The newly established Metaverse Center is set to revolutionize immersive technologies, generative AI in communication, healthcare, entertainment, and education.
Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has launched two new centers, namely the MBZUAI Metaverse Center (MMC) and the MBZUAI Incubation and Entrepreneurship Center (MIEC). Launched at GITEX, it aligns with this year’s theme, ‘The Year to Imagine AI in Everything’, and highlights the university’s commitment to harnessing the transformative power of AI and finding solutions addressing the most pressing global challenges.
The Metaverse Center is a full stack AI research center focused on the metaverse and is dedicated to pioneering AI-driven immersive technologies, particularly for communication, healthcare, entertainment, and education. It promises to help MBZUAI stay at the forefront of this emerging and interdisciplinary field (computer vision, generative AI, mixed reality, multimedia, and natural language processing (NLP)) with a lasting impact on academia, industry, and society.
Led by Director of Metaverse Center and MBZUAI Associate Professor of Computer Vision, Hao Li, along with MBZUAI Professor of Computer Vision, Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, the MMC is a futuristic vision brought to life – designed to harness the full potential of AI – as it builds the next generation of immersive online user experiences, digital content generation, and spatial computing technologies. This dedicated research center aims to be at the forefront, pioneering solutions that enhance user experiences, make the creation of digital environments more accessible and sustainable, streamline operations, and open new avenues of immersive training and education. Researchers at the center are showcasing advancements in AI-generated 3D avatar content, promoting lifelong learning that promises to become more immersive and more accessible than ever.
MIEC aims to drive business adoption in the AI domain while providing innovative AI-based solutions through developing an integrated ecosystem and nurturing future AI entrepreneurs and start-ups. It also benefits from a continuous stream of talent from the university, with more than 250 MSc and PhD students, 200-plus AI researchers, 100-plus alumni, and more than 62 leading faculty members, six of whom already have their own successful start-up ventures.
MBZUAI is participating under the umbrella of the Abu Dhabi Government Pavilion at GITEX Global 2023.
