In 1993, a project for establishing the Faculty of Engineering (FE) was submitted to the Lebanese Government; in 1996 the FE was established by Decree no 9278. The five majors in the initial decree were: Civil Engineering (150 credits) Architecture (202 credits) Mechanical Engineering (150 credits) Electrical Engineering (150 credits), Computer Engineering (150 credits). After one year, in 1997, the Computer Engineering program started at NDU-NLC. The first Engineering degrees were awarded in Spring 1998.
The name of the Computer Engineering degree was changed to Computer and Communication Engineering in 1999, by Decree No. 1948. In 2001, the Computer and Communication Engineering program started at NDU-Shouf Campus; and in 2003, a major review of the Engineering programs took place to be in line with programs at the top-ranked US schools of Engineering. In 2006, the name of the Civil Engineering Department changed to Civil and Environmental Engineering.
In 2010, all engineering programs were updated to be in-line with the ABET requirements. At the same time, the Civil and Environmental Engineering program started at NDU-NLC followed by the Mechanical Engineering program one year later. In 2012, the first year of both CEE and ME programs was established at NDU-Shouf.
In 2013, the University approved establishing the engineering graduate division and the official license was granted by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in spring 2015 by decision N.709/M/2015. The degrees licensed are MS in Civil Engineering, MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering and MS in Mechanical Engineering; and the corresponding programs were started officially in fall 2015.
After few years of preparations and in-house learning process, the programs leading to the BE degrees in civil, computer and communication, electrical and mechanical engineering were approved by the Engineering accreditation commission of ABET and are now fully and officially accredited. NDU on ABET Website
Two new majors, namely chemical engineering and petroleum engineering, were added to the list of majors offered by the Faculty in fall 2017 following the approval of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, decision 2/M/2017. The laboratory buildings were expanded accordingly and more than 3000 sq.m of built area were added to the existing space and are now used to house state-of-the-art equipment to support the new majors as well as the existing ones.
Deans of the Faculty of Engineering
- Late Dr. Fares Helou, (Acting Dean) 1996-1997
- Late Dr. Fares Helou, 1997-2000
- Dr. Shahwan Khoury, 2000-2006
- Dr. Elias Nassar, 2006-2012
- Dr. Michel El Hayek, 2012-2020
- Dr. Jacques Harb, 2020-Present