Mohamed bin Zayed University of AI to get new supercomputer

Device will be used to accelerate scientific discovery in health care, structural engineering, law enforcement, supply chain management and sustainability

Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence is an Abu Dhabi postgraduate institution which was founded in 2019. Photo: Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence

MBZUAI describes itself as the world’s first graduate research university focused on artificial intelligence and its future applications across industrial sectors. Photo: Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence

Professor Michael Jordan, MBZUAI laureate. Courtesy Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence

Dignitaries gather at the launch of MBZUAI in 2019. Chris Whiteoak / The National

MBZUAI says that it aims to advance AI “as a global force for positive progress”. Photo: MBZUAI

Students are offered a full scholarship for the master’s and PhD programmes. Chris Whiteoak / The National

The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence is getting a new supercomputer capable of carrying out the most complex calculations.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced that it would build the supercomputer, which it says will “enhance the university’s ability to run complex AI models with extremely large data sets, and increase predictability in research analyses in fields including energy, transportation and the environment”.

Supercomputers are far more powerful than general-purpose computers and are typically used to address the most demanding problems in the world.

These include the development of medicines, the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, the exploration of oil and gas reserves, the simulation of nuclear weapon explosions and weather forecasts.

In October, the National Centre for Meteorology said a supercomputer being developed by HPE was being built to help the UAE’s national forecaster to predict weather patterns more accurately and improve cloud-seeding missions.

In 2020, Group 42, an AI and cloud computing company in Abu Dhabi, offered Artemis — the world’s 26th most powerful supercomputer — to researchers looking to contain the coronavirus.

The university will house the new supercomputer in its Campus Super Computing Centre, where it hopes to hasten the pace of scientific discovery in many areas, including health care, structural engineering, law enforcement, supply chain management and sustainability.

In addition to being a research resource for the faculty and students, the supercomputer will help the university to become an AI talent developer and innovation centre that brings together the business community to drive entrepreneurship in the AI sector.

MBZUAI already is contributing to initiatives such as the Emirati Genome Programme, which uses AI-based tools to extract and interpret large amounts of complex data resulting from DNA sequencing, and a project by the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, better known as Seha, that uses AI algorithms to predict heart attacks.

“Supercomputing plays an essential role in unleashing AI to achieve significant breakthroughs for organisations worldwide, across public and private sectors,” said Justin Hotard, HPE's executive vice president and general manager for high-performance computing, AI and Labs.

“MBZUAI’s Campus Super Computing Centre is demonstrating this capability to unlock new possibilities in AI and strengthen UAE’s position as an AI-driven nation to advance key initiatives in health care, sustainability and engineering.”