Abu Dhabi's AI university appoints permanent head

Professor Timothy Baldwin sets out vision to cement capital as a global leader in the sector

Professor Timothy Baldwin has been appointed as head of the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. Photo: MBZUAI

Abu Dhabi's dedicated artificial intelligence university has named a new permanent head to help guide its cutting-edge vision for the future of higher education.

Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence said the appointment of Professor Timothy Baldwin as provost, who previously served as acting head, will help usher in an 'exciting chapter' for the high-tech institution.

Prof Baldwin has played a key role in the growth of the university, which was established in 2019 to help harness the potential of young people seeking to carve out careers in the growing sector.

His achievements include setting up three academic departments focused on robotics, computer science, and statistics and leading the expansion of the university's talent pool by recruiting 25 new faculty members.

He has overseen the accreditation of new masters and PhD courses in computer science and robotics and jointly led the technical development of Jais, an open-source bilingual Arabic-English model.

“I am delighted to formally take on this position, and work alongside the current and future generation of AI front-runners in leading the academic development of this truly unique institution and contribute to establishing Abu Dhabi as a global leader of AI,” Prof Baldwin said.

Prof Eric Xing, MBZUAI’s president, believes the appointment will support the university's ambitions.

“We are confident that Professor Timothy Baldwin's leadership, dedication, and expertise will continue to propel MBZUAI to new heights of excellence,” he said.

“His appointment as Provost brings an exciting chapter for our university, and we look forward to the continued growth and success with his guidance.”

Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence commencement of class 2023 ceremony at the Abu Dhabi Energy Centre on June 4, 2023. All photos: Khushnum Bhandari / The National

The ceremony was attended by Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed, director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology

Guests in the audience during the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence commencement of class 2023 ceremony.

A commencement ceremony on Sunday saw 59 students receive their postgraduate degrees

It is estimated that AI could contribute $320 billion to the Middle East economy in 2030, with the UAE seeing the greatest gain.

Family and friends take photos with the graduates at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence commencement of class 2023 ceremony.

Klea Ziu, Master of Science in Machine Learning, Class of 2023 Valedictorian the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence commencement of class 2023 ceremony.

The graduating class comes from 25 different countries, including the UAE, China, Africa and other parts of the Middle East.

Supporting rise of AI

The first batch of students to enrol at Abu Dhabi's artificial intelligence university graduated in January 2023.

Nearly two thirds of the students planned to go into employment, PhD placements, paid internships or start-up businesses – and of those, 91 per cent were set to remain in the UAE, the university said at the time.

A total of 52 students graduated from MBZUAI – 20 with a master's in computer vision, a strand of AI that trains computers to understand the visual world – and 32 in machine learning, the popular field that trains computers to mimic human intelligence.