In the office of New York University Abu Dhabi vice chancellor Fabio Piano, everything has a story, from the books on the shelves to the art on the walls.
One wall displays the original sketch of the university campus master plan by architect Rafael Vinoly. On a bookshelf sits a digital cube called Astrobeat, containing student compositions. The music was debuted in space, and streamed from the International Space Station.
Next to the cube is a Murano glass sculpture with sand from the seven emirates swirling inside, a gift from Khaldoon Al Mubarak, NYU trustee and chairman of the UAE's Executive Affairs Authority, to those present at the university's founding.
Leading with lightness
Do not let Mr Piano's recent appointment as vice chancellor fool you. He has had two years as interim vice chancellor to make the office feel like home, and has been involved in the university's development since before it first welcomed students in 2010. That is plenty of time to collect such prized possessions.
Mr Piano values teamwork. For him, ensuring there is a sense of lightness even in times of crisis is paramount.
“I feel it's very important in leadership to bring in a sense of humour, and make sure that people don't feel too weighed down by the difficult and complex things we have to deal with,” he told The National.
Put to the test
The past six months have certainly put Mr Piano and the institution to the test. In March, the Iran war disrupted the region and forced the university to send students off campus and eventually home. The vice chancellor says that after the initial shock, the community behaved “in the most mature way”.
“Because the foundation of this community is so strong, it just came together. Students did incredibly well and followed directives,” he said.
The leadership met in the boardroom on campus every day and decided that during such an unpredictable time, it needed to be transparent with students and community members. Its communication was frequent, and its philosophy was to give a sense of stability through open communication.
“Nothing really surprised us in a way we weren't ready for, so we just moved forward and adapted. We could take advantage of the lessons we learnt during Covid that we can continue the academic mission while we really focus on the physical and emotional well-being of our community,” he said.
Eager to return and learn
The term ended with an in-person graduation ceremony, and operations have mostly returned to normal.
“During the summer, we shored up some of the things that needed to even be stronger. We're much more prepared now if something were to flare up again,” Mr Piano said.
Security on campus has been expanded, with extra training. More drills have been conducted, and capacity continues to be built for contingencies. Direct communication with the government has also increased.
Students are expected to return in person before classes start at the end of the month. Mr Piano says that campus life is even more appreciated now.
“There's extensive programming for ensuring that students get together, and activities being planned to ensure that life comes fully back to campus even better than before,” he told The National.
The university administration has been speaking to students who are apprehensive about coming to campus. The vice chancellor says the conversations have mostly been about calming concerned parents.
“We had to give a few pointers to the fact that this country has incredible capacity to protect everybody in the country and given that experience, we feel even more confident that we can handle the next part,” Mr Piano said.
AI democratising higher education
The rise of artificial intelligence has already had a wide impact on education. Mr Piano sees this as an opportunity and is exploring how it can be applied to fields of study such as his own – biology.
“Education in general is one of the first places where AI will have a huge impact. I think it's extremely powerful. It can help us make discoveries much more quickly in biology, genetics and genomics,” he said.
He sees future potential at NYU Abu Dhabi, which was developed around small class sizes, to use AI to personalise learning so that all students can learn in ways that suit them best.
“AI has the capacity to democratise education. A lot of people would love for that to happen, but it's also difficult. As AI gets developed more, there is the potential and the promise that technology can turn that into a personalised system for each individual student,” he said.
Albert Einstein once said “my pencil and I are more clever than I am”. When humans started writing, their cognitive development improved. Mr Piano believes this could be applicable to brains that use AI.
“It's possible that we will discover that once we start using AI in this way, it could actually affect the cognitive development of humanity in a positive way or in a way that we can't predict,” he said. “That's exciting, and people here are interested in learning about that.”
Building the future
In recent years, the university has been increasing the number of students from the UAE and the region. Currently, 26 per cent of students are Emiratis.
“We continue to increase the Emirati students in a way that I think demonstrates that the schooling has really created more and more excellent students coming out of high school,” Mr Piano said.
As the university continues to grow, it is shifting its focus from its established undergraduate programmes to building graduate programmes and expanding its capacity to contribute to the UAE.
“We have this fantastic faculty. We've built this fantastic undergraduate college and so I think the next step is to continue the development of the research and the graduate component,” the vice chancellor said.
Mr Piano believes in the mission of the university as a reflection of the mission of the UAE and wants to use the research offerings to directly benefit Abu Dhabi.
“In the very beginning, the big question that we wanted to answer was: 'Can we build it?' We now know the answer is yes.”
“Now we can take it into a place where we can build it as a hub of knowledge, that can bring any expert from any part of the world to contribute to the continued development of the country,” he said.
