UAE, Israel universities ink agreement to boost AI collaboration

An agreement inked between two universities in the UAE and Israel will see the establishment of a virtual institute for artificial intelligence (AI).
The UAE's Mohamed bin Zayed University of AI (MBZUAI) and Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science signed the agreement to advance the development and use of AI as a tool for progress.
The MoU, which is the first of its kind to be signed between two higher education institutes from the UAE and Israel, covers a range of opportunities for collaboration: Student and postdoctoral fellows exchange programmes; conferences and seminars; exchange between researchers; and sharing of computing resources.
The agreement follows the historic Peace Accord agreement that normalises relations between the UAE and Israel.
The MoU was signed virtually by Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Chairman of the MBZUAI Board of Trustees, and Weizmann Institute President Professor Alon Chen.
The MBZUAI, which was established in 2019, is the world's first graduate-level, research-based AI university. Based in Abu Dhabi, the university offers MSc and PhD programmes in computer vision, machine learning, and natural language processing. It will welcome its first cohort of students in January 2021.
The collaboration will advance Weizmann's flagship project, the AI Enterprise for Scientific Discovery. It will also activate the potential of AI to speed knowledge acquisition in data-heavy endeavours like biomedicine, environmental research, chemistry, astrophysics, education, and more.
Dr Al Jaber said: "As a pioneering university, MBZUAI seeks out partnerships with leaders in their respective fields to further our collective scientific understanding and push the boundaries of technological innovation. Through this MoU, we can leverage the expertise of both our institutes towards using AI to address some of the world's most pressing challenges, from Covid-19 to climate change, and beyond."
reporters@khaleejtimes.com 

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