Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi to host Artificial Intelligence & Community Week on campus

14 February, 2025

From February 17 to 21, 2025, Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (SUAD is organizing the Artificial Intelligence Week, an initiative of the Sorbonne Centre for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI).

The week will feature seminars and conferences built around a multidisciplinary approach to AI, offering a holistic perspective on its implications and applications. With some conferences especially designed for experts and others aimed at the wider community, SUAD aims to welcome all AI enthusiasts to its campus, fostering creative and thoughtful discussions between world-leading experts, CEOs of companies in the AI industry, students, and curious minds eager to challenge their understanding or simply learn about AI. The goal is to bridge disciplines to untangle the hype surrounding AI and deepen participants’ knowledge.

On this occasion, SUAD welcomes the managing team of SCAI, which oversees both the Paris and Abu Dhabi campuses. This includes Prof. Gérard Biau, a specialist in statistical learning and recently elected to the French Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Xavier Fresquet, whose research explores the dialogue between technology, culture, and society.

The week begins with a workshop on “Mathematics of Machine Learning, Physics Informed Machine Learning,” on Monday, 17 February at 4:00 PM. This session will delve into the intersections of machine learning and physical models, highlighting physics-driven AI applications that combine scientific knowledge with data-driven approaches. On Wednesday 19 February at 6:00 PM, a conference on the “AI regulations: between policies and laws in the UAE and EU,” will focus on a comparative study of the development of AI regulation.

On Thursday, 20 February at 9:00 AM, a session titled “How to Best Regulate Crypto-Assets? The EU and UAE Perspectives” will examine the regulation of crypto-assets, with a focus on the introduction of new central bank digital currencies, the regulatory framework for crypto-assets, and the new rules for stablecoin issuance.

To wrap up the week, a seminar on “AI and Digital Humanities in the Arabian Gulf: Ethical and Computational Perspectives” will take place on Friday, 21 February at 9:30 AM. This session will bring together specialists from leading institutions such as SUAD, NYUAD, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi to discuss ethics, AI, and culture.
Additionally, on February 21, 2025, SUAD will welcome Laurent Saint-Martin, French Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and French Nationals Abroad, for a special conference. The event, scheduled for 11:30 AM, will focus on the strategic partnership between the UAE and France in the AI sector, underscoring the shared commitment to innovation and technological advancement.

Moreover, on February 27, 2025, at 6:00 PM, SUAD will host a thought-provoking talk titled “Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: The Artist, the Machine, and the Spirit”. Renowned artist and thinker Emo de Medeiros will delve into his groundbreaking work, examining the transformative role of AI and new technologies in contemporary creative processes.

“Being able to bring Artificial Intelligence Research outputs to the community is an upmost privilege as it symbolizes the role of a research-intensive higher education institution. We not only train students to use AI in a wise way but we shape the evolution of AI thanks to multidisciplinary research from understanding AI from a mathematical perspective to questioning the ethics of AI. At SUAD, we have been working on ethical AI since 2019 with a multidisciplinary research methodology, allowing us to create a pathway between all these disciplines and give to the community the access to knowledge”, commented Prof. Nathalie Martial-Braz, Chancellor of SUAD and a digital law specialist.

The week of Artificial Intelligence for the Community falls under SUAD’s strategy to place artificial intelligence at the forefront of its research capacity. In 2019, the Sorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence – SCAI based in Sorbonne Paris opened its sister center in Sorbonne Abu Dhabi where it hosts one of the best data processors in the world. As a matter of fact, it is this mirror model, in Abu Dhabi and in Paris that illustrates the strength of the scientific partnership between the two countries and offers tools of excellence to develop the best AI ecosystem.

Prof. Gérard Biau, Director of SCAI in Paris & Abu Dhabi, stated: “Opening a sister center of SCAI was a natural choice considering the speed of tech developments in the region and especially in the UAE. Contributing to building the AI ecosystem in the UAE and developing the one in France leads us to push boundaries. Looking at the recent UAE decision at the AI summit in Paris to build a datacenter in France, it reinforces our conviction that the challenge we took 5 years ago was worth it and has full potential to grow even further.”

Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi is leading the way in AI, alongside other institutions, to train the next generation of AI specialists with its bachelor in Mathematics with a specialization in data science for artificial intelligence. It is also paving the way for research through a unique approach and a model developed with industrial chairs of excellence that allows research to align with the needs of industry for innovation.

To learn more about these events and to register, please click here