Ms. Michele Berbery, a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Engineering (FoE), who feels concerned about the environmental issues which transcend classroom walls, decided to unleash her creativity to offer an innovative solution that can help counter some of their worrisome consequences and protect our fragile environment. She grabbed the opportunity to participate in the regional hackathon organized by the francophone University Agency (AUF) in the Middle East in March 2022, and was member of one of the winning teams.

The hackathon aimed at bringing hundreds of students together to raise their awareness on the importance of entrepreneurship and spur collective reflection on the following six environmental challenges which have a serious impact on economic growth and are considered as existential threats to humanity: soil, air and water pollution; waste generation; global warming; renewable energies; recycling and biodiversity loss.

Among the project selection criteria was the problem identification coupled with the adequate solution. The project with a social impact must also be innovative and sustainable. Furthermore, since the hackathon requires teamwork, the homogeneity was essential and the members had to be well equipped with the appropriate skills. As for the project submitted by Ms. Berbery and her peers from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) and titled “Bio-SoundTech”, its objective is to convert noise pollution into electrical energy. It consists of a portable sound insulator placed on window coverings, in an urban environment, to turn sound energy into heat energy. The latter, produced by the friction due to the sound waves, and with the use of an ionic gel, will create an electric field that is transformed by the microcontroller into a digital signal, generating electricity and therefore sustainable air conditioning. According to Ms. Berbery, the insulator is “affordable and above all environmental, applying the principles: reduce, reuse and recycle”.

The team members were grateful for this horizon-broadening experience, noting that this project will be of great benefit to the Lebanese community and will allow them to infuse hope in young people’s lives.