Emiratis among change-makers of Class of 2022

Nurturing homegrown talent is at the core of what Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) was created to do just three years ago. The world finds itself in an AI talent race and MBZUAI is the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) answer to support the national strategy and keep a competitive advantage.The UAE has always pushed the boundaries – and by creating the world’s first AI institution – their vision, today, is a reality. H.H. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and namesake of the university, has emphasized the need to strengthen people’s capabilities in science and technology for the benefit of the economy and society. MBZUAI is supporting the UAE to find solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges with transformative research in areas such as healthcare, education, and sustainability.

The university’s inaugural class has eight Emirati master’s graduates in computer vision and machine learning; equating to 15% of the Class of 2022 and the largest single nationality. After the UAE, the top represented countries are India, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Nigeria, Russia, Canada, and Egypt. Currently, the Emirati student body has grown to 18.5% and will strengthen with each new intake.

…on the winning side of the AI revolution.

All four females and four males have secured employment (or multiple offers), or will continue at MBZUAI to pursue their Ph.D. They will go on to become creators and change-makers: in healthcare at a time of global pandemics, in technology on the brink of the 4^th Industrial Revolution, in energy as the UAE pivots toward renewables, in transport as autonomous vehicles become a reality and in government, delivering on national priorities.

And the nation will do well to remember their names and support these young Emiratis as they step into the deep unknown and bring back the answers the world is searching for. They are Shahd AlShamsi, Mohammed AlZaabi, Abdulaziz Aleissaee, Omar Alsuwaidi, Fatima Albreiki, Wafa Al Ghallabi, Abdullatif Alhashmi, and Ameera Bawazir.

 

Albreiki and Al Ghallabi will continue at MBZUAI, studying a Ph.D. in Computer Vision. The remaining six will enter industry or research positions in the UAE.

During her time at MBZUAI, Bawazir co-founded the Women in AI club and is passionate about inspiring other young Emirati females to be brave and pursue a career in STEM.

Alsuwaidi was lucky enough to work under the supervision and administration of influential academic and entrepreneur, MBZUAI President and University Professor, Eric Xing.

Alhashmi will return to his position as an engineer at Abu Dhabi Transmission and Despatch Company (TRANSCO) – where he was granted study leave – and plans to implement his learnings to increase the operative efficiency and predictive maintenance for the provision of high-voltage power and bulk water transmission to the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and beyond.

Inaugural valedictorian and ongoing entrepreneur

AlShamsi, the Class of 2022 valedictorian, says her experience at MBZUAI demonstrates that nothing is out of reach. “Our leadership have set the vision and it’s up to us to do the work and implement it, and I see myself as part of that workforce,” she explains. “Being valedictorian is truly an honor and one that I do not take lightly. In my class, we have all worked hard and we have all had different yet remarkable journeys. I have seen people really flourish at MBZUAI and come out of it as strong researchers, having published papers in several journals.”

Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, AlShamsi hopes to one day work for herself and serve her community. “I have two tech startups, including Feedni, a marketplace app for diverse services including anything from babysitting to French lessons,” AlShamsi said. “I am considering a few ideas for startups, drawing on my knowledge of industrial engineering and machine learning. I previously completed an internship at the Ministry of industry and Advanced Technology during which time I became familiar with Industry 4.0 incubators and accelerators, and various frameworks for people interested in starting up their businesses within the UAE, and this knowledge is certainly very valuable to me now.”

From Ajman, AlShamsi was intrigued by AI and knew she wanted to be “on the winning side of the AI revolution”. “I’ve grown so much on a personal level and professional level,” she said of her two-year M.Sc. in Machine Learning journey. “The university provided a unique experience to interact with people from different parts of the world and gain different perspectives, including how to address the kind of challenges we encounter in research. It’s enabled me to explore areas that I had not thought possible. For example, my background is in industrial engineering, logistics and operations, and yet I ended up conducting research on the use of digital twins in cognitive healthcare, so it was quite a jump.”

A future leader in the UAE

Taking study leave from ADNOC to complete his M.Sc. in Machine Learning, AlZaabi aspires to hold a high-level governmental position, and make a difference by furthering the country’s development. “I recall one day when His Excellency Dr. Sultan Al Jaber visited and talked to some of the students,” AlZaabi recalls. “His positivity about the future of artificial intelligence and how it can help the country was inspiring. AI will also help in implementing the vision of our leaders in this country, and this is a very motivational message for me and for my fellow colleagues.”

A reservoir engineer by day, AlZaabi said he “felt the need to be one of the pioneers of AI”. “In the oil and gas sector, AI can be used to help visualize reservoirs for giving insights on the types of fluids present in reservoirs and their potential production rates,” he continues. “The energy sector is a pillar of the nation’s development and that motivates me to help bring the benefits of AI to the industry. I’m sure that AI can make the extraction process more efficient and greener.”

 

AI is limitless

Similarly, Aleissaee is proud to be working in AI and truly believes it will benefit the UAE and the wider world. “The UAE has the first Ministry of AI, and our leadership has offered young people like myself an amazing opportunity to develop solutions with the potential to transform the country, in areas including education, health, and even space missions,” the M.Sc. in Computer Vision graduate said. “AI is so versatile: You could use it for mapping applications, security purposes such as observation of pedestrians, AI drone navigation, autonomous driving, or video analytics. In the survey (Transformers in Remote Sensing), we overview vision transformers and their uses in land marine ecosystem analysis and environment monitoring, and risk estimation mitigation and management.

“It has broad use-cases including allowing autonomous vehicles to “see” where they’re going, allowing airport security cameras to spot suspicious activity, spotting, and flagging deepfake videos online – these are just a few examples. Interestingly, there are also many applications around environmental protection, for example, when used with cameras on drones, it could be used to assess the prevalence of rare species of flora or fauna in the desert, or the health and growth of mangroves in Abu Dhabi.”

All these possibilities and all these research opportunities is what gets Aleissaee so excited about AI. “It has been hugely exciting and energizing to be conducting research that is really at the cutting edge of the field,” Aleissaee exclaims. “I had a good level of independence, in addition to excellent guidance and ideas from the faculty. When it comes to research in this field, the possibilities are limitless; there was a lot of room to be creative and explore the vision transformers in remote sensing from different, interesting angles.”