The Mohammadia School of Engineers (French: École Mohammadia d'Ingénieurs, abbreviated EMI; Arabic: المدرسة المحمدية للمهندسين) is the first to be established engineering school in Morocco. EMI was founded in 1959 by the King Mohammed V as Morocco's first polytechnic, it's the largest institution of higher education in technology and one of the leading technical schools in Morocco. EMI became in 1982 under the order of the king Hassan II a school combining academic and military education. The new model set was following the establishment of the polytechnical school of Paris (École Polytechnique). The main entrance of the school overlooks Ibn Sina Avenue and is decorated with a clock that was made in the 1960s by students from the School under the guidance of one of their teachers. Still operational, it symbolizes the creativity and know-how of EMI engineering students. The inaugural stone of the EMI was laid on October 23, 1959, only three years after independence in order to provide Morocco, very early on, with high-level engineers to establish Moroccan economic development and particularly that of the industrial sector which was then embryonic and required technical executives to accompany birth and progression. Four main training courses were then set up: Civil Engineering, Mineral Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Four other courses were launched later: Process Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Computer Engineering and finally Modeling and Scientific Computing. The first promotion of laureates came out in 1964 and then numbered 34 engineers. Since then, the EMI has trained until July 2012 more than 7400 laureates in different fields of Engineering; winners who have made a decisive contribution to the development of the Moroccan economy in all its components. These engineers are grouped together within their association: the AIEM (Association of Engineers of the EMI).