MBZUAI’s Emirati women turning opportunity into impact

Each year the UAE celebrates August 28th as Emirati Women’s Day, marking the founding of the General Women’s Union in 1975 by Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the Mother of the Nation.

We spoke to Rawdha AlMeraikhi, Assistant Vice President of National Engagement and Outreach; Hind Alketbi, Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence student; and Salamah Almazrouei, Ph.D. student in Robotics and asked what drives them. Each pointed, in their own way, to the same philosophy: that what you learn, build, and achieve means most when it serves others.

Rawdha AlMeraiki: Building communities that help others grow
Rawdha AlMeraikhi believes in surrounding herself with people she can learn from. Guided by the principle that you become who you associate with, she builds her circle with people who are multi-generational and from different walks of life, and looks for opportunities to connect people who could support one another.

Outside work, she founded “Soul and Brain Juice”, a community that brings women together to read. She is candid about her reasons: reading did not come naturally to her, so she built an environment that would make it easier to read consistently.

The same thinking shapes her approach to leadership. “By creating a supportive environment as a leader, we bring the best out of each other.”

Hind Alketbi: From curiosity to contribution
Hind Alketbi joined MBZUAI’s first undergraduate cohort after finding the university while searching for institutions focused specifically on AI – through ChatGPT. She is now a member of the university’s undergraduate curriculum committee, contributing feedback on courses and program structure.

The questions she regularly received from her international student peers about Emirati clothing, food, traditions and everyday life led her to found Pearls and Palms Society, a student initiative dedicated to sharing Emirati culture with MBZUAI’s diverse community.

“I feel like I have a responsibility as an Emirati woman in this country to introduce people to our culture and heritage,” she says.

Salamah Almazrouei: Advancing safer robotics
Salamah Almazrouei came to MBZUAI after studying IT security and networking at Zayed University, drawn by the opportunity to pursue a subject that had interested her for years. She recently completed a Master of Science in Robotics and is now pursuing her Ph.D in the field.

Her master’s research focused on control barrier functions – a safety layer that checks a robot’s proposed movement before it is executed and modifies it when necessary. The approach acts as a filter, helping ensure that robotic movements remain safer for people and their surroundings.

For Almazrouei, the research is inseparable from a larger goal. “Robotics is a passion, but the main goal here is to contribute to the growth of the UAE,” she says. She hopes her Ph.D. work will produce results that are specifically beneficial to the UAE and can see herself remaining in academia, potentially as a professor.