MBZUAI to launch second edition of Executive Programme this month

Abu Dhabi: The second edition of the Executive Programme at Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) will begin at the end of this month, the university has announced.

The institution is looking to build on the momentum of the inaugural edition, which concluded in January and saw more than 40 senior leaders from across the UAE enhance their AI capacity building with global AI leaders over 12 weeks.

The second edition of the programme, which is set to kick off by this month-end and will run through to the end of July, will cover fundamental topics including: An introduction to the past, present, and future of AI and machine learning; AI, machine learning and the economy; visual cognition and intelligence; lingual cognition and intelligence as well as AI ethics and policy-making; and the future of robotics. “As one of the world’s most important economic accelerators, AI is at the heart of the UAE’s social and economic development plans. The MBZUAI Executive Program comes in line with the aspirations of our leadership and to educating a distinguished community of national AI leaders in the public and private sectors,” said Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and chairman of the MBZUAI board of trustees.

Instructors

The second edition of the programme will be taught by global AI leaders such as MBZUAI president professor Eric Xing, professor Michael Jordan of UC Berkeley, Dr Kai-fu Lee of Sinovation Ventures, professor Daniela Rus of MIT, professor Tom Mitchell, and professor Justine Cassell of Carnegie Mellon University, to name a few. Another major highlight will be group capstone projects which aim to take on real-world problems and propose AI-enabled solutions.

“Learning how to use AI responsibly and designing policies that support its ethical application are often some of the main barriers to progress. The MEP is designed to improve AI literacy and equip students with important knowledge and skills that allow for emerging technologies to be successfully introduced into the organisation. We also get students to consider the policies, legislation and frameworks that form an important part of the development and application of AI, so we focus on offering a holistic understanding,” Xing said.

Inaugural class

The inaugural class will be celebrated in a graduation ceremony on the University’s Masdar City campus this month. The programme culminated in participants working together to identify an existing UAE national challenge that could be addressed by an AI research project with the winner to be announced at the ceremony. The inaugural group also took part in 12 weeks of coursework as well as field visits to top government and private sector institutions such as ADNOC, Injazat/G42, Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Center, Emirates Post Group, DIFC, FinTech Hive, and Zoo and Aquarium Public Institution in Al Ain.