The Faculty of Information Technology and Computer Science at Nile University has announced the launch of the artificial intelligence program (AI) for undergraduate students starting from the academic year 2020/2021. Dr. Tarek Khalil, the university’s president, stated that the program will be a pioneer at the national, regional and international levels. The program will offer advanced educational and research courses and technical applications in the emerging areas that rely on artificial intelligence.
Dr. Wael Akel, vice president of Nile University for Academic Affairs, said that the AI program aims to prepare a generation of distinguished specialists in the field of artificial intelligence and its sub-fields such as machine learning and its applications, the recognition of patterns and smart information systems in health and transportation, as well as processing systems’ natural languages and recommendation systems and smart cities.
The program will focus also on developing strong research programs to keep pace with the continuous and rapid development in this field, besides promoting a kind of close partnership with the local and international industry as indicated by Dr. Ahmed Hassan, Faculty of Information Technology and Computer Science Dean at NU. The program will contribute to the development of industry and specialized computing services for the industrial community in Egypt and abroad. Given the nature of the program and its dependence on the basic sciences of computers and mathematics and its applications, the program will depend on providing basic courses while being in line with the emerging learnings of development in computer science and its applications.
Dr. Ahmed Hassan also added that during the study, the program will focus on modern practical applications, and will depend on the acquired scientific and technological basis, by implementing laboratory plans that enable the student to link the theoretical basis to the practical side to link academic study with the needs of the modern industry. The graduate is, thus, expected to have sufficient experience to apply computer science and artificial intelligence science in various fields, which qualifies him to work in the field of data analysis and software development and related functions as programmers, algorithm experts, and processing experts in data analysis, image processing, natural language applications in its various forms and other similar functions in the field of artificial intelligence technology and advanced computer science.
In a statement by Dr. Mustafa Al-Attar, director of the AI program, he stressed that the importance of the graduates of the program lies in solving the current challenges in various areas of life such as industry, agriculture, finance, business, and health. He gave an example in the health care field, related to the significant increase in the amount of data and information in terms of the cost and results related to patients; therefore, the applications of the artificial intelligence program will be used to reduce these challenges. This is exactly what China has recently done when it resorted to the use of forecasting tools provided by the artificial intelligence program as an alternative to human manual labor during the COVID-19 crisis. AI was used in the development of ultraviolet cameras, face recognition technology, and robots, all of which were among the most prominent tools that were used in attempts to escape the emerging coronavirus and which humans will later rely on in arduous and dangerous related work.