Brady and Ullman combine for top level AI education

MBZUAI board member Sir Michael Brady and visiting Professor Shimon Ullman from the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), and Weizmann AI Centre in Israel featured in the fourth module of MBZUAI’s Executive Program on December 11.

They are among 16 eminent faculty in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning from across the globe to be featured as part of the program.

Professor Brady joined Oxford University in 1985 and was appointed in 2010 as part-time Emeritus Professor of Oncological Imaging in the Department of Oncology, having retired from his 25-year Professorship in Information Engineering. Previously, he has been associated with MIT, where he was Associate-Director of the AI Laboratory. Currently, he is an adjunct and distinguished professor at MBZUAI.

As part of the Executive Program instructor faculty at MBZUAI, Brady led a session on ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Image Analysis,’ which was followed by Ullman’s presentation on ‘AI and Human Intelligence: Lessons From Computer Vision.’

Currently, a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) and Director of the Weizmann AI Centre, Ullman has previously held various notable positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been bestowed with numerous prestigious awards, including the Azriel Rozenfled Lifetime Achievement Award in Computer Vision, and holds many fellowships.

The Executive Program, which is headed up by MBZUAI President, Professor Eric Xing, is a uniquely powerful learning experience for high-level decision makers. Participants spend 12 weeks learning from the global elite in AI-related research, with the end goal of supporting a range of improvements in healthcare, transportation, education, industry, and more.

Forty-two participants in total make up the first cohort of the Executive Program that includes a large number of ministerial leadership and top industry executives. The program seeks to support the UAE’s mission to become a world leader in AI through education, capacity building, innovation, and research and development.

About Sir Michael Brady

Sir Michael Brady joined Oxford University in 1985 and was appointed part-time Emeritus Professor of Oncological Imaging in the Department of Oncology in 2010 having retired from his 25-year Professorship in Information Engineering. He has founded 11 companies, of which eight have been in medical imaging, including the NCIMI companies: Mirada Medical, Optellum, and Perspectum. He also founded ScreenPoint Medical bv and the ASX-listedVolpara Health Technologies. He was Knighted for services to Engineering Science in 2004.

Credited for establishing the Oxford University Robotics Group, Brady switched interests to cancer image analysis in the early 1990s. This recognizes his work in medical image analysis, specifically in cancer. He was also the Co-Director of the Oxford Cancer Imaging Centre.

From robotics to medical image analysis and for his work on AI-based image analysis of cancer, he was awarded multiple accolades, including being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and as a Foreign Member of the Académie des Sciences.

Brady is also a member of CRUK’s Early Detection and Diagnosis Committee, formerly Chair of Multidisciplinary Committee and Science Committee.  In addition, he served for 19 years as Deputy Chairman of Oxford Instruments plc.

He holds a degree in areas such as mathematics, computing science, AI, and engineering.

About Professor Shimon Ullman

Professor Shimon Ullman is the Samy and Ruth Cohn Professor of Computer Science and the Department Head, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, The Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Rehovot, Israel; as well as an adjunct professor in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, MIT.

His general area of research is the study of vision – including the processing of visual information by the human optical system and computer vision.

He holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics, Physics and Biology from Hebrew University and MA PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from M.I.T. Cambridge.