Introduction

Alfaisal University’s AI Seminar Series explores ways artificial intelligence (AI) can benefit society, our environment, and the economy. In weekly talks, leaders from academia, industry, and NGOs, who are at the forefront of using AI for social good, showcase AI applications that are forging positive changes in healthcare, the environment, education, technology, government and more. Like the AI Center itself, the seminar series has a broad scope, covering both new methodological contributions, ground-breaking applications, and impacts on society.

Seminar on Feb 22nd, 2021

On Monday, Feb 22nd, the College of Engineering hosted Microsoft’s National Transformation Officer for Saudi Arabia, Eng. Zainab Alamin for a seminar titled, AI in Practice.

The seminar highlighted applications, opportunities, and transformative potential of AI-enabled systems and how AI is the defining technology of our times. Eng. Zainab described Microsoft’s principled approach for AI research and development which aims to amplify human ingenuity, transform industries and create a positive impact for people & society. She also highlighted the mission of Microsoft ‘to empower every person and every organization in the world to achieve more’ and the different ways in which Microsoft supports developers and data scientists in designing and deploying AI systems by providing platforms and tools that enable them. She also showcased examples of AI-driven innovations which enabled machines to see, hear, taste, smell, walk, talk, hover and fly. Eng. Zainab showed how big tech giants, traditional businesses, and entrepreneurs are using AI-enabled systems to stay competitive. Two case studies highlighted the applied domains of Microsoft’s Azure AI technologies. Eng. Zainab first described Azure’s AI-based real-time translation systems that were developed for the European parliament and showcased how speech recognition, processing and machine translation technologies were utilized to develop a tailored AI based tool that automatically transcribes and translates parliamentary debates in real time for the European Parliament, with the possibility to learn from human corrections and edits in all 24 languages of the European Union. Another example shed light on the Covid-19 Chatbots and Conversational Agents that were designed and developed on Azure AI to provide epidemiological data, case mapping, and support chat for citizens during the pandemic. She also showcased the AI school initiative by Microsoft and the process of enrolling in technical certification tracks that are offered via Microsoft AI platforms.

The event was attended by students and faculty in the College of Engineering, on campus and remotely via zoom. The event concluded with an open discussion with the audience and thanking the speaker by the Dean of the College of Engineering, Dr. Mohammed Anan.

Bio of the Speaker

Eng. Zainab Alamin | National Transformation Officer at Microsoft