MBZUAI ·
MBZUAI hosted a senior delegation from Indonesia to explore future cooperation. The delegation toured the MBZUAI campus in Masdar City and the Visitor Center. Professor Eric Xing presented the university’s objectives and strategic plans. Why it matters: This visit indicates MBZUAI's growing role in international AI education and collaboration, particularly with countries seeking to develop their AI capabilities.
MBZUAI ·
A delegation from the Indonesian Embassy visited MBZUAI on November 23, 2021, to learn about the university. Attendees included Dr. Hosni Ghedira, Ms. Reem Al Orfali, and Mr. Yaqoob Al Blooshi from MBZUAI, and Dr. Ir. Hammam Riza and Mr. Gatot Dwianto from the Indonesian National Agency for Research and Innovation. The visit aimed to establish closer relations and explore future collaboration opportunities. Why it matters: Such visits foster international partnerships in AI research and education, strengthening MBZUAI's global presence and potentially leading to joint projects and knowledge exchange.
KAUST ·
KAUST's Discovery Week featured a gala and awards ceremony. Professor Gilles Lubineau opened the proceedings at the 2017 WEP Final Gala. A Javanese shadow puppet performance of the “Ramayana Epic” was also part of the event. Why it matters: Showcases KAUST's commitment to cultural exchange alongside its research activities.
MBZUAI ·
MBZUAI is developing AI-powered applications to help reduce malaria's impact in Indonesia, supported by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's Reaching the Last Mile initiative. The applications use sensory data fusion to create "digital twins" for precise weather forecasting and real-time environmental representation. AI and clustering analysis identify recurring features contributing to malaria outbreaks, enabling preventative measures and early treatment. Why it matters: This project demonstrates AI's potential in combating climate-sensitive diseases and improving public health in vulnerable regions.
KAUST ·
KAUST is playing a central role in the G20 Coral Research and Development Accelerator Platform (CORDAP) to protect and restore corals globally. KAUST co-organized a G20 workshop with the UN Global Fund for Coral Reefs in Indonesia in August 2022. The workshop aimed to deliver policy recommendations on coral conservation to G20 Environment Deputy Ministers. Why it matters: This initiative highlights Saudi Arabia's commitment to addressing climate change and marine ecosystem preservation through international collaboration.
MBZUAI ·
MBZUAI faculty won two awards and published eight papers at the 13th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing and the 3rd Conference of the Asia-Pacific Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (IJCNLP-AACL 2023). Alham Fikri Aji and Fajri Koto won the Best Resource Award for NusaWrites, a paper on constructing high-quality corpora for low-resource Indonesian languages by engaging speaker communities. Muhammad Abdul-Mageed won an Area Chair award for ProMap, a method for constructing bilingual dictionaries via language model prompting. Why it matters: This highlights MBZUAI's contribution to NLP research, particularly in low-resource languages and bilingual lexicon induction, and strengthens its position as a hub for AI research in the region.
MBZUAI ·
MBZUAI Professor Timothy Baldwin delivered the presidential keynote at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL). Baldwin also published three papers at the conference, including work on biomedical literature summarization, NLP for Indonesian languages, and understanding procedural texts. The papers address challenges such as reducing human effort in reviewing medical documents and digitally preserving Indonesian indigenous languages. Why it matters: Baldwin's contributions and leadership role at ACL highlight the growing prominence of MBZUAI and GCC-based researchers in the global NLP community.