ADU Prepares its Students for the Future of Artificial Intelligence

United Arab Emirates—02 August 2021: The College of Engineering at Abu Dhabi University (ADU), the largest college of its kind in the UAE, is preparing its engineering students for the challenges and opportunities of a technology-powered 21st century through the integration of an increasing number of courses on Artificial Intelligence (AI). In line with its mission to provide a transformative world-class education, ADU is offering a range of innovative courses that explore the concepts and applications of AI to a college of more than 2600 engineering students.

With advances in AI already transforming the world, ADU is offering specialized degrees as part of its undergraduate programs, including a BSc in Computer Engineering with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence and BSc in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Robotics and Automation. There are currently more than 400 students enrolled in these two undergraduate programs. 

AI courses offered at ADU focus on various new technologies like machine learning, deep learning, AI-powered mobile applications, self-driving cars, computer vision, pattern recognition and more, providing engineering students a solid theoretical understanding of the technologies behind AI.

In addition, the College of Engineering offers a visionary course entitled “Introductory Artificial Intelligence” to freshman students of all majors to train students on how to lead AI transformation that can create value for their future employers. Students are trained on how to solve real-world problems using data collected from their own domains using AI. Aimed at bringing AI culture to everyone, the course brings AI to Microsoft Excel in highly specialized laboratories developed in-house. It introduces virtually everyone to broad topics in AI and machine learning in an accessible and contextualized way as it covers concepts, performance assessment, data collection and cleaning, supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning technologies and applications, giving students a glimpse into how AI technology drives value for society in healthcare, government, education, engineering, manufacturing, transportation, aerospace and more. Students also work on deep learning projects relevant to their fields using their collected, processed, and curated data. 

ADU also provides students access to various scientific labs furnished with state-of-the-art equipment that are empowered by AI, ensuring students acquire hands-on experience. With the resources and tools offered at ADU, students are involved in building prototypes that allows them to explore solutions and validate them through testing. 

Dr. Mohammad Ghazal, Professor and Chair of the Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Department, said, “We pride ourselves on the programs and offering at Abu Dhabi University that are constantly evolving to stay ahead of the trends and advances in technology. As technology advances and evolves, so must our curriculum and students.” 
He added, “Artificial Intelligence has already transformed the way we live, work and interact. For this reason, it is important, now more than ever, for universities to adopt and integrate these advances in technology. I strongly believe that this is the way in which we equip and empower our graduates, in engineering and other disciplines, to tackle the opportunities of the 21st century head on.”
The College of Engineering offers a range of engineering and technology programs at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with new and innovative programs being introduced on an ongoing basis. These programs have been developed according to the standards of international professional engineering and architecture bodies such as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).