Forging Pathways to Innovation through Collaborative Research
At Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU), a prestigious institute of higher learning in Saudi Arabia, the immense benefits of synergy are guiding the interconnected efforts of the university’s four Research Centers. Through teaching, training, and research, these Centers are jointly focused on delivering innovation. This innovation is addressing global needs for renewable energy sources, climate change solutions, data security, treatment of neurodegenerative disease in aging populations, and development of new advanced materials, to name a mere handful of myriad other research angles.
The four PMU Research Centers are named as follows: the Center for Futuristic Studies, the Center for Artificial Intelligence, the Cybersecurity Center, and the Patent Center. Overall, the dedicated work at each Center in part relies on the dedicated work of all the others moving forward together in concert, helping to advance goals of partnership, prosperity, peace, and understanding worldwide.
"At PMU, we are always interested in transformative research for the future," said Dr. Issa Al Ansari, President of PMU. "This interest drives the synergy of our four Research Centers and their members as they support each other in bringing innovative solutions to the challenges we all face as citizens of planet Earth.”
Making Progress, Center-by-Center
Starting with the Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd Center for Futuristic Studies (PMFCFS), this multidisciplinary institute specializes in the field of futures studies. Through PMFCFS, PMU has developed strong ties with relevant international organizations, such as the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF), a consultive partner with the United Nations and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and opened a chapter of the WFSF at PMU representing the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
On an initial level, future studies forecasts what the future holds and predicts human behavior in response to these projections. Based on these assessments, futures studies further seeks alternatives to any simple extension of the status quo that could usher in greater gains for people and the planet broadly. Examples include agricultural innovation, technological breakthroughs, medical advances, and social progress.
A potentially vital tool in bringing about new innovations across these many domains is artificial science fiction stories, AI in reality has indeed become ubiquitous in modern life in science, engineering, business, industry, and society.
Yet so far, AI has had relatively modest technological applications, appearing for example as predictive web searches, email spam filtering, online shopping and streaming service recommendations. In recent years, though, AI’s capabilities have increased dramatically, setting the stage for the technology to have immense impacts in the decades ahead. Some instances where AI is poised as a potentially game-changer include self-driving vehicles, AI-assisted medical diagnoses, content generation, and fundamental scientific research ranging from pharmaceuticals development to weather prediction.
To deliver on this promise, PMU has created the Center for Artificial Intelligence as one of its four Research Centers.
“The Center for Artificial Intelligence is established at PMU to fulfil its strategic research in applied AI to serve the needs of society and break new ground of scientific importance,” said Dr. Faisal Alanezi, Vice President for Academic Affairs at PMU. “The mission and objectives of Center for Artificial Intelligence are to provide excellence in research and development in machine intelligence with interdisciplinary applications and gain national and international recognition.”
Securing the Future
Inherent to the responsible and beneficial deployment of AI amidst the ever-growing reliance of the world on digital technologies is cybersecurity. PMU created the Cybersecurity Center as a Research Center to proactively address the threats posed by cybercriminals, synergistically working alongside future studies researchers and AI researchers in the process.
“Cybersecurity is a common global concern affecting individual users, enterprises, and nations alike,” said Dr. Faisal Alanezi. “The Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University's Cybersecurity Center was established to support the growth and progression of cybersecurity professionals through the latest curriculum, vibrant industry partnerships, community involvement, and training.”
Rounding out the Research Center synergy at PMU is the Patent Center. Established to support the protection of creative scholarly activities, inventions, and discoveries involving faculty & Students in PMU programs, the Patent Center plays a key role in nurturing innovation. Those innovations not only include advances in AI and cybersecurity pursued at their respective Research Centers, and informed by the work of futures studies specialists at PMU, but extending to the myriad other fields of science, engineering, and medicine actively practiced at the university.
“Across all four Research Centers, there is a rich and synergistic exchange of ideas, enthusiasm, and expertise that is fostering steps forward in critical areas for our world here in the 2020s and the decades just over the horizon,” said Dr. Al Ansari.
In these ways and more, PMU is also helping to fulfil Vision 2030, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) bold agenda of economic and social transformation that is opening up the nation to the world and benefitting global humanity. As an academic destination and research accelerator for KSA and beyond, PMU is striving ahead on the agenda's themes of an Ambitious Nation, a Thriving Economy, and a Vibrant Society.
At home and abroad, synergy is clearly a defining and connecting theme for PMU.
"In everything that we do at PMU, from undergraduate education to faculty-driven research, we strive to help secure a more prosperous future," said Dr. Al Ansari. "Our four Research Centers are vital to this shared mission.”
Ankit S. Bhosale
Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University
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Breaking Barriers: Empowering Transformational Education through Technological Advancements