Emirati University, Israel’s Weizmann Institute to Collaborate on Artificial Intelligence Research

The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will see the two higher education institutes working together across a range of fields, with the aim to advance the development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Emirates’ official WAM news reported Sunday.

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, including student and postdoctoral fellows exchange programs, conferences and seminars, various forms of exchange between researchers, sharing of computing resources, and the establishment of a joint virtual institute for artificial intelligence.

The MoU was signed virtually by Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Chairman of the MBZUAI Board of Trustees, and Weizmann Institute President Professor Alon Chen, and was attended by officials from Weizmann Institute and MBZUAI.

This follows the announcement of the historic peace agreement, which establishes the full normalization of relations between the UAE and Israel.

The two countries are slated to sign the agreement at the White House on Tuesday.

“The diplomatic breakthrough deal will lead to cooperation between the two countries on investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare, culture, the environment, the establishment of reciprocal embassies, and other areas of mutual benefit,” WAM stated.

The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, established in 2019, is the world’s first graduate-level, research-based AI university. Based in Abu Dhabi, the University offers MSc and PhD programs in the fields of computer vision, machine learning, and natural language processing.

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world’s top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions and offers masters’ and doctoral-level degrees across five faculties.

The collaboration will advance Weizmann’s flagship project, the Artificial Intelligence Enterprise for Scientific Discovery, which will build on the Institute’s prominence in mathematics and computer science, and activate the potential of AI to speed knowledge acquisition in data-heavy endeavors like biomedicine, environmental research, chemistry, astrophysics, education, and more.

Dr. Al Jaber stated that welcomed the opportunity to “collaborate with such a renowned establishment as the Weizmann Institute of Science.”

“Through this MoU we can leverage the expertise of both our institutes towards using artificial intelligence to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges, from COVID-19 to climate change, and beyond,” he added.

Chen said that Weitzman Institute is “thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with this unique, pioneering institution and to advance the field of artificial intelligence together.”

“I have every hope this collaboration, between scientists in the same region, will be a shining example of this expression and will extend the boundaries of human knowledge,” he added.