Alumni Spotlight: Gaining and sharing knowledge

“I’ve always been a knowledge seeker,” explains Faris Almalik as he talks about his journey from mechanical engineering student at the University of Jordan to senior data scientist at the Department of Government Enablement – TAMM in Abu Dhabi.  

“This is my personality. I like to be everywhere and do many things. You never know what’s behind the scenes unless you go and try something. But I also love to transfer knowledge. I believe that you shouldn’t keep knowledge to yourself — once you get it you need to spread it. So that’s what I try to do wherever I go.” 

This cycle of learning and educating is evident in Almalik’s career to date, which has gone back and forth between academia and industry — always building knowledge and passing on what he can to create impact. 

And the MBZUAI alumnus has certainly cast his net wide, working in defense, education, finance and government services, always pushing himself to take a step into the unknown to advance his own understanding — not least with AI. 

“I worked after my undergraduate studies as a mechanical engineer in the military and defense sector as production and design engineer” he says. “But I was always interested in the education field, so I took the opportunity to work as a mathematics and physics teacher at the Ministry of Eduction in the UAE, where I got promoted to be the youngest lead teacher across five schools, leading and assessing teachers’ progress, the way they teach, and so on. 

“That was when AI started coming to light, so I started reading about it, learning about it, and took some courses. I found that it was something I was really interested in, so when I saw an advertisement for MBZUAI, I applied for it and got accepted. 

“It was an amazing experience, but very challenging – especially at the beginning because I had no idea about computer science, minimal knowledge in programming languages, or how computers work. I had to spend my nights taking courses on my own, trying to catch up with my collages.” 

Building academic experience

During his first year at MBZUAI, Almalik published his first paper under the supervision of Karthik Nandakumar and Mohammad Yaqub, associate professors of computer vision. His research focused on adversarial attacks on medical imaging, where hackers targeted insurance companies who had started to use AI to automate their reimbursement processes, manipulating images to affect the claims. 

“Being able to publish my first paper at the highest-ranking conference in healthcare [MICCAI], was a huge achievement and it led to more papers in the same domain,” he says. 

But it wasn’t just academic success that Almalik was enjoying — he also found purpose as vice president of the Graduate Student Council which, he says, “brought me closer to my colleagues, the faculty, and the University’s top management”.  

He was also part of the University’s executive training program, MEP, serving as a mentor and helping students — leaders from various organizations — learn how to leverage AI in their day-to-day work. At the same time, he worked as a teaching assistant, giving credence to his assertion that knowledge should be shared. 

The experience that truly stood out to Almalik during his time at MBZUAI, however, was being part of the Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis for Future Generations.  

“This was the biggest exposure I’ve ever had in my life,” he says. “I had the chance to meet and sit with the leadership of the country, and I was very proud to speak about AI and how we can use AI across the UAE, as well as how the UAE can continue to be a leader in this domain.” 

Putting knowledge to use 

With these various experiences to his name, Almalik’s first steps after graduation were to stay on at MBZUAI as a research assistant, before deciding to go back into industry in Jordan with a view to making a difference to people’s lives. 

“I went into the banking sector as a data scientist specialized in combatting financial crime,” he says. “I’ve always enjoyed doing things that have an impact on people, and this role gave me this opportunity. I was developing machine learning models to ease and automate the processes of dealing with money laundering, fraud, tax evasion, and ensuring compliance with regulations.” 

It wasn’t long before he returned to the UAE, however, where he took up his current role with the Department of Government Enablement (DGE). 

“With the DGE, I am working on the TAMM application,” he explains. “We’re embedding AI functionality into different aspects of the app, using data science, machine learning, and so on. This is the go-to app for people who reside in Abu Dhabi, and it can help you with so many things. For example, you can tell the app ‘pay my fine’ and the AI will start the process on your behalf. It will fetch your data, get your fines, and ask if you would like it to pay them for you.  

“We’re making life easier for people here — whatever you need, you can get help through this app, and AI is making this possible.” 

In the true spirit of sharing knowledge, however, Almalik is working on another project that he hopes will be of benefit to people. Along with co-founders Naif AlKhunaizi – a MBZUAI researcher – and Abdulla Abu Jami – also an MBZUAI graduate – Almalik has created WaZii, a platform that uses AI to provide insights about the stock market – aiming to help traders obtain the right decision to buy or sell. And for Almalik, entrepreneurship is an ideal way to make a difference for people, and he took encouragement from His Excellency Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and Founding Chairman of the MBZUAI Board of Trustees. 

“I’ve always been fascinated by the start-up ecosystem here in the UAE, and I always wanted to be a part of it,” Almalik says. “I really enjoy both the technical part and the non-technical part, and I believe that if you can make a big difference for people when you build your own thing. 

“In fact, whenever the University’s leadership came to events, or brought in speakers from the government or industry, they would all talk about entrepreneurship. Even Dr. Sultan Al Jaber would tell us that they need to see start-ups from us — that they want to retain us in the country and see us make an impact.  

“So this is what I’m trying to do. I’ve gathered a lot of experience, and a lot of knowledge, and now I’m trying to make an impact. We work hard at MBZUAI and learn a lot, and we have a good opportunity to build something that can be of benefit to people.”