Class of 2023: UAE Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence graduates take on challenge

The event was held at the Abu Dhabi Energy Center and was attended by Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, UAE COP28 Chair-designate and MBZUAI Board Chairman, and MBZUAI President and University Professor Eric Xing, in addition to board members and University Teachers.

Dr. Al Jaber said: “The importance of artificial intelligence is undisputed, which is why MBZUAI continues to advance this technology through advanced research, strategic industry collaborations and, of course, by empowering the next generation of AI experts I believe the class of 2023 will have far-reaching social and economic impact and develop practical AI solutions that will help overcome some of society’s grand challenges, particularly in the areas of climate, healthcare and education .”

He added: “This December, the UAE will host COP28 – a task we approach with humility, a clear sense of responsibility and a strong sense of urgency. We must use all the tools at our disposal to make transformational progress across the climate agenda, And artificial intelligence is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal.”

Today, 46% of graduates are already employed, Ph.D. placements, or paid internships. Organizations such as Abu Dhabi Transmission and Dispatch Company (TRANSCO), Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Abu Dhabi Police, G42 Healthcare, Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IIAI)/G42 and SnapChat UK have secured employment .

Among the 59 graduates, there are 32 majors in ML, 20 majors in CV, and 7 majors in NLP. The Class of 2023 comes from 25 countries, including China, the United Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Italy and Jordan. More than half of graduates volunteer for industry placements, preparing them to be “change makers” in healthcare, technology, energy, transportation and government.

The class of 2023 also has 17 academic papers published or accepted in major conferences and journals of international standing, including IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR 2023), Journal of Physics Energy, and IEEE Access journals.

Some of them have been invited to give workshops at major conferences, including the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL 2022), the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2022), and the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR 2023).

The ceremony included the MBZUAI Research Showcase, where faculty and students showcased current projects, highlighting the University’s three key research pillars – health, climate and education. Guests and attendees gained insight into the ongoing quest at MBZUAI and the importance of these projects using artificial intelligence to solve humanity’s most pressing challenges.

MBZUAI President and University Professor Eric Xing said: “This is a pivotal moment as the broader public interest turns its attention to artificial intelligence – with the UAE’s pace, size and ambition as a young nation, it offers an international Center for Innovation, attracting the world’s greatest minds in the field.”

He added: “My congratulations to the Class of 2023 as they embark on the next phase of their journey. I encourage them to become RenAIssanceScholars and stay curious – to continue to learn, explore and understand the world, but most importantly go deep Think about how they will use the potential of artificial intelligence to change the world.”

Class of 2023 also represented MBZUAI in top domestic and international hackathons, at IEEE SLT International Hackathon (Qatar Computing Institute), G42’s HackforSpace Hackathon, GITEX x AI-everything High Flyer Challenge, Pioneers 4.0 Hackathon Series 1st and 2nd place in competitions (MoIAT and EDGE), Cisco Power of the Future Challenge, Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) Traffic Hackathon and Agritech Hackathon (Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA ))wait.

Professor Xing told Gulf News that this is the second batch of postgraduate students – the first batch had graduated in January. He said that MBZUAI’s specialization is in line with the requirements of the local labor market and in line with the vision of the UAE leadership to fully benefit from advanced technology.

“this [MBZUAI] The students realized the importance of artificial intelligence and its application in various aspects of society’s daily life, and the need for human society to benefit from artificial intelligence projects to manage the wheels of the future economy and industry,” the president added.

“Artificial intelligence is the bridge to build the industrial, technological and scientific society of the future, which is understood and realized by the students of this university.”

Professor Xing said: “Currently, we have three majors, and we plan to add a fourth major in the next academic year. We are currently preparing research to add other majors, so that the total number of majors will reach seven in the next few years, covering all aspects of human life.” The intelligent program is like an orchestra, where each player complements the other in a perfect arrangement, and the end result is a beautiful piece of music.”

Hussein Al Asmawi, a UAE graduate specializing in a master’s in machine learning, told Gulf News: “The field of artificial intelligence is developing very rapidly; A specific point and specialize in it in order to benefit from knowledge in this field.”

He added: “My advice to young Emiratis: It is not difficult to study in university, anyone who is interested in computer science, machines, software and various industries, I advise them to enroll in MBZUAI without hesitation and choose them The favorite major tends to”.

He added: “I advise young people in the UAE not to be afraid to study in the field of artificial intelligence and register with MBZUAI. Research in the field of artificial intelligence is interesting and important, and its specialization covers medicine, engineering, statistics, research, learning, media, tourism , industry and all areas.”

Farah Albreiki, a national machine science major in the UAE, said: “I studied and obtained a master’s degree in machine learning language, which represents one of the most important majors in the field of artificial intelligence leading the future. I invite the sons of the UAE to learn from MBZUAI benefit as the government offers citizens an excellent opportunity to benefit from this important area of ​​science.”