Science - USA (2021-12-24)

IMAGE COURTESY OF MBZUAI

for executives. Future expansion will add professional training programs

for engineers, Bachelor’s degrees, and other continuing education

certificates, all with a unique and actionability-driven infusion of AI

general and domain knowledge.

“We have the opportunity to build a program that is relevant to the

next stage of people’s careers, with the right balance of knowledge and

industry experience,” says Xing. A mandated internship offers a taste of

what it’s like to work in industry, and students can choose whether to

produce a thesis or capstone project

based on an AI application.

But AI science is only the first

step. MBZUAI’s goal is to bolster

the UAE economy through strategic

economic development, workforce

development, and even policy

contributions, all influenced by

and built upon a platform of AI

investments.

“We want to build economic

diversity, and AI presents this

opportunity,” says Xing. “AI is still

very young. The UAE leadership see

this as a great opportunity to enter

the world stage with a timely and

wise investment.”

Recently, MBZUAI was commissioned to provide a “crash course” on AI

technology, policy, ethics, and risk for government representatives and

leaders. “We are not only providing a research and development hub for AI

in the academic sense,” adds Xing, “We are also providing a think tank for

leadership and a cradle of training functionality for the local talent.”

When he was being recruited, Xing asked the question: Why was it

important for the government of Abu Dhabi to establish a university of AI

here? The answer, he says with a chuckle, significantly contributed to his

decision to come to MBZUAI.

“The leaders of the UAE are among the most forward looking and

visionary worldwide. They look beyond their current economic needs

and situation to energy and economic needs 50 years in the future. The

leadership and citizens here have the sense of urgency to stay ahead of

the curve, to be prepared and be competitive. They know AI is the driving

force of the next industrial revolution.”

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generalizable and universal engineering framework, and offering new

research a more purposeful direction. “A research institution must

aspire to provide the perfect intellectual environment for these types of

explorations, and this ambition and responsibility is at the core of the

academic mission of this university,” he explains.

At MBZUAI, institutional research is focused around four themes

representing significant touchpoints of AI in society: (1) services and

quality of life, with an emphasis on improving services offered by the

government and industry; (2)

industrial and manufacturing

technologies, addressing how AI

improves and catalyzes productivity,

manufacturing, and industrial

processes; (3) future game changers,

bolstering emerging sectors and

entrepreneurial ventures; and (4)

sustainability of vital resources and

the environment, examining how AI

can optimize and thereby conserve

the environment.

Currently, there are three

departments at MBZUAI: machine

learning, computer vision, and natural

language processing, with plans to

expand. There are intentionally no

silos. “Faculty are encouraged and empowered to be collaborative,” says

Xing. “We are building an organization that is not very hierarchical. It’s like

the ancient School of Athens where good ideas are exchanged, shared,

and nurtured.”

Xing’s priorities include recruiting top international faculty and

developing educational pipelines. The work is a combination of investments

in three areas: (1) fundamental theories and algorithms such as unified

learning frameworks, and logical and causal inferences; (2) foundational

platforms and programs, in particular new backend systems for

automatically composing, training, and tuning large-scale machine learning

models and pipelines; and (3) applied systems, especially those relevant to

the local economy and regional needs in clean energy and health care.

He also is creating a sustainable, growth-oriented entrepreneurial

and economic ecosystem to support the advancement of scientific and

technical capabilities and the placement of talent. Xing is ensuring that

the MBZUAI tech transfer team communicates with industry leaders and

faculty to perform appropriate needs assessments.

“With the traditional academic system, it is challenging to be agile

enough to accommodate these types of opportunities and initiatives,” he

says. “MBZUAI is reprogramming more effective mechanisms to optimize

creativity and sustainable growth and to allow faculty to ask ambitious

and deep questions.”

Naturally, education takes precedence. MBZUAI has Ph.D. and Master’s

degrees as well as masterclasses and customized education programs

Dr. Eric Xing

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