20 May 2008 The US Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, praised the senior projects presented by students of The American University in Dubai (AUD), including a robotic system for detecting land mines, and a smart home system. She spoke of the high level of performance of both the administrative and teaching bodies of the university, commenting on the effectiveness of the curricula. This came during Secretary Spellings' visit to the AUD campus after she attended the graduation ceremony earlier that week.

During her visit to AUD, Secretary Spellings toured the different faculties and labs at AUD, and had a chance to meet with senior students discussing their projects and their education at AUD. "The faculty and students were very appreciative of Secretary Spellings approachability, and thoroughly enjoyed conversing with her about their career and graduate study plans. We thank her for taking the time to visit the engineering labs at AUD, and for her unwavering support of higher education", commented Dr. Alaa Ashmawy, Dean of the School of Engineering.

Regarding Secretary Spellings' discussions with the engineering students, the faculty members in the School of Engineering indicated that it is a great point of pride for the AUD School of Engineering, and particularly to engineering students, to have had the chance to meet with Secretary Spellings and update her on their recent regional achievements. Dr. Boutheina Tlili, a faculty member in Electrical and Computer Engineering, said that the students were "delighted to share with the visitor the mine detecting robot they designed, as well as the web-based smart home project that won first place earlier this year at the regional IEEE competition."

Secretary Spellings also complimented the level of education in the UAE, stressing that the American University in Dubai was a true model of a successful American Education Institution, as evident from its recent Accreditation by SACS.