More than 100 tech specialists graduate from Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence

Students from 24 countries completed advanced degrees in various fields

The ceremony took place on Wednesday at the Space42 Arena in Abu Dhabi. Pawan Singh / The National

The latest class of graduates from the world’s first dedicated artificial intelligence university have proudly completed their studies.

More than 100 students graduated from Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence on Wednesday during a ceremony in Abu Dhabi. They hail from 24 countries, and include 91 master’s degree and 12 PhD students, with 20 Emiratis among them.

The cohort’s research covered a range of cutting-edge areas, including detecting Alzheimer’s disease, developing climate change models and building Arabic-language AI tools.

The university opened in 2020 as part of the UAE’s strategy to become a global centre for AI development and innovation.

Among the 104 graduates was Daniel Gebre, 27, from Eritrea, who completed a master’s degree in machine learning. His research focused on making AI models smaller and more efficient so they can be used on mobile phones in areas with limited internet access.

“This was deeply personal. I grew up in a place with poor internet,” he told The National. “I wanted to build tools that people like my friends back home could use for studying and daily activities, without needing a connection.”

MBZUAI graduates during their commencement ceremony. Pawan Singh / The National

Mr Gebre arrived in the country in 2019 through a UAE government scholarship programme and earned a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity from Zayed University. He now has a job offer as a machine learning engineer from technology group G42.

Umaima Rahman, 29, from India, earned a PhD in computer vision, with a research focus on deep learning for medical imaging. She is now exploring postdoctoral roles and jobs focused on AI applications in health care.

“The journey was difficult but extremely rewarding,” she said. “One of the best things about the university is the collaborative research environment – you’re encouraged to work across disciplines.”

Making the grade

For Yevheniia Kryklyvets, 24, from Ukraine, the ceremony was especially emotional. After missing her undergraduate graduation in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine, this marked her first official ceremony. She completed a master’s degree in computer vision.

“It was so exciting, especially seeing the support from the country’s leadership,” Ms Kryklyvets said.

“This is a research-based university, so what we're doing is an applied AI. Our projects can be published and can be interpreted into the real world and used for problem solving.”

Career fairs hosted by the university connected her with industry leaders already seeking to recruit from the graduating class, but she is yet to decide which direction she would like to take.

“The UAE is not just contributing to the global AI movement, but is at the centre stage,” Prof Eric Xing, MBZUAI president, told The National.

“I think that the university had an impact in taking the country into that league. The function of the university is really to make the impossible possible with our hard work and also with minds.”

The university’s curriculum includes core disciplines like machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing, with research applications in fields such as health care, climate and language technology.

It recently announced a five and 10-year plan, including establishing two new colleges – for digital public health and decision science.

“This really entails adding additional disciplines and under the foundation of AI know-how, but addressing real problems in the space of medicine, biology and also operational research and business administrations,” said Prof Xing.

In 10 years, the university will look to establish a school of arts and sciences and a school of engineering.

Earlier this month, the UAE and US announced plans to build a new five-gigawatt AI Campus in Abu Dhabi during US President Donald Trump’s visit.

According to the US Department of Commerce and state news agency Wam, the campus will host data centres that allow American tech companies to offer faster AI services to nearly half of the world’s population living within 3,200km of the UAE.

It will be one of the largest AI centres outside the US, the Department of Commerce said.