Competing Against 135 Teams from 24 Countries, EBTIC’s First Prize Includes Presentation at Special Session in 17th FedCSIS Conference in Bulgaria ��

A team of researchers from Khalifa University of Science and Technology-based Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC) has won top honors at the FedCSIS 2022 data mining competition for developing the most practical solution on predicting the costs associated with freight forwarding contracts, it was announced.

Competing against 135 teams from 24 countries across the world, the EBTIC team won the first prize which includes a monetary award for their solution. The ‘FedCSIS 2022 Challenge: Predicting the Costs of Forwarding Contracts’ is the 8th data mining competition organized in association with the Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems. The EBTIC team came out with flying colors in the challenge that asked participants for a solution based on contract data and planned routes.��

The EBTIC team will be submitting a short paper during a special session at the 17th Conference on Computer Science and Intelligence Systems (FedCSIS) 2022 that will be held from 4-7 September in Sofia, Bulgaria. Selected papers will be indexed by the IEEE Digital Library and Web of Science, while the invited teams will be chosen based on their final rank, innovativeness of their approach, and quality of the submitted report.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University, said: “Winning against 135 teams on the world scale illustrates the creative essence of the EBTIC team which has developed the most appropriate machine learning model for freight forwarders. As EBTIC builds on its current strength we hope to see more innovations in data mining areas that will benefit all the industry and community stakeholders.”

Dr. Nawaf Almoosa, Director of EBTIC, said: “We are delighted to win top award in this year’s FedCSIS 2022 challenge that was focused on predicting the cost of transport forwarding contracts based on the contract description, details of transportation vehicles, cargo and the geo-located trip plan. The team, made up of Dr. Dymitr Ruta, one of our Chief Researchers, together with another EBTIC researcher, Lui Ming, built a hybrid ML model based on a diversified ensemble of gradient boosting predictors, developed for this challenge, allows for the most accurate prediction of the realized contract cost and would enable the contractors competing for cargo services at the transportation exchange to more efficiently bid for shipping contracts with less risk of unexpected loss-making costs.”��

Organized by FedCSIS in cooperation with PTI and QED Software, the competition sponsor is Control System Software – a software company that has been delivering solutions for the Transportation, Spedition (forwarding), and Logistics industry for 20 years.��

EBTIC, a research and innovation center focused on driving research and innovation in intelligent systems and applications, was founded by Khalifa University, Etisalat and BT (British Telecom), and supported by the Telecommunication and Digital Government Authority’s (TDRA) ICT Fund. It is based at the Khalifa University campus in Abu Dhabi.��

EBTIC has produced more than 550 scientific publications, developed more than 80 inventions, resulting in 64 granted patents, with more pending, and has trained more than 400 students,�� and 300 professionals. It has also organized 10 international technical workshops and developed numerous technologies and worked on many projects in collaboration with its partners and stakeholders.

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
5 July 2022

The post Team from EBTIC at Khalifa University Wins Top Honors at FedCSIS 2022 Data Mining Competition for Solution to Predict Costs in Freight Forwarding Contracts appeared first on Khalifa University.

Khalifa University Booth Features Six Projects Including Four from EBTIC, while KIC Booth in Startup Hub Has Five Projects ��

Khalifa University of Science and Technology today announced it is featuring six projects including four from the Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC), while Khalifa Innovation Center (KIC) – a strategic partnership between Khalifa University, Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, Tawazun Economic Council, Mubadala Investment Company, and Sandooq Al Watan – is showcasing five startups at the fifth edition of the Unmanned Systems Exhibition (UMEX) Abu Dhabi 2022.

The Khalifa University booth includes Dexter Robotics which offers the affordable, programmable, and modular CLING robot that can crawl and climb vertical surfaces to perform several tasks with high-load capacity, including painting and drilling, and Macro Hexapod robot that is designed to transport heavy load through extreme terrain autonomously. EBTIC, founded by Khalifa University, Etisalat, and BT Group plc (UK), and supported by the ICT Fund, is presenting four projects including Wasim, Next Generation Resource Planning and Muzamana.

The KIC stand at the ‘Startup Hub’ section is featuring five projects including�� FabCast Solutions, DroneLeafs, ADIIR, 3D Nano Printing and SPL Solutions. These advanced technology startups – outcomes of research and innovation at Khalifa University – have been incubated at the Khalifa Innovation Center.

The startups include DroneLeafs, which has developed an innovative and intelligent flight controller software, and ADIIR, an autonomous ‘terrain ground vehicle’ that performs non-intrusive inspection and identifies oil and gas pipeline defects in real-time and geo-tagging them for future maintenance. Other startups include FabCast Solutions which offers a range of Carbon Nano-Tube sheets customized with a higher performance-to-cost ratio, and Additive Light Fabrication, which offers customized solutions for micro-scale 3D printing of souvenirs using various types of materials and coatings. An EBTIC spin-off and award-winning startup SPL Solutions, which offers a special platform to simplify and streamline software governance, development, and cloud migration, is also part of the KIC stand.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “These startups and innovations reflect some of the cutting-edge and advanced technology research outcomes from Khalifa University laboratories that have been translated into new commercial ventures. We believe these startups, incubated at Khalifa Innovation Center, and the other research projects at Khalifa University and EBTIC stands will be well-received for their innovative solutions by investors and interested stakeholders visiting UMEX 2022, which provides a professional platform to establish lucrative business relationships and opportunities.”

Among the four EBTIC projects Wasim, a dedicated Arabic language solution, is the region’s first Machine Learning data labelling solution provider for the Arabic market for both national and international clients, while Next Generation Resource Planning is a complete end-to-end resource planning solution that allows proactive planning of a mobile workforce to help optimize deployment, maximize utilization, and minimize maintenance. Muzamanh is an EBTIC start-up which offers an intelligent timing solution that reduces the dependency on GPS, as it allows accurate synchronization by utilizing existing standards such as Precision Time Protocol (PTP).

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
22 February 2022

The post Khalifa University and KIC Presenting Eleven Research Innovations and Startups at UMEX2022 in Abu Dhabi appeared first on Khalifa University.

• His Excellency Eng. Majed Sultan Al-Mismar said: “This agreement is vital to the government and private sectors and the Academia for achieving common national goals that go in line with the country’s ambitions and aspirations towards a future that is focused on the implementation of emerging techniques for sustainability, happiness and luxurious life.”
• Arif Sultan Al Hammadi said: “The funding agreement strongly illustrates our close partnerships with government organizations and renowned industry brands to seek new technologies and solutions.”

The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) and Khalifa University of Science and Technology have signed an agreement to fund the Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC).

The agreement was signed by His Excellency Eng. Majed Sultan Al-Mismar, Director General of TDRA, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of ICT Fund, and Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University.

EBTIC was founded by Khalifa University, Etisalat, and BT in 2009 as the first UAE-based ICT research and innovation center. The award by the TDRA follows an earlier grant awarded in 2014 to support EBTIC’s transformation to a national industry-academia-government research center focused on developing home-grown and globally-competitive technologies and Emirati talent in the vital ICT sector.

On this occasion, H.E. Eng. Majed Sultan Al Mesmar said: “In today’s world of rapid changes and developments, we are in urgent need of paying attention to research, development, capacity building, and enhancement of skills. Based on our experience full of achievements in the UAE, we realize the importance of cooperation among different sectors for the general benefit of society.”

He added: “This agreement greatly embodies the partnership among the government, the private sector, and the academic sector to achieve common national objectives in line with the UAE’s aspirations to apply trending technologies to achieve sustainability, happiness, and wellbeing. Within this context, we in TDRA will not save any effort to support development, future foresight, and enhancement of skills required for the age of the 4th Industrial Revolution. This is based on our role to enable digital transformation within society.

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi said: “The funding agreement strongly illustrates our close partnerships with government organizations and renowned industry brands to seek new technologies and solutions. EBTIC is already in a commendable position because of its successful track record in obtaining new innovations and generating IPs over the years, and we believe this funding agreement will help EBTIC reach new milestones, while contributing to human capital development in�� the UAE, as well as regionally and internationally.”

According to the agreement, EBTIC will lead a national research and innovation program focusing on areas including healthcare, education, communications, information technology, IoT, and data science. It will seek innovative solutions that can be exploited commercially in communications and information technology (ICT), while entering into partnerships with other renowned academic institutions to promote research and scientific excellence.

EBTIC will also work with industry to ensure that research and innovations can be leveraged to tackle business and societal challenges and deliver benefits at the national level. Additionally, it will work towards submitting patents, publishing scientific papers and exploiting intellectual property rights in the ICT sector. Moreover, the Center will contribute to enhancing the country’s international standing and position in the networked readiness index. It will also contribute to developing national skills and talents and to the dissemination of trained talents in various ICT areas.

At the same time, EBTIC will ensure human capital development, rate of Emiratization, training of public and private sector employees through training courses and assignments, while also training university students through summer internships and graduation projects. In addition, it will organize knowledge-sharing lectures, presentations, and workshops, and submit relevant research projects in the ICT sector.

In order to further strengthen the ICT sector, EBTIC will take up a number of research projects in the ICT sector for the UAE Government, for Khalifa University, and its industrial partners. It will also present research papers at conferences, publish in scientific journals, and issue white papers, in addition to generating new IPs.

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
23 November 2021

The post Khalifa University and UAE Telecom and Digital Government Regulatory Authority Sign Funding Agreement for EBTIC to Support Research and Build Capacities appeared first on Khalifa University.

Reward Workshop ‘CliftonStrengths Assessment’ Helps Winning YFEL Members to Dive Deep into Their Own Talents and Strengths

Khalifa University of Science and Technology today announced 10 members of Young Future Energy Leaders (YFEL) outreach program were honored at a special reward workshop for winning the 2021 YFEL Case Study Competition on ‘AI for Sustainable Farming’, conducted by the Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC).��

The 10 winning YFEL members included three UAE national students, one international student from Khalifa University, one young professional from Dubai Municipality, and five international members from Mexico, Colombia, the US, China, and Hong Kong.��

Dr. Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, Executive Vice-President, Khalifa University, said: “Our outreach programs and sustainability initiatives are designed to encourage wider participation by youth and professionals. We are grateful to BASF, partner of YFEL, for organizing CliftonStrengths, the reward workshop, and helping the YFEL winners to explore and augment their personal skills and talents. Also, EBTIC, one of our research centers, has played a commendable role in conducting this case study competition on machine intelligence in farming. We thank the partners and hope the 2021 YFEL members will continue with their progress in obtaining sustainable innovations as laid down by the UAE leadership.”��

The winners of YFEL Case Study Competition were evaluated by an elite panel of judges including Dr. Nawaf I. Almoosa, Director of EBTIC and Head of Smart Infrastructure Research; and Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Khalifa University; Dr. Dymitr Ruta and Dr. Kin Danny Poon, Chief Researchers, EBTIC-Research.��

Dr. Ruta and Dr. Poon introduced the case study topic to the YFEL members, and engaged them in group discussions. The YFEL members were given six days after the initial introduction to find solutions and create innovative ideas. The winners were assessed by the judges for novelty, strength and robustness of the design, feasibility of the implementation plan and the analysis-backed efficiencies delivered to the farming industry. All indoor and outdoor solutions were accepted for evaluation, especially those energy-efficient sustainable solutions suitable for the arid climate in the Middle East.��

Industry studies indicate AI can provide farmers with real-time insights from their fields, allowing them to identify areas that need irrigation, fertilization, or pesticide treatment. Also, innovative farming practices like vertical agriculture may help increase food production while minimizing the use of resources.��

The 2021 YFEL Case Study Competition aimed to design a novel solution, system or process within a broad-minded smart farming domain that leverages technologies in artificial intelligence/machine learning/internet of things to provide significant measurable benefits compared to the equivalent currently used farming practices.��

BASF, world’s largest chemical company and YFEL program partner for over four years, organized the reward workshop ‘CliftonStrengths assessment’. CliftonStrengths, a web-based assessment of normal personality from the perspective of Positive Psychology, helps individuals to dive deep into their own talents and strengths. Developed expressly for the Internet, this tool helps explore what makes a person unique and the value this person can bring to a team or the workplace.��

EBTIC is a research and innovation center founded by Khalifa University, Etisalat and BT (British Telecom), and supported by the Telecommunication and UAE Digital Government Authority’s (TDRA) ICT Fund.��

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
30 August 2021

The post BASF Honors 10 Winners of Khalifa University’s YFEL Case Study Competition on ‘AI for Sustainable Farming’ Organized by EBTIC appeared first on Khalifa University.

EBTIC and BT Team Win International Awards Based on Innovation, Relevance and Evidence of Success, for their SPL Solution and Trial ��

The SPL team led by Salwa Alzahmi, a senior researcher at KU’s Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC), has won two awards in two categories at the prestigious 2021 Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning Awards in the UK.��

EBTIC is a research and innovation center focused on driving research and innovation in intelligent systems and applications founded by Khalifa University, Etisalat and BT (British Telecom), and supported by the Telecommunication and Digital Government Authority’s (TDRA) ICT Fund. It is based at the Khalifa University campus in Abu Dhabi.��

The Computing magazine’s AI and Machine Learning Awards recognise the best companies, individuals, and projects in artificial intelligence. The judging process covers several industry segments such as security, ethics, data analysis, and innovation, while showcasing the movers and shakers including the technology heroes and projects that deserve industry-wide praise.��

The awards won by EBTIC’s SPL were in the categories of Best Cloud Automation Tool and Best Use of Automation. An elite panel of 12 judges selected the SPL entries as winners based on the evidence of three factors – innovation, relevance, and achieved success. More specifically, the Best Cloud Automation Tool award was given to EBTIC and BT for the tool’s innovative and fully featured automation solution that is designed to ease the burden of application migration to the Cloud. In their citation, the judges mentioned that the SPL Tool ‘has the opportunity to hugely reduce code complexity, thus improving security and reducing the cost of cloud migration’.��

In the Best Use of Automation award category, the SPL tool was highly recommended for the automation of migrating legacy software systems to cloud-native architecture using artificial intelligence, hence, addressing the challenges of complexity and high associated costs. The judges’ citation mentioned that the SPL team is highly recommended for this category for its ‘SPL project that has a strong topical story and told it well’.��

Dr. Nawaf I. Almoosa, Acting Director, Head of Smart Infrastructure Research, EBTIC, and Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Khalifa University, said: “Achieving this success in the 2021 Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Awards across two categories strongly indicates the extent of cutting-edge technological innovation being produced by the EBTIC’s SPL team productive partnership with BT to accurately target the future requirements of the industry in these areas. Our team members have demonstrated their talent in another prestigious international competition, and we hope to continue exploring innovation through working on new projects in AI and ML-related areas.”

SPL is a platform developed at EBTIC and uses intelligent methods to simplify and streamline software governance, development, and migration to the Cloud. The technology is currently undergoing commercialisation as a start-up in collaboration with Khalifa Innovation Center (KIC). Salwa Alzahmi, an Emirati researcher and tech entrepreneur, is leading the SPL platform development and commercialization, and has been instrumental in driving the technology, its commercialisation and the collaboration with BT Applied Research to evaluate the tool’s business value. As part of the drive for commercialisation, Alzahmi has set up a UAE-based tech start-up in the Khalifa Innovation Center – KIC khalifainnovation.ac.ae that is registered at Abu Dhabi Global Market. The EBTIC-SPL research team also includes Ahmed Suliman, Corrado Mio and Sid Shakya.

At the Computing AI and Machine Learning Awards 2021 in London, one of the UK’s leading business technology information resource, EBTICs SPL won awards for “Best Cloud or Networking Automation Tool” and was highly commended in the category of “Best Use of Automation”

The judges commented that SPL, in winning the “Best Cloud or Networking Automation Tool” category “has the opportunity to hugely reduce code complexity, thus improving security and reducing the cost of cloud migration.”

Alzahmi, Senior Research at EBTIC who leads the SPL team, said “I’m so proud of my team to be recognised in such a fantastic way. It is testament to all the hard work that has been put in to make the SPL tool such a compelling solution.”

Dr. Nawaf Almoosa, Acting Director of EBTIC, said: “EBTIC has a history of innovating practical AI solutions and have been a leader in intellectual property generation in UAE for the past 10 years. These awards are a further testament to EBTIC’s expertise of applying AI techniques to the operations of its partner organizations, and to their effort to promote Intelligent Systems research in the UAE and the region. We are immensely proud for the SPL team to be winning such prestigious awards, and we have high hopes for the future of SPL. I’d like to thank the SPL Team: Salwa Alzahmi, Corrado Mio, Ahmad Suliman, and Sid Shakya for this great achievement.”

Computing’s AI & Machine Learning Awards recognise the best companies, individuals, and projects in the AI space today. The judging process covers every corner of the industry: security, ethics, data analysis, innovation and more, as well as showcasing the movers and shakers: the technology heroes and projects that deserve industry-wide praise. With judges from prestigious organisations, such as Expedia Group, Network Rail, MET Office, London Stock Exchange and Computing itself, the winning of these awards proves that SPL demonstrates an outstanding, innovative approach in the field of AI.

EBTIC spun-out SPL.Co Ltd as a start-up in its own right, incorporated in 2019 and registered at Abu Dhabi Global Market. It came about following the success of SPL as a research project in 2015. SPL.Co provides corporations with an intelligent software modernization solution to accelerate and reduce the high costs associated with upgrading software systems into a cloud infrastructure.

EBTIC has a very successful history with Computing awards. In 2019, EBTIC’s spares optimization project Inuitu, won two awards for ‘Outstanding AI/Machine Learning Project’ and ‘Most Innovative use of AI/Machine Learning’.

EBTIC has produced more than 500 scientific publications, developed more than 75 inventions, resulting in 60 granted patents, with more pending, and has trained more than 350 students,�� and 250 professionals. It has also organized 10 international technical workshops and developed numerous technologies and worked on many projects in collaboration with its partners and stakeholders.

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
10 August 2021

The post EBTIC’s SPL Team Wins Two Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Awards in UK appeared first on Khalifa University.

Etisalat Leadership Offers Insights into Future Careers for Students of AI and Engineering ��

Leaders from Emirates Telecommunication Group (Etisalat), and graduate recruits from the Etisalat AI Centre of Excellence shared their experience and offered insights into the role of artificial intelligence in industry with an emphasis on Etisalat’s AI strategy, and how students at Khalifa University can shape their academic journey to pursue a career in AI.

The seminar, developed jointly by Khalifa University Career Services Office, Etisalat, and the Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC), was titled ‘Embarking on a Career in AI – How Etisalat supports career ambitions of graduates’. Student participants learnt about changes at the workplace due to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the beneficial impact that artificial intelligence has already had on Etisalat’s business operations. Members from the Etisalat AI Centre of Excellence include more than 20 recently recruited Emiratis.

Dena Ali Al Mansoori, Group Chief Human Resources Officer, Etisalat, offered an insightful presentation on the future of work, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on recruitment processes, and how AI has helped the company continue with important recruitment initiatives. Speaking on AI and learning, Joseph Hayes, Director of Learning and Development Planning, discussed the ‘Power Skills’ that companies look for in the individuals that they employ, and how Etisalat uses a new AI-powered training platform to help develop their employees. Three Etisalat AI Team representatives, Hend Al Jasmi, Haifa AlHosani and Alyazia Ahli, also shared their experiences.

Al Mansoori said: “This was a great platform for the next generation of innovators to gain insights into the future of work. We were able to deep-dive into how AI has changed the competitive landscape and customer expectations, ultimately forcing organisations to change and adapt.

“With Etisalat’s vision to ‘Drive the digital future to empower societies’, we have undertaken our own digital transformation within our services, operations and internal capabilities. At a group level, Etisalat is now focused on acquiring, as well as developing and reskilling its existing workforce to meet the evolving and ever-changing requirements of its digital and traditional domains of business.”

Dr. Ahmed Al Shoaibi, Senior Vice-President, Academic and Student Services, and Professor of Practice, Khalifa University, said: “Since Etisalat is looking into boosting its AI workforce, the seminar offered an excellent opportunity for Khalifa University students to learn how to hone their skills and forge a future career in the AI discipline. We believe the event also helped undergraduates and postgraduates gain an understanding of the promising career opportunities available with Etisalat, while hearing first-hand from the AI Team about their experience in business, the projects they have delivered, and the AI training program at Etisalat.”

Dr. Ernesto Damiani, Director, Khalifa University Center for Cyber Physical Systems (C2PS), Director, Information Security Center, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, who works with EBTIC, offered an overview of the current and future artificial intelligence and machine learning program offerings, including a Minor in Artificial Intelligence, at Khalifa University.

The Etisalat AI Centre of Excellence graduates go through the bespoke development pathway that Etisalat has built, in alliance with its strategic partners, EBTIC, Microsoft and Accenture. EBTIC, a research and innovation center established by Etisalat, BT, and Khalifa University, and supported by ICT Fund, has helped the AI team with developing and upskilling in AI/Machine Learning (ML). Senior EBTIC researchers and innovation specialists supervise and collaborate with the AI team, to develop and deploy projects that deliver real-world business value to Etisalat.

EBTIC, along with Dr. Damiani, have also conducted a series of tailored IEEE-certified AI/Big Data and Data Scientist courses for the AI Team throughout 2020, upskilling them in practitioner skills, helping them to become advanced data scientists.

The three Etisalat AI Team members specifically discussed Etisalat’s AI strategy and objectives. They offered valuable insights and advice, gained from their own experiences, in order to inspire like-minded individuals in the current Khalifa University student body.

Clarence Michael
English Editor Specialist
9 May 2021

The post Etisalat AI Centre of Excellence Staff Members Share Experience with Khalifa University Students appeared first on Khalifa University.

With the right support to kick off her journey, this entrepreneur took her research to market.

Salwa Alzahmi is the founder of the tech startup SPL Co. Ltd, award-winning research scientist and multiple patents holder. Having received her Master’s Degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Khalifa University in 2014, she is leading the software engineering research group at the Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC, established by Etisalat, British Telecom, and Khalifa University, and supported by the ICT Fund). Here, she shares her story of making the jump from researcher to entrepreneur and the challenges in taking her research work to the market.

There is a fire inside that is fuelled by passion and a willingness to solve problems

I have always been passionate about building my own products and addressing new trending market segments in technology, particularly software governance techniques, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.�� I participated in a number of research projects during my studies and even won the UAE IT Challenge Award for Best Educational Application, the Best Master Student Award at Khalifa University and the Khalifa University Research Excellency Award.

After my studies, I joined the workforce, starting as a software engineer for a start-up company, managing enterprise software. Working with smaller private companies that actually develop and deliver projects and with government companies leading the modernization agenda equipped me with vast and relevant hands-on experience.

The journey often starts with unique insights acquired during the early career and an inspiration that keeps you motivated

I had exposure to the struggle and limitations in IT processes and technologies when maintaining outsourced and legacy software systems. This gave me a unique advantage in understanding the gaps and opportunities in current IT systems. Hence, I was confident in my skills and the business opportunity for my research (SPL project). Based on this, I leveraged the output from my research at Khalifa University’s Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC) to build a successful product that became the foundation for my business.

I was curious about business when I was a researcher because it aligns very well with my goal of supporting the UAE’s growing knowledge economy. The UAE’s futuristic vision of championing the creation of smart government services, artificial intelligence solutions, cutting-edge data analytics, and other futuristic technologies has inspired me to put great effort into building my company. Such home-grown innovation entrenched in technology is exactly aligned with the government’s economic development priorities.

The mindset shift that was needed to move into entrepreneurship

I faced a number of challenges as I entered the entrepreneur space. As a scientist, I used to make decisions based on complete data or information. In contrast, an entrepreneur must have the ability to make decisions—such as starting a company—on incomplete data, and that means taking a risk, particularly when introducing a new technology like SPL that essentially creates a new market segment.

I had to get a basic understanding of the elementary financial aspects involved in business and legal topics such as contracts, liability and intellectual property. However, being a scientist, my research and learning skills helped me navigate the entrepreneurial pathway much faster. Coming from an engineering technology background, learning to put my thoughts into a business-oriented context was one of the most challenging parts. This was critical for enabling me to learn how to explain my business to customers and investors, as well as learn how to define my product’s unique selling points and to position my product in the market.

Global challenges addressed through local technological and business leadership

The UAE is a global leader in digitalization. A huge part of this is related to supporting local corporations to move to the cloud, integrating new forms of technologies that speed up, automate, and improve business. Since these technologies require heavy computational power and storage space, cloud computing is the optimal solution. My start-up, SPL Co., was founded to speed up the process of migrating software systems to the cloud, as this can take a long time and require a lot of resources with the traditional manual approach. Upgrading company-wide software was a challenge due to a lack of documentation and expert guidance. Adding to the complexity, the companies I worked with often lacked the resources and skills to modernize enterprise applications. SPL’s solution can reduce the cost of migration to the cloud by up to 30 percent. It is one of the first tools of its kind that provides an AI model for automatically identifying and composing the part of the system code that should be lifted to the cloud, and assists with micro-service implementation. SPL solution maps out the entire architecture of the software code within hours through the runtime and static code analysis powered by cutting edge artificial intelligence and automation technologies. It reduces the cost of re-architecting the monolithic application by up to 30% and transforms it into a cloud-native architecture.

Getting the right local support to kick-off the journey

Khalifa University, EBTIC and the Khalifa Innovation Center (KIC) helped me along the way. Khalifa University management realized at an early stage the importance of bringing industry and academia together at the research level to realize and accelerate innovation in the UAE. A great example of this is EBTIC, where the SPL project was born. SPLCo is a product of this system, which has provided me with the right platform and infrastructure to build the research foundation of SPL, prototype my solution and productize it with leading industrial partners. After a successful trial with BT in the UK, and the great recognition we got from the local and international communities, I received further support from EBTIC to fund the SPL product development. Through this, I was able to form my great team, Dr. Corrado Mio, Ahmed Sulaiman, Dr. Sid Shakya, and Dr. Ivan Boyd, who have supported me in this journey, along with the support received from EBTIC management, especially Dr. Nawaf Almoosa. EBTIC helped tremendously in developing my entrepreneurial skills, giving me the opportunity to work very closely for three months with an international consultancy firm to build the SPL business case.

Getting the right local support to accelerate the startup journey

The Khalifa Innovation Center (KIC) is a one-of-a-kind center in the UAE, focusing on deep tech start-ups derived from successful research projects conducted in local universities and research centers. The center supports innovation and the knowledge economy of the country, and the incubation program clearly outlined the key steps to develop my business from different perspectives. Coming from an engineering background, learning to put my thoughts in a business-oriented context was a huge benefit. Early intervention by industry professionals through a mentoring program was also vital in supporting the initial development of my start-up.

Digital transformation is a reality that a corporation cannot escape. SPL Co. is here to help overcome the challenges involved in upgrading legacy software and moving companies to the cloud.��

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
29 April 2021

The post Meet the KU Alumna Helping Businesses Modernize appeared first on Khalifa University.

By Dr. Nawaf I. Almoosa

Cities become ‘smart’ only when they offer services that properly take into account the needs of their population and of visitors. City services have to be context-dependent and support the achievement of city-specific goals.

During the third session of the INNOV-Italy UAE Webinar Series, I participated in a webinar that highlighted multi-disciplinary smart city solutions that blend together the socio-cultural and technical aspects of iconic cities like Rome, Milan, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I was joined by Italian and UAE academia, industries and public institutions to discuss new collaborations as well as novel ideas for new projects.

In one of the sessions, Dr. Steve Griffiths, Senior Vice President for Research and Development at KU, and I covered our perspectives on research and innovation that can support the development and evolution of smart cities and sustainable mobility.

New technologies are enabling cities to become ‘smart.’ ‘Smart cities’ is a concept that has evolved very quickly thanks to the recent advancements in sensors and artificial intelligence technologies that enable analysis of massive data sets. There is no shortage of start-up companies trying to address every sector of smart cities. As Dr. Steve said, on the technology side, clearly there’s a good opportunity for the Internet of Things, high speed communications networks, low-earth orbit satellites providing data and lots of other ways of bringing data to intelligent systems. But a smart city is not just a collection of technologies.

In fact, the notion of a city itself is not always so clear. City definitions differ: in Japan, a city needs 50,000 inhabitants; in Norway, just 200. But cities are very important, no matter how they are defined. 55 percent of the world’s population lives in cities—4.2 billion people—and 80 percent of global GDP is generated in cities. They account for three-quarters of human-caused global carbon dioxide emissions and an estimated two-thirds of global final energy use.

In the UAE’s definition of the smart city, we include the notion of sustainability, which is perhaps the most critical aspect of intelligence. We look at the environment, we look at the economy, and we look at social welfare, bringing numerous opportunities to have impact across a lot of different areas. Healthcare, safety, convenience, environmental quality and social connectedness all factor into the UAE’s vision for smart and sustainable cities.

Additionally, the Khalifa University R&D strategy focuses on all the tenets of the 4th Industrial Revolution, including information and communication technologies, robotics, artificial intelligence and data science, and advanced materials and manufacturing. Like a city, our strategy involves integrating all the different sectors aligned with UAE priorities. The Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC), of which I am the Acting Director, is one of the key collaborators along with Khalifa University’s other research centers focused on smart and sustainable cities in the UAE.��

EBTIC is built on open innovation and collaboration between academia, industry and government. We function like any academic research center in terms of our research and putting out scientific publications, but we also work closely with government and industry stakeholders in applied research, where we produce different concepts and other value-driven research.

Smart societies, infrastructure and enterprise form the backbone of EBTIC’s research and innovation architecture. Our research teams aim to apply tools from ICT, operations research, data science and artificial intelligence to solve problems in telecommunications infrastructure and to optimize operational efficiency for enterprises. We also use these tools to solve problems in society in general, specifically in areas of sustainability, education, healthcare and social networking.

Academia is crucial in developing a smart city—another aspect of a smart city is having a strong educational system. We have outreach programs to educate professionals in data science and the impact of the technology at a high level and how it can be used in organizations and society in general. Since 2015, we have trained more than 250 professionals in the UAE, with Prof. Ernesto Damiani, Senior Director of the Khalifa University Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute, leading that effort.

The UAE is at the forefront of important work in smart cities, with the smart and sustainable cities of the future the path forwards for smart and sustainable growth.

Innov-Italy UAE aims at improving the opportunities for bilateral cooperation between the UAE and Italy in six high-innovation sectors, including cybersecurity, space, smart cities and sustainable mobility, life sciences, food technologies, and renewable energy.

Dr. Nawaf I. Almoosa is Acting Director of the Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC) at Khalifa University.

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EBTIC researchers have developed tools to collect and analyze tweets about coronavirus in four different languages to identify trends and patterns among the population of the UAE.��

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In a world where more than 500 million tweets are sent every day, there is little doubt that social media platforms such as Twitter are vital to understanding the zeitgeist. As the novel coronavirus swept the globe and developed into a pandemic, social media offers an instant insight into how Covid-19 is impacting a population.

There have been over 628 million tweets about coronavirus so far. Understanding their content and the sentiment behind their messages is crucial to assisting policymakers and, in the case of Covid-19, identifying where public health messaging can be improved. Social media is an instant way of spreading information and knowledge, and provides a snapshot of a population’s understanding and feelings about a topic for analysts to investigate.

Researchers from Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC) have developed tools to collect and analyze tweets about coronavirus in four different languages to identify trends and patterns among the population of the UAE. Mr. Ahmad Al-Rubaie, EBTIC Head of Strategy and social media research, collaborated with Dr. Di Wang, EBTIC Chief Researcher, Dr. Ahmed Al Dhanhani, EBTIC Senior Researcher, and Hamda Al Ali and Sara Al Shamsi, both EBTIC Research Associates, to produce a series of dashboards for monitoring Covid-19 tweets.

Extracting useful information and making use of it is the challenging part of any analysis, and being able to automate the processes using machine learning techniques will allow the approach taken to be used across many application areas and in difficult times, such as during a global health pandemic.

“The two main components we developed are harvesters and classifiers,” explained Mr. Al-Rubaie.�� “Then, we used open source visualization tools to show the outcome of the analyses we performed in real time and in short time scales.”

EBTIC has developed ‘harvesters’ that can harvest tweets in real time. As soon as someone tweets about coronavirus, the EBTIC harvester collects it. But recognizing the content of a tweet when it doesn’t actually contain the word ‘coronavirus’ can be difficult for a human, let alone a machine. So EBTIC also developed a number of classifiers using artificial intelligence to sort tweets into pre-defined categories.

“We can categorize content through machine learning and for different use cases, primarily Arabic and English text, but also Hindi and Urdu for our coronavirus analysis,” explained Mr. Al-Rubaie. “We focus on short text messages, such as tweets, because tweets provide near instantaneous insight into the population views and opinions. However, it’s much more challenging than longer text content. Short text tends to include a very limited amount of information, grammar errors, spelling mistakes, and sometimes content that is specific to a user. These challenges make accurate classification of short text difficult.”

The researchers used their harvesters to collect tweets and then trained their classifiers on these tweets to organise them into pre-defined categories: symptoms, health advice, health news, lockdown, and other. The classifiers used both shallow learning and deep learning AI techniques to classify the tweets, achieving high accuracy in a short time compared with other state-of-the-art techniques. The researchers also developed pre-processors to improve the classification accuracy even further.

The team also developed an intelligent method to detect and measure change in key terms used in social media per hour, per day and per week.

“Our method automatically detects the key terms with highest usage in social media to quickly identify any changes in user interest and discussion topics. We also identify sources driving discussions and whether they are official trusted sources, or private individuals, which is the foundation for our work on misinformation detection. This method is key for monitoring the impact that Covid-19 is having on the population through time,” said Dr. Al-Dhanhani.

This data is visualized through a number of dashboards, highlighting important patterns and trends in the information. Data visualization uses visual elements like charts, graphs and maps to provide an accessible way to see and understand information and data. In the world of Big Data, these tools and technologies are essential to analyzing massive amounts of information and understanding trends and patterns in the data.

The researchers also developed harvesters to gather relevant information from the internet, such as the number of Covid-19 cases reported and the price of various goods and products sold online.

“We also collected information on Covid-19 cases announced by official sources in the UAE and plotted those against the trends from social media,” said Dr. Wang. “We use the graphs to plot the key topics of interest and the change in conversations on social media through time. This helps to highlight what type of information is important to the public and at what time.�� We can also gauge the level of conversation in line with the cases being announced.”

Collecting information on the prices of food and other products sold online may seem incongruous to the thoughts and feelings of people on social media, but these data can highlight interesting trends among the population. A quick look at the dashboards not only shows correlations between social media discussions and the number of cases, but also valuable trends, such as the stability of the essential food market and the property market throughout the pandemic.

“We can provide an insight to the impacts of the pandemic on essential food prices and even property prices in the region, simply by plotting key trends against the number of tweets and their contents,” explained Mr. Al-Rubaie.

Jade Sterling
Science Writer
2 November 2020

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Researchers from Khalifa University’s Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC) participated in a virtual workshop organized and hosted by BT Applied Research’s Global Research and Innovation Program (GRIP) on COVID-19 pandemic responses on Monday, 11 May 2020. BT GRIP consists of BT research and innovation centers in collaboration with leading research institutions around the world.

The event gathered distinguished researchers from across GRIP’s collaborative base to discuss and develop initiatives between global universities to tackle emerging problems in the COVID-19 pandemic, share global experiences and best practices, and to identify the key issues and potential R&D collaborations that can take place.

The main focus of the talks was to understand, limit, and mitigate the pandemic and its impact on individuals, communities, and businesses. The workshop also looked at how countries can prepare for a sustained period of disruption followed by a new “post-COVID” normal, with potential areas such as contact tracing, modeling, and the expected impacts on work, the economy, education, and travel.

Prof. Ernesto Damiani, Research Professor at EBTIC, Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Institute, Director of C2PS Center, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Khalifa University, gave a talk on a COVID-19 tracking solution he is developing, called Spatio-temporal active surveillance (PLACES). This project is one of 14��flagship initiatives of the Khalifa University COVID-19 R&D Task Force. Prof. Damiani explained the completed work, as well as the next steps the task force is working on.

Dr. Dymitr Ruta, Chief Researcher at EBTIC, also discussed how the team has designed, developed, and tested a COVID-19 transmission model based on various data points that have been collected. Using the latest predictive management techniques the capability enables targeted investigations of specific high-risk areas, and provide forecasts on likely transmission rates in future scenarios.

Other speakers at the workshop were from Monash University, Australia; Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; Indian Institute of Science, India; University of East Anglia, UK; University of Surrey, UK; Ulster University, UK; BT Applied Research, UK; and MIT, USA.

Each speaker discussed their national situation in terms of the pandemic response, as well as the current key challenges. They also presented some of the current project activities currently underway in each university.

Speaking after the workshop, Dr. Nawaf Almoosa, Acting Director of EBTIC, commented, “We were delighted to take part in this extremely informative event. It was fascinating to hear from the distinguished speakers, and we’re grateful to BT for organizing it. EBTIC will participate in the follow-up workshops to ensure that links remain, and we are exploring collaboration opportunities.”

News Writer
9 June 2020

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Offering the opportunity for skilled individuals to showcase the future of Abu Dhabi through the applied use of artificial intelligence, the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA) issued four challenges to teams comprising government employees, academia, and private sector startups. The ADDA Hackathon was in collaboration with KU’s Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Institute, with a number of students from KU and EBTIC. At the ADDA Hackathon 2019, 16 teams competed from various UAE and international universities.

“The Hackathon involved applying artificial intelligence to tackle challenges set by Abu Dhabi government entities,” explained Dr. Ahmed Al Shoaibi, SVP Academic Affairs at KU. “The participating teams comprised a mix of government and industry employees, as well as university students. I’m pleased to report that the top three awards were won by teams led by KU students.”

Each challenge was issued by a government department and focused on applying artificial intelligence to a real business challenge. The 48-hour hackathon saw teams develop solutions for wildlife management, city traffic management, inspection route management, and government policy management.

First place was awarded to the team including Ahmed Al Dhanhani, Farah AlKurdi and Amenah Abood Salem from KU. This team took the challenge issued by the Department of Transport and investigated an Adaptive Toll System, based on historical data of traffic throughout the capital. Their model predicted traffic behavior and provided a solution for re-routing traffic for decongestion via an adaptive toll system.

Second place went to Ahmad Obeid, Maryam AlShehhi, Abdel Gafood Haddad, Mahmoud Khalil and Mohamed Alzarooni. This team proposed a solution for visual animal tagging to solve the Wildlife Management challenge. Their solution involved replacing physical animal tags with an intelligent visual identification system to help identify patterns and perform predictions on essential day-to-day animal functions.

In third place, Nada Alhashmi, Abdulla Alshimmari and Begad El Houty were the KU team members taking the Government Policy Management challenge, in which they developed a virtual assistant to augment ADDA employee functions around policy and standards enquiries.

The winning teams received monetary prizes and official certificates and were also invited to present their solutions at the preliminary session in the Digital Next to Global Audience in Abu Dhabi in December 2019.

Jade Sterling
News and Features Writer
20 January 2020

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A team of researchers from KU’s Emirates ICT Innovation Center (EBTIC)�� has won Best Application Paper at the Chartered Institute for IT’s 39th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Cambridge. Himadri Sikhar Khargharia and Dr. Siddhartha Shakya, both from EBTIC, collaborated with researchers from BT on the winning paper.

The British Computer Society’s Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence (SGAI) hosted its Annual International Conference, bringing together researchers and developers at the cutting edge of AI solutions. The leading papers presented in each stream of the conference are reprinted as a special issue of an international journal and Khargharia’s paper is set to be among them alongside its publication in Lecture notes in Computer Science.

Khargharia presented his paper in the Application Stream, titled ‘Evolving Prediction Models with Genetic Algorithm to Forecast Vehicle Volume in a Service Station.’ This paper is one of many to emerge from the EBTIC smart surveillance system designed to help streamline operations at petrol stations.

Using Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure in the form of CCTV cameras and sensors, the system captures the data required to build a demand prediction model and analytical dashboard to provide insight into the large volume of data collected.

“In the service industry, having an efficient resource plan is of utmost importance for operational efficiency,” explained Khargharia. “An accurate forecast of demand is crucial in obtaining a resource plan that can be efficient. At the conference in Cambridge, I presented a real world application of an AI forecasting model for vehicle volume forecasting in service stations. This improved a previously proposed approach by intelligently tuning the hyper parameters of the prediction model, taking into account the variability of the vehicle volume data in a service station.”

“We built a genetic algorithm-based model to find the topology of the neural network and to also tune additional parameters related to data filtration, correction, and feature selection. Our results were compared with those from ad hoc parameter settings of the model from previous work and show that the combined genetic algorithm and neural network-based approach further improves forecasting accuracy. Now, service stations can better manage their resource requirements,” added Dr. Shakya.

A genetic algorithm is a search heuristic inspired by Charles Darwin’s theory of natural evolution. The algorithm reflects the process of natural selection where the fittest individuals are selected for reproduction. The same principle can be applied to a search problem where a model selects the best solution out of a set. The algorithm assesses the ‘fitness’ of the solution to the problem and produces a score. In the selection phase, the solution with the highest fitness score is selected and then crossed at random with another solution. This new generation of solutions is then used in the next iteration of the algorithm to result in a different, ideally more effective set of solutions.

This improvement to the forecasting model is part of phase three of the system’s development in which capabilities are developed and the program can make business intelligence decisions.

Jade Sterling
News and Features Writer
20 January 2020

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