Empowering cross-disciplinary AI research

As the global AI community grows, some of the most innovative developments come from researchers that work at the intersection of several disciplines to achieve powerful, novel results. Computer vision and deep learning, for example, come together to make self-driving vehicles a reality. Machine learning and natural language processing research has combined in the proliferation of chatbots such as ChatGPT, Vicuna, and many others.

Empowering researchers to work together in a structured way across disciplines is a critical function of MBZUAI as the world’s first AI graduate research university. To this end, MBZUAI and RIKEN (Japan’s largest comprehensive research institution) Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP), recently co-hosted the MBZUAI / RIKEN-AIP Joint Wrkshop on MBZUAI’s Masdar City campus. The workshop allowed scientists from both institutions to share cutting-edge research and perspectives, and to explore interdisciplinary cooperation.

Watch day one of the MBZUAI/RIKEN-AIP Joint Workshop

The workshop featured top researchers across machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing from both institutions including MBZUAI Acting Provost, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, Department Chair, and Professor of Natural Language Processing Tim Baldwin and Director of RIKEN-AIP and Professor of Complexity Science and Engineering at the University of Tokyo Masashi Sugiyama. Researchers showcased how intelligent systems can be developed and utilized to enhance the capacity of AI to address real-world problems across various domains.

MBZUAI / RIKEN-AIP Joint Workshop

The workshop was organized by RIKEN-AIP scientists Zhao and Sugiyama in collaboration with Visiting Associate Professor of Machine Learning Tongliang Liu, and MBZUAI Deputy Department Chair of Machine Learning, Associate Professor of Machine Learning, and Director of the Center for Integrative Artificial Intelligence (CIAI) KunZhang.

Watch day two of the MBZUAI/RIKEN-AIP Joint Workshop

Speakers from MBZUAI included Baldwin; Department Chair and Professor of Machine Learning Le Song, Acting Department Chair and Professor of Computer Vision Abdulmotaleb El Saddik; Associate Professor of Machine Learning Martin Takáč; Deputy Department Chair and Professor of Natural Language Processing Preslav Nakov; and Deputy Department Chair and Professor of Computer Vision Fahad Khan.

Speakers from RIKEN AIP included Principal Investigator of the Tensor Learning Team Qibin Zhao, Research Scientist in the AI Security and Privacy Team Yuwei Sun, Research Scientist in the Machine Intelligence for Medical Engineering Team Lin Gu, Research Scientist in the Structured Learning Team Matthias Weissenbacher, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Computational Learning Theory Team Sherief Hashima, and Postdoctoral Researcher in the Deep Learning Theory Team Wei Huang.