Professor Hassan Diab attended Brummana High School from October 1968 to June 1976. He then moved to the United Kingdom (UK), where his education in the Lebanese Baccalaureate system did not count towards the British high school requirements. Undeterred, he went on to complete five O-levels and three A-levels in one year instead of the usual three. He did so by enrolling in two schools in Bournemouth at the same time during 1976-77, Homefield College by day and Bournemouth College of Technology by night.
In 1977, he enrolled as an undergraduate at Leeds Beckett University, known back then as Leeds Polytechnic. He completed his four-year program (which included a year at industry) in 1981 and earned a bachelor’s degree in communications engineering with honors. While an undergraduate, he interned at IBM UK Labs at Hursley Park, Winchester, as a trainee engineer for fourteen months. The work involved carrying out environmental and Electro Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) tests for IBM computer systems, machines, and peripherals.
He went on to receive his master’s degree in systems engineering from the University of Surrey in 1982, graduating with distinction. As part of his thesis, he trained as a systems engineer for four months at IBM at the Portsmouth location. The work involved improving the efficiency of a power plant at IBM in that location.
He then completed a PhD in computer engineering at the University of Bath in 1985. The new novel multicomputer architecture, intended for the visual systems of flight simulators, which resulted from his PhD research was marketed by the University as a high-performance computing system under the trade name DARKSTAR.
In 2017, he completed the Executive Education Program on Negotiation and Leadership offered by Harvard Law School. The program attracts participants from around the world and targets high-ranking individuals and CEOs in both the private and public sector.
