Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), concluded the second edition of its Executive Program (MEP). The second cohort comprised of 43 leaders with CEOs, directors general, and executive directors from various public and private organizations across the UAE. The graduation ceremony will be held in 2023 at the MBZUAI campus, Abu Dhabi.

The program is a gateway for participants to enhance their AI capabilities and knowledge.

Participants completed 12 rigorous weeks of coursework, lectures, and collaborative project work. The program covered essential topics including an introduction to the past, present, and future of AI and machine learning; AI, machine learning and the economy; lingual cognition and intelligence; visual cognition and intelligence; as well as AI ethics and policymaking; and the future of robotics.

The courses were delivered by 11 global AI leaders, including MBZUAI President, Professor Eric Xing; Professor Michael Jordan and Professor Alexei A. Efros of the University of California Berkeley; Professor Raj Reddy and Professor Takeo Kanade of Carnegie Mellon University; and Professor Daniela Rus of MIT.

“His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed has clearly outlined a vision for economic growth and diversification by advancing capacity development in science and technology, to benefit all economic areas and society as a whole. This vision underscores the need to enhance our understanding of AI and its practical application in different industries across both private and public sectors. The second cohort of the MEP has prepared another group of national AI leaders to embrace and apply their new skills and knowledge in their home organizations, fostering innovation and ultimately increasing efficiency and competitiveness” H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of MBZUAI, said.

Participants were tasked with addressing an existing UAE national challenge with an AI research solution as part of a capstone project. Participants were divided into eight teams and collaborated to propose solutions to an advisory panel. The advisory panel consisted of H.E. Hanan Mansoor Ahli, the Director General of the Competitiveness Sector at the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA); H.E. Dr. Mohammad Hamad Al-Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity for the UAE Government; Professor Eric Xing, President of MBZUAI; and Professor Preslav Nokav, Acting Deputy Department Chair of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) Department at MBZUAI.

The capstone projects included an approach to early cancer detection, an AI-based platform to mitigate fraud, a weather forecasting system, a unified customer-service platform, a Web3-driven, financial-management platform, an energy-management platform, a supply-chain prediction platform, and a smart threat-alert system.

The program featured visits to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), and the Integrated Transport Centre (ITC). Site visits were conducted to demonstrate how AI implementation has taken shape in each organization.

The Executive Program was launched in September 2021 to support the UAE government and business sectors—unlocking the potential of AI through practical applications to national challenges. In March 2022, MBZUAI celebrated the graduation of its inaugural cohort consisting of 41 participants.

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