History

The MIT Arab Alumni Association (MIT-AAA) was founded to bring MIT to the Arab World and to bring the Arab World to MIT. MIT-AAA’s vision is to promote the highest interests of humanity; to elevate and develop the mental and moral character of the Arab people; to support science and technology education in the region; and facilitate education of the MIT community of all backgrounds about the region.

Since its inception in the late 1990’s, MIT-AAA has developed a regional conference model for which it received the MIT Presidential citation, and which has been emulated by others. These high profile regional conferences brought together the MIT community from Cambridge with alumni/ae and leaders in the region under the patronage of the heads of state in the different countries where the conferences took place: Cairo (2000), Amman (2001), Beirut (2002, Dubai (2003) and Tunis (2004).