Commencement 2024
Welcome to Commencement
Thursday, June 6, 2024
Welcome graduates, family, and friends from the world’s first graduate, research university of artificial intelligence (AI).
We invite you and your guests to celebrate the Class of 2024 –
including our first-ever Ph.D. graduates – at the official commencement ceremony, which will include the Conferral of the Degrees.
This is an important opportunity to reflect on their tremendous achievements and celebrate the promise and optimism that they will no doubt bring to the world.
With AI now a key part of the global conversation, we are committed to developing well-trained AI professionals and remain focused on its massive potential for good.
Watch the Commencement
Story of the Gowns
The graduation gown.
It is the start of a tradition.
It carries a sense of place and belonging.
The gown is resplendent gold and blue,
hand stitched to evoke Abu Dhabi's sea and sand.
Gold is an echo of the hues of the desert,
it is also evocative of wisdom and enlightenment.
Blue is from the velvety sea, rich with life,
teeming with possibility.
It also donates bold vision and leadership.
Our graduation gown is completed by a hood,
reminiscent of the Emirati bisht.
The lining holds the pattern of the UAE's national flower.
Truly, the gown is a tribute to local culture,
national aspirations, and a thirst for knowledge.
Speakers
His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber
Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and COP28 UAE President Group MD & CEO of ADNOC and Chairman of Masdar Chairman of the MBZUAI Board of Trustees
In his role as Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Dr. Al Jaber oversees efforts to further expand the industrial development of the UAE, and in particular promote in-country value, leveraging technology as a key enabler, as we enter the Fourth Industrial Age. In November 2023, Dr. Al Jaber was appointed COP28 UAE President, where he led the efforts to achieve consensus among almost 200 countries to achieve a landmark response to the Global Stock Take, named ‘The UAE Consensus.’ The historic agreement delivered a package of ambitious and balanced outcomes across the entire climate agenda.
READ BIO
Professor Eric Xing
MBZUAI President and University Professor
Xing is a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was the founding director of the Center for Machine Learning and Health. Xing has also served as visiting associate professor at Stanford University, and visiting research professor at Facebook Inc. He is also the founder, chairman, and chief scientist of Petuum Inc., which was recognized as a 2018 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer that builds standardized artificial intelligence development platforms and operating systems for broad and general industrial AI applications.
READ BIO
Numan Saeed
Class of 2024 valedictorian
Numan Saeed became the first ever MBZUAI student to be awarded a Ph.D. His dissertation Deep Learning for Cancer Diagnosis and Prognosis explores how deep learning models can assist in the treatment of cancers of the head and neck – the seventh most common form of cancer globally.
The machine learning student conducted his research under the supervision of Dr. Mohammad Yaqub, associate professor of computer vision at MBZUAI, and did so while completing five papers where he was the lead researcher, and contributing to five more. Saeed also won an international competition, HEKTOR 2021, which was launched by the prestigious International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI).
Stories
Breathing new life into medical applications
Having seen the potential of computer vision to positively impact people’s lives, Ahmed Ibrahim Sharshar was determined to make a difference through his research.
Read More
Tackling media bias with NLP
Alarmed by the rise of fake and misleading news on social media, Zain Muhammad Mujahid seized the opportunity to tackle the problem as part of his M.Sc.
Read More
From Text to image: M.Sc. graduate develops cutting-edge techniques to transform T2I generation
Text to image (T2I) generators caused a buzz when they rose to prominence with the launch of tools such as Dall-E, Midjourney and Adobe Firefly. However, users quickly found that anything more than a simple prompt of a few words...
Read More
Driving towards innovation: a visionary approach to traffic sign detection and recognition
Transportation expert Fatima Ahmed Alkhoori had already clocked up an impressive level experience when she applied to join MBZUAI to study for a master’s in ML back in 2022.
Read MoreMBZUAI M.Sc. Class of 23
MBZUAI Class of 24
Ahmed Ibrahim Sharshar
Baliah Sanoojan
Chong Tian
Cong Cao
Dana Osama Mohamed
Fadillah Adamsyah Maani
Hanlue Zhang
Hosam Mahmoud Elgendy
Ibraheem Mufeed Hamdi
Jameel Hassan Abdul Samadh
Joseph Geo Benjamin
Kane Lindsay
Leena Ali Bin Kuwair
Mohamed El Amine Boudjoghra
Mohammad Areeb Qazi
Mothilal Asokan
Nada Saadi
Nouf Ali Alshamsi
Santosh Sanjeev
Shamma Sultan Alsaedi
Ho Thanh Cong
Zhenhui Lin
Abdalla Hassan Aljasmi
Adham Ibrahim Abdelhady
Ahmad Hammoudeh
Ahmed Mohamed Albreiki
Ahmed Sultan Alwheibi
Amrin Kareem
Baketah Khalid Alrashdi
Chulu Xiang
Fatima Ahmed Alkhoori
Amna Abdelrahim Alhosani
Hamza Khamis Alobeidli
Jamal Khaled Aljaberi
Junyi Guan
Kaleab Belay
Mario Cantero
Maryam Khalifa Al Ali
Mehaboobathunnisa Hameed
Mohamed Adel Alzarooni
Mohammad Hanan Gani
Mohammad Sayeed
Mohammed Talha Alam
Nurdaulet Mukhituly
Raza Baqir Imam
Rzan Raed Alhaddad
Salma Saeed Alrashdi
Sharon Chokuwa
Xiangrui-Ke
Xun Li
Yifan Shen
Yixuan Chen
Youssef Mohamed Nafea
Yulang Fei
Ahmed Rashed Almansoori
Akhmed Sakip
Anees Ur Rehman Hashmi
Hawau Olamide Toyin
Hilal Mohammad Hilal AlQuabe’h
Mohamed Fazli Imam
Mohammed El-Amine Azz
Huzaifa Muhammad
Noor Hazim Hussein
Numan Saeed
Rohit Bharadwaj
Rufael Marew
Songyao Jin
William de Bronac de Vazelhes
Bhuvnesh Kumar
Hour Eisa Mohamed
Yanlin Wu
Ahmed Hesham Aboeitta
Aisha Fahad Alraeesi
Amirbek Djanibekov
Doan Duy Khai
Jonibek Mansurov
Osama Mohammed Afzal
Sara Shatnawi
Sathyamoorthy Rajendran
Yichen Huang
Zain Muhammad Mujahid
Commencement in images
A message to our newest alumni
Welcome to the MBZUAI alumni community. MBZUAI alumni are trailblazers, innovators and leaders powered by intellectual curiosity in technology and enterprise. We invite you to stay connected to the university and each other through the MBZUAI Alumni program, with offerings to keep you engaged through career networks, access to special events and regular AI insights.
Lea Sublett
Associate Director of Alumni Relations
