Friday, April 12, 2019 – For the second year in a row, the Department of Design at Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) won at the International Biodiversity Day (IBDAA) contest organized by the American University of Beirut (AUB) through their project: “the Quill”.
AUB organized its 13th edition of the annual poster forum, the IBDAA, which celebrated the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity wit this year’s theme: Rethink Plastic. Held on the AUB green-field, the event saw more than one thousand students from over elevent institutions nationwide invited to participate. NDU’s team comprised of Joe Fahed, Elias Hitti and Beatrice Bakhache, and instructed by Rina Shebaby won the second prize in Product Conceptualization and Design.
The team’s project, “the Quill,” harkens back to a time when our ancestors used quills, pens made of bird feathers, to write way before plastic pens became available. Over 1.6 billion plastic pens are thrown away by Lebanese people every year, and the numbers are going up. As pens are essential for every school student and business, the team proposed the creation of eco-friendly writing tool like quills with a modern touch: replacing plastic pens with pens made of biodegradable material found in chicken feathers.
Congratulations to the NDU team!