Artificial Intelligence Ph.D. Programs

Ph.D. in  Computer Science

MBZUAI accepts applicants from all nationalities who hold a completed degree in Computer Science from a university accredited or recognized by the UAE Ministry of Education (MoE), demonstrate academic distinction and have a strong background in both applied and theoretical aspects of Computer Science – either:

• Bachelor’s degree with at least 50% Computer Science content and minimum CGPA of 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale) or equivalent, or
• Master’s degree with a minimum CGPA of 3.2 (on a 4.0 scale) or equivalent

Ph.D. programs in  Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing and Robotics

MBZUAI accepts applicants from all nationalities who hold a completed degree in a STEM field such as Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or other relevant Science or Engineering major that demonstrates academic distinction in a discipline appropriate for the doctoral degree from a university accredited or recognized by the UAE MoE – either:

• Bachelor’s degree with a minimum CGPA of 3.5 (on a 4.0 scale) or equivalent, or
• Master’s degree with a minimum CGPA of 3.2 (on a 4.0 scale) or equivalent

Applicants must provide their completed degree certificates and official transcripts when submitting their application. Senior-level students can apply initially with a copy of their official transcript and expected graduation letter and upon admission must submit the official completed degree certificate and transcript. A degree attestation from UAE MoE (for degrees from the UAE) or Certificate of Recognition from UAE MoE (for degrees acquired outside the UAE) should also be furnished within students’ first semester at MBZUAI.

All submitted documents must either be in English, originally, or include official English translations. Additionally, official academic documents should be stamped and signed by the university authorities.

Each applicant must show proof of English language ability by providing valid certificate copies of either of the following:

• TOEFL iBT with a minimum total score of 90
• IELTS Academic with a minimum overall score of 6.5
• EmSAT English with a minimum score of 1550

TOEFL iBT and IELTS Academic certificates are valid for two (2) years from the date of the exam while EmSAT results are valid for eighteen (18) months. Only standard versions (i.e. conducted at physical test centers) of the accepted English language proficiency exams will be considered.

Waiver requests from eligible applicants who are citizens (by passport or nationality) of UK, USA, Australia, and New Zealand who completed their studies from K-12 until bachelor’s degree and master’s degree (if applicable) from those same countries will be processed. They need to submit notarized copies of their documents during the application stage and attested documents upon admission. Waiver decisions will be given within seven (7) days after receiving all requirements.

Submission of GRE scores is optional for all applicants but will be considered a plus during the evaluation.

The research statement is a document summarizing the potential research project an applicant is interested in working on and clearly justify the research gap which the applicant would like to fill in during the course of his/her study. It must be presented in the context of currently existing literature and provide an overview of how the applicant aims to investigate the underlying research project as well as predict the expected outcomes. It should mention the relevance and suitability of the applicant’s background and experience to the project and highlight the project’s scientific and commercial significance. The research statement should include the following details:

• Title
• Problem definition
• Literature review
• Proposed research/methods/solution (optional)
• Study timeline (a table, figure or a small paragraph presenting your plans for the four years in the Ph.D. program)
• List of references

Applicants are expected to write the research statement independently. MBZUAI faculty will NOT help write it for the purpose of the application. The MBZUAI Admission Committee will review the submitted document and use it as one of the measures to gauge and assess applicants’ skills.

Applicants will be required to nominate referees who can recommend their application. Ph.D. applicants should have a minimum of three (3) referees wherein at least one was a previous course instructor or faculty/research advisor and the others were current or previous work supervisors.

To avoid issues and delays in the provision of the recommendation, applicants have to inform their referees of their nomination beforehand and provide the latter’s accurate information in the online application portal. Automated notifications will be sent out to the referees upon application submission.

All applicants with complete files, including the required number of recommendations, will be invited to participate in an online screening exam to assess their knowledge and skills. Completion of the exam is not mandatory but highly encouraged as it would provide additional information to the evaluation committee. Waiving the exam is only recommended for those students who can provide strong evidence of their research capability, subject matter expertise, and technical skills.

Exam Topics 

Math: Calculus, probability theory, linear algebra, trigonometry and optimization

Machine learning: Machine learning algorithms and concepts such as linear regression, decision trees, loss functions, support vector machines, classification, regression, clustering, convolutional neural networks, dimensionality reduction, neural networks and unsupervised learning

Programming: Knowledge surrounding specific programming concepts and principles such as algorithms, data structures, logic, OOP, and recursion as well as language–specific knowledge of Python

Specialization topics (only for Ph.D. in Computer Science applicants): Knowledge and understanding of the theory of computation, computational complexity, databases, computer architecture and operating systems

Applicants are highly encouraged to complete the following online courses to further improve their qualifications :

• https://www.coursera.org/learn/python?specialization=python
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/python-data?specialization=python
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/linear-algebra-machine-learning?specialization=mathematics-machine-learning
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/introductiontoprobability

The exam instructions are available here

A select number of applicants may be invited to an interview with faculty as part of the screening process. The time and instructions for this will be communicated to applicants on timely bases.