Tag Archives | engineering

Jal El Dib Bridges Are Finally Open – Traffic is Even Worse Now

By Rami on March 20, 2019 in Traffic, Transportation

Following two years of construction work in Jal El Dib, the two 2L bridges were finally open for traffic last Saturday.

With the project completion, people were promised and actually expected the traffic to get better, except that it actually got worse, and I guess the outcome is simply logical. For cars coming from Jounieh towards Beirut, the road is effectively now narrower in Jal El Dib with an exist ramp follwed by an entrance ramp that eventually turbulate the traffic thanks to the way we drive around here. For example you always see drivers making a sharp right from the left lane to take the exit on the right and consequently slow down the traffic behind them.

People in charge of road management definitely deserve a trophy. And for those who make the Jounieh-Beirut trip everyday and now have an additional bottleneck on their way, antidepressant pills maybe.

photo via Lebanese Contractor Magazine

Raising Awareness on Modern Architectural Heritage in Lebanon

By Rami on March 13, 2018 in Architecture

Banque Libano-Française recently started a blog to engage people with the progress made to build their new headquarter in Charles Helou area, and they’re taking advantage of it to also raises awareness on modern architectural heritage in Lebanon by talking about 12 significant landmark projects which influenced the architecture scene in the country between 1926 and 1997.

As part of this project, the Director of the Arab Center for Architecture George Arbid will be sharing interesting notes, pictures, plans, sketches and studies once every week on a certain building/structure around town.

So far they covered Charles Corm in Achrafieh, Saint-Georges Hotel, Carlton Hotel (demolished in 2008), and Starco building. The presented info are quite interesting and will certainly make you see the buildings that still exist nowadays from a really different perspective.

They still have 8 buildings to talk about and you can follow the series here.

Lebanese Sevag Babikian Made it to The Stars of Science Finals

By Rami on November 14, 2016 in Creative, Science

sevag-babikian

Stars of Science is a reality show currently airing on MBC4 that aims to promote Arab innovators and entrepreneurs. 9 Innovators were competing this season for a share of $600,000 in seed funding and the judges qualified 4 of them to the finals among which was Sevag Babikian from Lebanon.

Sevag’s project is an Efficient Desktop 3D Printer that uses a robotic head to enhance the process of 3D printing by maximizing quality, while saving time, effort, and wasted material. Throughout the competition he wowed potential consumers during customer validation and was also the first in lab prototyping. He’s now a step away from winning and you have until November 17th 5PM to support him by voting on the Stars of Science website, hoping that he will be announced as the winner in the final episode on Saturday evening on MBC4.

You can also keep up with Sevag’s latest news by following his Facebook page.

AUB Chosen Among the Most Beautiful Universities in the World

By Rami on January 7, 2016 in Lebanon

american university of beirut

“The Most Beautiful Universities in the World” is a recently released book by photographer Guillaume de Laubier and French literature specialist Jean Serroy. The book features the most beautiful institutions from around the world and the American University of Beirut was unsurprisingly among the 23 chosen ones.

University of Bologna was ranked first in the book and the list included the Sorbonne in France, Cambridge University in England, Yale University in the United States, Qatar University and several other architecturally significant universities.

The American University of Beirut was established in 1866 which makes it one of the oldest academic institutions in Lebanon and is definitely one of Beirut’s landmarks. With more than 60 buildings and several libraries spread over an area of 250,000m2, the campus is well known for its extensive green space and for offering the neighbors in Bliss street and the surrounding areas an unimpeded view to the sea thanks to its low rise construction.

A genius solution to the Fiat bridge

By Rami on September 7, 2012 in What the fuck!

You probably have all heard about the closure of the Fiat bridge a couple of weeks ago due to a defect in its structure causing some massive traffic jam for a few days.

Shortly after restoring it the bridge was reopened again with a genius solution to prevent crossing trucks from crossing it, two huge and dangerous concrete separators were put at each of the two entries of the bridge, and they’re BARELY visible at night that I almost crashed my car into one of them a few days ago!

So next time you’re at Corniche El-Nahr, just be careful when you’re about to cross the Fiat bridge.

Cedar tree planted into wireless devices

By Rami on April 2, 2012 in Lebanon

No it’s not like really planting a cedar tree into some electronic device! But a research team at the American University of Beirut discovered that cedar tree shaped antennas are ideal for use in some wireless devices.

The team found that the geometry of the cedar, based on repetitive triangular parts, allows a cedar-shaped antenna to operate at multiple frequencies, which makes it suitable for many types of wireless devices such as mobile phones.

Karim Kabalan, professor and chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was the mastermind behind the design, after two years of searching for an antenna that would be easy and inexpensive to fabricate and innovative, veering away from the usual rectangular and circular shapes. Source

The Lebanese Phalanges should be credited for the design though, it looks pretty much like their schematic cedar.

Thanks to @mkdubai

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Tag Archives | engineering