Ph.D. in

Robotics

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Mode
Full-time

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Credits
60

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Location
On-campus

Overview

The goal of the Ph.D. program in Robotics is to prepare the next generation of world-class researchers, industry leaders, academics, and educators in the field of robotics and autonomous systems.
As a research-oriented degree, the Ph.D. in Robotics focuses on human-centered and autonomous robotics research and prepares exceptional students for careers at the cutting edge of academia, industry, and government. Our world-leading robotics researchers, students and industry partners collaborate to advance discoveries in various aspects of robotics, such as perception and applied machine learning, human-robot interaction, cognitive and soft robotics, and swarm intelligence. Ph.D. students in Robotics enjoy the unique experience of conducting world-class research with the state-of-the-art equipment and under the guidance of internationally renowned experts.

overview

Program learning outcomes

By the end of this program, students will be able to:

  1. Analyze a problem and apply an appropriate selection of advanced methods in robotics and autonomous systems
  2. Design and integrate advanced software and hardware to realize autonomous robotic solutions, in teams and individually
  3. Critically evaluate the practical and entrepreneurial feasibility for innovations in multi-robot systems, robotics, and autonomous systems across a range of sustainable applications
  4. Review and critically appraise current research topics, problems, and challenges within robotics and autonomous systems
  5. Discover, interpret, and communicate new knowledge orally and through novel research of top-tier publishable quality

Completion requirements

The minimum degree requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in Robotics is 60 credits, distributed as follows:

Core courses Number of courses Credit hours
Core 4 16
Electives 2 8
Internship At least one internship of up to four-months’ duration must be satisfactorily completed as a graduation requirement 2
Advanced Research Methods 1 2
Research thesis 1 32

Core courses

The Doctor of Philosophy in Robotics is primarily a research-based degree. The purpose of coursework is to equip students with the right skillset, so they can successfully accomplish their research project (thesis). Students are required to take ROB801, ROB802, ROB803, and ROB804 as mandatory courses. 

Code Course Title Credit Hours
ROB801 Advanced Robotic Motion Planning

Motion planning is an integral component of robotic applications. It helps the robot to strategically decide on its future moves and when to take them. The course covers the state-of-the-art motion planning techniques along with their applications to different kinds of robots (e.g., ground, aerial, marine, humanoid, manipulator). It provides a theoretical in-depth analysis of such methods and teaches students how to implement them through several programming-based assignments.

4
ROB802 Advanced topics in Robotics: Multi-Robot Systems

The course covers the foundations of multi-robot systems. It introduces students to the state-of-the-art in multi-robot research through a combination of classical teaching and seminar style lectures and labs. Students will learn how to apply a consortium of techniques, such as stochastic processes, graph theoretic methods, geometric concepts, and optimization principles, to model, analyze, and drive multi-robot systems.

4
ROB803 Advanced Humanoid Robotics

Humanoid robots have become more and more prevalent with the increase in the demand of service and human-assistive robots. This specialized course covers various advanced topics in the state-of-the-art of humanoid robots, such as their kinematics, dynamics, modeling, control, motion planning, object grasping and manipulation, perception, learning, and interaction with humans. The course provides a blend of theoretical in-depth analysis of such techniques and hands-on practice through simulation and hardware implementation.

4
ROB804 Vision for Autonomous Robotics

This Ph.D. course focuses on the key advanced computer vision techniques utilized in autonomous robotics, such as image formation, feature detection and description, multiple view geometry, dense reconstruction, tracking, event-based vision, visual-inertial odometry, visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), locomotion concepts, and deep learning based visual positioning.

4

Elective courses

Students will select a minimum of two elective courses, with a total of eight (or more) credit hours. The choice of electives must be selected based on interest, proposed research thesis, and career aspirations, in consultation with their supervisory panel. The elective courses available for the Doctor of Philosophy in Robotics are listed in the tables below:

Code Course Title Credit Hours
CV804 3D Geometry Processing

This course provides an introduction to 3D geometry processing, an important field that intersects computer vision, computer graphics, and discrete geometry. With 3D vision systems becoming increasingly sophisticated, object recognition and modeling is no longer limited to abstracted feature representations but are often high-fidelity digitization of real-world objects and environments. While 3D geometry processing has evolved significantly in the areas of visual effects and interactive games, they are impacting other domains, ranging from metaverse technologies to robotics, biomedicine, and additive manufacturing. Augmented/virtual reality systems are using 3D scanned virtual avatars to enable immersive communication, autonomous cars are capturing their 3D surroundings in real-time, and Google earth is digitizing entire worlds using satellite and geospatial data. With the emergence of 3D scanning, real-time depth sensors, and 3D printing technologies, polygonal meshes have become the de-factor standard for 3D surface representation. This course will cover the mathematical foundations for studying 3D surfaces from a discrete differential geometric standpoint and present the full geometry processing pipeline: from 3D data capture, mesh smoothing, surface reconstruction, parameterization, registration, shape analysis (correspondence, symmetry, matching), data-driven synthesis, interactive manipulation, to 3D printing. We will also illustrate this course with important applications and recent AI advances in this field, especially with new developments in 3D deep learning, deep generative models for 3D objects, and differentiable rendering. In analogy to image processing for which inputs are 2D images and video, 3D Geometry processing involves the treatment of 3D depth maps, point clouds, polygonal meshes and volumetric data and involves many techniques from linear algebra, differential geometry, signal processing, and numerical optimization.

4
ML806 Advanced Topics in Reinforcement Learning

The course covers the advanced topics in Reinforcement Learning that have been briefly introduced in ROB702. Participants will read the current state-of-the-art relevant literature and prepare presentations to the other students. In the sequel participants will explore how the presented methods work in simplified computing environments to get a deeper understanding of the challenges that are being discussed.

4
ML807 Federated Learning

This is a graduate course in a new branch of machine learning: federated learning (FL). In FL, machine learning models are trained on mobile devices with an explicit effort to preserve the privacy of users’ data. FL combines supervised machine learning, privacy, distributed and edge computing, optimization, communication compression, and systems. This is a new and fast-growing field with few theoretical results and early production systems (e.g., Tensor Flow Federated and FedML). This course aims for students to become familiar with field's key developments and practices.

4
ML808 Advanced Topics on Causality and Machine Learning

In the past decades, interesting advances were made in machine learning, philosophy, and statistics for tackling long-standing causality problems, including how to discover causal knowledge from observational data, known as causal discovery, and how to infer the effect of interventions. Furthermore, it has recently been shown that the causal perspective may facilitate understanding and solving various machine learning / artificial intelligence problems such as transfer learning, semi-supervised learning, out-of-distribution prediction, disentanglement, and adversarial vulnerability. This course is concerned with understanding causality, learning causality from observational data, and using causality to tackle a large class of learning problems. The course will include topics like graphical models, causal inference, causal discovery, and counterfactual reasoning. It will also discuss how we can learn causal representations, perform transfer learning, and understand deep generative models.

4
NLP801 Deep Learning for Language Processing

This course focuses on recent advances in Natural Language Processing and on developing skills for performing research to advance the state of the art in Natural Language Processing. This course builds upon concepts from Natural Language Processing (NLP 701) and assumes familiarity with fundamental concepts in Word Embedding, Information Extraction and Machine Translation.

4
NLP802 Current Topics in Natural Language Processing

This course focuses on recent topics in Natural Language Processing and on developing skills for performing research to advance the state of the art in Natural Language Processing.

4
NLP803 Advanced Speech Processing

This course focuses on recent advances in deep learning for natural language generation. It builds upon concepts from Natural Language Processing and assumes familiarity with fundamental concepts such as Transformers, Machine Translation, and Text Summarization.

4
NLP804 Deep Learning for Natural Language Generation

This course focuses on recent advances in deep learning for natural language generation. It builds upon concepts from Natural Language Processing and assumes familiarity with fundamental concepts such as Transformers, Machine Translation, and Text Summarization.

4

Research thesis

The Ph.D. thesis exposes students to cutting-edge and unsolved research problems in the field of robotics, where they are required to propose new solutions and significantly contribute towards the body of knowledge. Students pursue an independent research study, under the guidance of a supervisory panel, for a period of three to four years.

Code Course Title Credit Hours
ROB899 Robotics Ph.D. Research Thesis

PhD thesis research exposes students to cutting-edge and unsolved research problems, requiring them to propose new solutions and significantly contribute to the body of knowledge. Students pursue an independent research study, under the guidance of a supervisor/s. PhD thesis research helps train graduates to become leaders in their chosen area of research through partly supervised study, eventually transforming them into researchers who can work independently or interdependently to carry out cutting-edge research.

32
RES899 Advanced Research Methods

This course will prepare students to produce professional-quality research and solve a practical research challenge in an organization based on an innovative, sustainable, and entrepreneurial research topic. This course will provide exposure to a variety of special topics, research integrity, ethics, organizational challenges, and needs related to various disciplines. Students will design and implement a research project suitable for conference presentation or journal submission relevant to their field of interest, in addition to peer-reviewing a paper. The instructor, and guest lecturers, as appropriate, will present topics necessary to develop well-rounded researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs in the AI disciplines.

2

Internship

The MBZUAl internship with industry is intended to provide the student with hands-on experience, blending practical experiences with academic learning.

Code Course Title Credit Hours
INT899 PhD Internship (up to four months)

PhD Internship (up to four months)

2

Admission criteria

MBZUAI accepts applicants from all nationalities who have 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 – 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 must 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.

In a 500- to 1000-word essay, explain why you would like to pursue a graduate degree at MBZUAI and include the following information:

 

  • Motivation for applying to the university
  • Personal and academic background and how it makes you suitable for the program you are applying for
  • Experience in completing a diverse range of projects related to artificial intelligence
  • Stand-out achievements, e.g. awards, distinction, etc
  • Goals as a prospective student
  • Preferred career path and plans after graduation
  • Any other details that will support the application

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 

 

MathCalculus, 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

 

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

 

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.

Study plan

A typical study plan is as follows:

Semester 1

ROB801 Advanced Robotics Motion Planning
ROB802 Advanced Topics in Robotics: Multi-Robot Systems
+ one elective

Semester 2

ROB803 Advanced Humanoid Robotics
ROB804 Vision for Autonomous Robotics
+ one elective

Summer

INT899 PhD Internship

Semester 3

RES899 Advanced Research Methods
ROB899 Robotics Ph.D. Research Thesis

Semester 4

ROB899 Robotics Ph.D. Research Thesis

Semester 5

ROB899 Robotics Ph.D. Research Thesis

Semester 6

ROB899 Robotics Ph.D. Research Thesis

Semester 7

ROB899 Robotics Ph.D. Research Thesis

Semester 8

ROB899 Robotics Ph.D. Research Thesis

Career prospects

AI is permeating every industry. At recent employer engagement events at MBZUAI, there has been representation from multiples sectors including (but not limited to):

  • Aviation, consultancy, education, energy, finance, government entities, healthcare, media, oil and gas, security and defense, research institutes, retail, telecommunications, transportation and logistics, and startups.

Recent job opportunities advertised via the MBZUAI Student Careers Portal include (but not limited to):

  • AI solution architect, AI solution engineer, algorithmic engineer, data analyst, data engineer, data scientist, data strategy consultant, full stack software engineer, full stack web developer, predictive analytics researcher, and senior data scientist – consultant.

Other career opportunities could include (but not limited to):

  • Applied scientist, analytics engineer, augmented/virtual reality, autonomous cars, biometrics and forensics, chief data officer, data platform leadership, data journalist, data and AI technical sales specialist, growth analytics / engineers, manager: AI and cloud services planning, machine learning engineers, product manager: AI and data analytics, product data scientist, product analyst, remote sensing, research assistants, security and surveillance, senior software engineer, and VP data.

Disclaimer: Subject to change.

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