The United Arab Emirates has become the first GCC country to set up a chapter of the International Federation of Structural Concrete (fib). The efforts to establish the chapter began in 2012 and were led by Dr. Sherif Yehia, Professor of Civil Engineering at American University of Sharjah (AUS). They culminated recently in the official announcement made by Hugo Corress Peiretti, President of fib, establishing the fib-UAE chapter under the umbrella of the Society of Engineers-UAE (SOE).

The AUS College of Engineering (CEN) played an integral part in bringing the process to fruition, with Dr. Richard Schoephoerster, Dean of CEN, successfully bringing in several other universities in the country to support the establishment of the chapter.

Set up under the auspices of the SOE, the fib-UAE chapter will help provide consultants, contractors, concrete and precast producers with the latest information on developments and research in the field. The chapter also aims to be a source of state-of-the-art industry knowledge and facts for engineering students and faculty from universities across the country who are interested in concrete design and materials.

"I am extremely pleased to see the fib-UAE chapter being established in the UAE. It has taken five years of hard work and commitment to see our efforts realized. This professional chapter will contribute to the efforts to achieve sustainable concrete structures by improving design specifications. This will be achieved with both academia and industry collaborating towards a common goal," said Dr. Yehia.

"Along with CEN, SOE will support all chapter activities and play an active role in connecting fib-UAE with other governmental agencies," added Dr. Yehia.