Launching the Artificial Intelligence Program at NU

The School 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 would be a pioneer at the national, regional, and international levels. The program will offer advanced education, research courses, and technical applications in emerging areas that rely on artificial intelligence.

Dr. Wael Akel, the vice president of Nile University for Academic Affairs, said that "The AI program aims to prepare a generation of distinguished specialists in artificial intelligence and its subfields. Such as machine learning and its applications, the recognition of patterns, and intelligent information systems in health and transportation. As well as processing systems' natural languages, recommendation systems, and smart cities."

The program will also focus on developing vital research programs to keep pace with this field's continuous and rapid development, 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 developing 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 introductory 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 would focus on modern practical applications and depend on the acquired scientific and technological basis by implementing laboratory plans. This would enable the student to link the theoretical basis to the practical side, so they cannot connect the academic study with the needs of the modern industry. However, the graduate is expected to have sufficient experience to apply computer science and artificial intelligence science in various fields.

Fields like:

• Image processing.
• Natural language applications in their multiple forms.
• Other similar tasks in artificial intelligence technology and advanced computer science.
• This qualifies him to work in data analysis and software development and related functions as programmers, algorithm experts, and processing experts in data analysis.

In a statement by Dr. Mustafa Al-Attar, Director of the AI program, 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 associated with patients; therefore, the Artificial Intelligence(AI) applications will be used to reduce these challenges. This is what China had recently done when it resorted to forecasting tools provided by the artificial intelligence program as an alternative to human manual labor during the COVID-19 crisis.

AI was also used to develop ultraviolet cameras, face recognition technology, and robots, all of which were among the most prominent tools used in attempts to escape the emerging coronavirus and which humans will later rely on in arduous and dangerous related work.