• Establishment of I Hub

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (I Hub) was established in 2013 as a specialized unit within the Faculty of Engineering at Ain Shams University. Its mission is to enhance the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among young people by collaborating with local and international partners from the private, public, and governmental sectors. It also serves as a platform for exchanging knowledge, skills, and experiences and building strong networks of young entrepreneurs. The center aims to attract talented and enthusiastic learners, preparing them to enter the workforce as leaders and change-makers. Since 2018, the I Hub center has moved from the Faculty of Engineering to a separate building within the Ain Shams University campus.

• Our Vision 

Our vision is to become a leading regional center for innovation and entrepreneurship and a model for international cooperation that facilitates interdisciplinary thinking and supports innovation. Our mission is to provide the best possible environment for innovation, enabling prominent participants and entities to develop their ideas, concepts, and business models. We aim to offer top-notch services and consultancy that help participants enrich their knowledge, improve their skills, and achieve their goals innovatively. 

• Our Objectives

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry by fostering and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship on campus. This includes generating talent, innovative mindsets, and startups needed in the field and the market. The center seeks to achieve this by encouraging, supporting, and empowering innovators and entrepreneurs in their early stages to exchange and disseminate ideas and form potential startups. The center also supports undergraduate students and innovative researchers throughout their learning and development, aligning their efforts with labor market needs. Additionally, it aims to spread a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across Ain Shams University based on shared principles, values, and goals, thereby building a community of innovators that facilitates communication and supports integration among all stakeholders at the university, including capital sectors, academic centers, student activities, and more. The center raises awareness about future industries, personal growth, development opportunities, entrepreneurial landscapes, current markets, and new technologies throughout Ain Shams University. Moreover, it connects industry partners with a pool of talented and well-prepared graduates from the university to prepare them for the labor market.

• Scope of Work

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center engages in various activities and provides extracurricular programs to stimulate further innovation, thereby enhancing the entrepreneurial community. It achieves this by creating innovative startups, graduating capable internal entrepreneurs, producing high-quality prototypes, and aligning the efforts of beneficiaries and subject matter experts with the needs and challenges faced by field partners. This is done in three stages: awareness, building skills, and implementation. In the awareness stage, the center conducts a wide range of engaging events and activities, including seminars, webinars, tech showcases, and networking events, to introduce attendees to technology trends, market forecasts, and industry leaders' interactions. In the building skills stage, the center collaborates with over 200 partners in various fields to offer intensive, hands-on training courses, workshops, and rewarding competitions to develop practical skills and competencies for students and graduates. Finally, in the implementation stage, the center supports innovators and entrepreneurs who have excelled in previous stages by providing them with guidance, mentorship, and resources to implement their innovations in collaboration with industry experts from various fields. 

The center has launched three incubators: (AI Incubator, Automotive Incubator, and General Technology Incubator) and four successful technology transfer projects that began as research projects on campus and were later developed and handed over to industrial entities for further development and commercialization. It has mentored over 200 startups and supported them through pre-incubation programs, with 20% of these startups actively operating and expanding in the market. Many of the incubated startups have participated in numerous startup competitions across Egypt, the Middle East, North Africa, and globally. Several graduated startups have produced a range of products, with over 100,000 units sold to date, including golf carts, personal protective equipment, access control systems, precision agriculture systems, smart furniture, industrial 4.0 gates, and prosthetics. The center has also developed over 50 customized innovation programs with industry expertise such as Siemens, Schneider Electric, HERE, Americana, Nokia, Ericsson, ABB, Ghabbour, Benya Capital, Incorta, Fresh, AIO, and others. It has served over 55,000 beneficiaries through various awareness and building skills programs and has graduated more than 9,000 innovators from its programs, who have joined local and international partners in various fields, regardless of their size. The center has managed four interdisciplinary innovation competitions at the international level in AI, computer science, zero-energy buildings, and electric vehicles. It has guided innovative student teams in many local and global competitions, which were ranked as the best teams in the Middle East and North Africa in events such as Formula Student UK, ROV, Shell Eco Marathon, EERI - Seismic Design Competition, Wind Turbine, and iGEM. The center collaborates with over 150 industry partners across various fields.

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center continuously strives to develop its community of students and innovative researchers working alongside its growing network of industry and strategic partners to bridge gaps and meet the needs of society, the economy, and the labor market.