Abu Dhabi will launch a dedicated artificial intelligence research center to help consolidate the UAE’s growing status as a global center for technological innovation.
The state-of-the-art complex will be at the heart of the work of the Capital’s Institute for Technological Innovation, which is already home to the Middle East’s first quantum computer and teams of researchers developing advanced materials, drones and robots for commercial use. .
The center aims to bridge the gap between the research centre’s seven laboratories and the extended field of AI, providing oversight and technical know-how.
Take, for example, an autonomous boat under development at TII’s Robotics Lab, which is designed to automatically go to the site of an oil spill, send dozens of robotic “fish” to assess damage to the oil spill. marine life, while sending information to drones hovering overhead to determine a cleanup route.
This scenario relies heavily on AI capabilities and is one of dozens of commercial projects under development at TII’s Masdar City campus. The new AI research center will help collect the relevant data to support machine learning and develop algorithms to drive these projects forward, with plans to reach a workforce of 50 by 2022.
Attracting talent and tackling projects that have commercial potential in the region is essential for Dr Ray Johnson, who joined TII in August as the centre’s first CEO.
Prior to coming to Abu Dhabi, he was CTO of US defense firm Lockheed Martin from 2006 to 2015, then a partner at Bessemer Ventures, one of the oldest venture capital firms in the United States.
“I came from overseeing a team of 70,000 people working on 4,000 projects, and so I’m very used to seeing top talent,” Dr. Johnson said. The National in an interview, talking about his time at Lockheed Martin. “I was delighted, upon arriving here, to find that the level of talent that TII has already attracted is equal to or better than what I was used to working with in very large organizations. “
Autonomous robots are “a major area of interest” for TII, said Dr Johnson, and will likely be among the first products sold to paying customers.
“You can hardly pick up a newspaper or magazine without reading that Amazon is using them for delivery or that nation states are developing capabilities that need to be monitored,” he said.
The security, energy, transport and construction sectors are of particular interest to TII, he said.
TII, the applied research arm of the Abu Dhabi Advanced Technology Research Council, is a critical part of the UAE’s efforts to diversify and shift away from oil exports and develop a knowledge-based economy.
At the same time, the advent of AI, quantum computing, and more sophisticated cybersecurity threats mean that nations around the world are concerned about the development of independent technologies.
“One of the things the pandemic has done was remind nations that this global supply chain and dependence on others comes at risk,” Dr Johnson said.
Technical independence is certainly important, he said, but the ambition is to develop world-class research laboratories that produce commercially viable solutions that can “extend beyond” the UAE and ultimately be exported.
“We have taken a nice portfolio approach, where some products, some of the innovations, will make their way to the products sooner, some innovations will take longer,” said Dr Johnson.
“You want to have that portfolio approach so that you always have innovations coming out of commercialization and reaching customers. “
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While the robotics lab may be the first to bring a product to market, the quantum research center has a longer time horizon, he said.
Partnerships are also essential. TII has signed 46 collaborative research partnership agreements with 32 research universities, including Stanford University, Khalifa University, New York University and Purdue.
Dr Johnson stressed that TII will always be an international hub for research. While the center employs 100 Emiratis and wishes to increase this number, the ambition is to be multinational and focused on partnerships.
“The kind of talent that [at TII] today, and that we attract, and the situational awareness around science and understanding of the environment in their field is the best I’ve seen, “he said.” We are capable of doing it. to build around that. “
Update: October 13, 2021, 3:00 a.m.
