Sun executives from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) operations are assisting the Lebanese American University (LAU) in building new academic and research labs, especially for its medical and pharmacy schools. Sun has extended a matching grant worth up to US$500,000 to Dr. Joseph Jabbra, president of LAU.

Sun also has extended additional support to LAU’s computer science and engineering schools, specifically in the areas of grid and high performance computing.

"Central to Sun's regional strategy is the ability to empower educators with the latest software and hardware solutions, and we are offering LAU a matching grant as well as a number of strategic programs that provide technology access to the broadest range of students effectively and affordably," said Chris Cornelius, Sun MENA's managing director, as reported by Strategiy.

During the December meeting in Dubai, Dr. Jabbra and Cornelius also discussed the SunSM Academic Initiative, aimed at introducing students to Sun technologies, preparing them for industry-leading certification and equipping them with marketable IT job skills.

"Issues ranging from digital asset management of thousands of student records to ensuring that graduates have marketable employment skills are challenges currently facing the MENA education community," added Tarek Ayass, Sun MENA’s regional manager, Education and Research, "and our partnership with organizations such as LAU demonstrate that Sun is doing its part to integrate technology into the region’s curriculum, and help create a tech-savvy regional workforce."

Sun also offered LAU its latest software technology with no-cost licensing - Sun EduSoft Academic Edition, which will provide LAU teachers, students and campus IT staff with unrestricted access to Sun software, enabling them to evaluate, test and develop applications powered by Sun.

"LAU's approach to technology has two primary pillars - we use technology at the heart of our research efforts across all of the different disciplines and curricula being taught at the University, and we also have specific engineering and IT programmers for students interested in those fields," said Dr. Jabbra. "Partnering with education-focused technology market leaders like Sun enables LAU to deliver the latest solutions to our students, and we are delighted with the matching grant offer to equip our labs as part of LAU’s strategic growth plan."

Once ratified by both parties, the deployment of this joint investment is expected to take place in 2006. [...read more...]

		fullsource
Print Email Current Profile Archive Blog Generate newsletter