MBZUAI faculty member wins top prizes at European AI conference

Dr. Hang Dai, Assistant Professor in the Computer Vision department at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), the world’s first graduate-level, research-based artificial intelligence (AI) university, achieved first and second place in the Commands 4 Autonomous Vehicles (C4AV) Workshop Challenge, part of the recently-held 2020 European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV 2020), one of the top conferences in computer vision and machine learning.

Representing MBZUAI, Dr. Dai participated in the competition as part of two teams, earning two top spots for innovative use of artificial intelligence in the field of autonomous vehicles. 

The C4AV Workshop Challenge aims to develop state-of-the-art models that can tackle the joint understanding of vision and language in a self-driving car setting, overcoming in particular the AI challenge of joint understanding of language and vision. Making progress on this front, especially on tasks such as vision question answering, image-captioning, and object referral, will enable progress towards new products and services empowered by AI. 

Speaking on his win, Dr. Dai said: “Artificial intelligence has a considerable role in the development of our world, especially in terms of more efficient and sustainable transport options. It is an honor to have won these recognitions alongside my teammates. Through this win I hope to inspire more young people to explore the potential of AI and its applications in ways that can change our world for the better.”

Professor Sir Michael Brady, Interim President of MBZUAI, said: “MBZUAI is proud of Dr. Dai’s successes. His passion and commitment to using AI to resolve pertinent challenges demonstrates the spirit that we embody at the University. It is my hope that the students set to join our first cohort in January 2021 will draw inspiration from the successes of Dr. Dai and the rest of our faculty, who are at the leading edge of the AI field across the world.” 

MBZUAI will offer MSc and PhD level programs while also engaging policymakers and businesses around the world so that AI is harnessed as a force for positive transformation. 

With the first cohort of students set to commence classes in January 2021, the University is currently accepting applications for its Fall 2021 semester. Graduate students can apply to MBZUAI via the University’s website.