.
Another partner, Blu EV, works in electric mobility and operates a battery-swapping platform for electric light vehicles. Students collaborated with the company on battery management challenges.
“I feel astonished by the quality of the solutions that were introduced by the students,” said Rida Baalbaki, CEO of Blu EV. “For them, it was exciting to have that sort of hands-on experience, and for us, the students are exceptional. This partnership creates real value for both AUC and the tech sector.”