ABU DHABI – 4th June 2023 (WAM). In the presence H.H. The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, (MBZUAI), hosted today the Commencement of the Class of 2023. This is the second cohort of the university. Its goal is to strengthen AI talent and contribute solutions to global problems, such as health, education and climate.
MBZUAI’s commencement ceremony honored 59 students who graduated with a Master’s degree in Computer Vision (CV) or Machine Learning (ML), as well as its first natural language processing graduates (NLP).
The event, which was held at the Abu Dhabi Energy Center in Jordan, was attended by Khalifa bin Mohammed bin Khalid Al Nahyan (UAE Ambassador to Jordan), Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber (Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology), President-Designate for COP28 UAE and Chair of MBZUAI’s Board of Trustees. Professor Eric Xing MBZUAI’s President and University Professor were also present, as well as members of the board of trustees and university faculty.
Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber stated: “The importance and impact of AI cannot be disputed. This is why MBZUAI is committed to pushing the boundaries of AI technology through research, industry collaborations and, of course by empowering the future generation of AI experts. I am confident the Class of 2030 will have a profound impact on society and the economy, and will develop AI solutions to help overcome major challenges in the areas of healthcare, education, and climate. AI adoption in all industries will contribute to the UAE’s national goals, accelerating its diversification and economic growth while reducing emissions and increasing energy efficiency.
“In December, the UAE is hosting COP28 – a task that we approach with humility and a sense of responsibility. We also feel a sense of urgency.” AI is one of our most powerful tools to help us make a transformational change in the climate agenda.
The 59 graduates were divided into 32 ML majors, 20 CV majors, and 7 NLP majors. The class of 2023 included 25 nationalities from China, UAE India Pakistan Kazakhstan, Hungary Italy and Jordan. This shows the university’s commitment in cultivating an inclusive and diverse learning environment to attract top talent from all over the world.
More than half of the graduating class completed a voluntary internship in industry to prepare them for a future as creators and changers in healthcare, technology and energy.
Al Jaber concluded his speech by saying that the Class of 2023 is ready to find solutions to help the UAE and the rest of the world.
The class of 2023 has also published 17 academic papers in journals and conferences of international standing. These include the IEEE/CVF conference on Computer Vision & Pattern Recognition (CVPR 2023) and IEEE Access Journal.
Several of these researchers were invited to present workshops at prestigious conferences including the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, (NeurIPS) 2022 and International Conference on Learning Representations (2023).
The ceremony featured a MBZUAI research showcase, in which faculty and students highlighted current projects highlighting three of the university’s key research pillars – health, climate and education.
Guests and attendees were given a glimpse into the important explorations taking place at MBZUAI, and the importance these pioneering AI projects have in solving the most pressing human challenges.
MBZUAI president and University Professor Eric Xing stated: “This time is pivotal as the public’s attention turns to AI – with the UAE’s pace, size, and ambition, as a young country, it offers a cosmopolitan center of innovation that draws the world’s best minds in this field. As they begin the next phase of their journey, I congratulate the Class of 2023. I encourage them become RenAIssanceScholars. Stay curious, continue to learn and explore the world, but most importantly, think deeply about the ways they can use AI to make a positive difference in the future.
The Class of 2023 students also represented MBZUAI at top national and international hackathons. They achieved first and second place at IEEE SLT International Hackathon (Qatar Computing Research Institute), G42’s HackforSpace Hackathon and GITEX x EDGE High Flyer Challenge.
