Abu Dhabi: The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has partnered with the Technology Innovation Institute’s (TII) AI and Digital Science Research Center (AIDRC), a globally renowned scientific research institution and the applied research division of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC). To boost its skills in AI and cybersecurity, the alliance aims to advance Abu Dhabi’s vision of becoming a smart and sustainable city by 2030.
A group of AIDRC researchers, led by Prof. Mérouane Debbah (Chief Researcher), Dr. Bassem Ouni (Lead Researcher), Dr. Thierry Lestable (Executive Director), and Prof. Lucas Cordeiro (Director), will work with MBZUAI professors to mentor a number of associate professors, post-doctoral fellows, PhD, and post-graduate students as part of this partnership. The academics will spend three years creating cutting-edge AI models for applications in cybersecurity and smart cities.
The main goal of the research program will be to safeguard various systems that are vulnerable to attack, such as autonomous systems that are essential to creating sustainable smart cities, beyond 5G communication networks, and sustainable cognitive and linked buildings.
Prof. Mérouane Debbah emphasised the importance of combining artificial intelligence with cybersecurity and the many benefits it may provide. He also emphasised some of the difficulties in applying AI for real-time applications in smart cities, which call for a lot of computing power, a variety of data sources, and malware code characteristics to protect against anomaly signatures and intrusion behaviour. He thinks that their collaboration with MBZUAI will make it possible for them to look into current cybersecurity problems and suggest workable solutions utilising cutting-edge AI models.
Professor of Machine Learning at MBZUAI, Prof. Mohsen Guizani, expressed his excitement for the collaboration with TII and the chance to improve cooperation among research institutions in Abu Dhabi. He thinks that their combined efforts would strengthen the UAE’s position as a key participant in R&D innovation both inside the region and outside of it. Prof. Guizani also indicated an interest in potential future collaboration with TII in research fields outside the current purview of AIDRC.