May 28, 2025
With AI adoption picking up at a pace we have never seen before, we are committed to developing industry-ready AI practitioners and remain focused on its potential for improving society as a whole.
MBZUAI’s fourth commencement, our largest and most diverse to date, is an opportunity to celebrate and recognize the tremendous achievements of our Class of 2025, as they embark on a journey of promise and optimism.
Important event information and updates for attending graduates, faculty, and guests.
Commencement InformationThe graduation gown.
It is the start of a tradition.
It carries a sense of place and belonging.
The gown is resplendent gold and blue,
hand stitched to evoke Abu Dhabi's sea and sand.
Gold is an echo of the hues of the desert,
it is also evocative of wisdom and enlightenment.
Blue is from the velvety sea, rich with life,
teeming with possibility.
It also donates bold vision and leadership.
Our graduation gown is completed by a hood,
reminiscent of the Emirati bisht.
The lining holds the pattern of the UAE's national flower.
Truly, the gown is a tribute to local culture,
national aspirations, and a thirst for knowledge.
Professor Eric P. Xing is the President of the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, and Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of GenBio AI. His main research interests are the development of machine learning and statistical methodology, and large-scale computational system and architectures, for solving problems involving automated learning, reasoning, and decision-making in artificial, biological, and social systems.
Xing has served on the editorial boards of leading scientific journals including the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Annals of Applied Statistics, PLOS Journal of Computational Biology, IEEE Journal of Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Machine Learning Journal, and Journal of Machine Learning Research. He was elected Fellows AAAI, ACM, ASA, IEEE, and IMS.
Salma Hassan graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the American University in Sharjah. During her undergraduate studies, the Egyptian native developed an interest in and aptitude for artificial intelligence (AI). She took elective courses in machine learning and deep learning before joining MBZUAI in 2023. She soon became passionate about applying machine learning in healthcare to build AI solutions that address real clinical needs and improve patient outcomes through data-driven insights.
Hassan received the honor of being named the Class of 2025 valedictorian for her academic excellence during her M.Sc. in Machine Learning and research contributions for AI medical applications, focusing on neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Her pioneering dementia research seeks to improve diagnostic accuracy and identify early biomarkers by leveraging relationships across data types, including brain imaging, genetics, and clinical records – modelling how different biological and structural features interact. During her two years at MBZUAI, she had a journal paper published in Nature Scientific Reports, a paper accepted at the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), and submitted several papers to the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI), the leading AI and medical imaging conference. Longer term, Hassan plans to continue her research, and has already been accepted to pursue a Ph.D. at MBZUAI.
Welcome to the MBZUAI alumni community. MBZUAI alumni are trailblazers, innovators and leaders powered by intellectual curiosity in technology and enterprise. We invite you to stay connected to the university and each other through the MBZUAI Alumni program, with offerings to keep you engaged through career networks, access to special events and regular AI insights.
Lea Sublett
MBZUAI Associate Director of Alumni Relations
MBZUAI Alumni