The KAUST Conference on Artificial Intelligence is a two full-day event that will bring together KAUST faculty and researchers to highlight exciting AI research being done on campus. It will feature the broad AI landscape at KAUST by delving into topics on machine learning, AI theory and foundations, systems, and the many applications of AI in various scientific fields ranging from healthcare and biology to automation and visual computing.

The conference will be a hybrid event with both online streaming and (limited) in-person attendance. To register for the event (either in-person or online), please fill out this registration form. Registration for in-person participants will remain open until midnight of April 25, 2021. There is no deadline for remote attendence.

The conference will be a hybrid event with both online streaming and (limited) in-person attendance. 

  • In-person participation: Due to HSE restrictions, there is a limited number of available seats for in-person attendees in the Auditorium of Building 20. We will try our best to accommodate the preferred mode of participation you enter in the registration form. 

  • Online participation: The conference will be streamed as a webinar over Zoom: Join Zoom Webinar here.

Register Here Zoom Webinar

Recording (KAUST Intranet) Recording (External link)

 

Agenda

Arabian Standard Time (UTC+3)

 

Day 1 - Wednesday, April 28th, 2021

In-Person Registration (08:30 - 09:00)

In-person attendees are requested to register physically in the hall of building 20 to collect their badge.

A Word from the President

Time Speaker Presentation
09:00 - 09:20 Dr. Tony Chan (KAUST President) Opening Remarks

Session 1-A: Machine Learning

Time Speaker Presentation
09:20 - 09:40 Prof. Bernard Ghanem The AI Initiative at KAUST
09:40 - 10:00 Prof. Xiangliang Zhang AI-enabled Analysis of Our Social Expression and Interactions in Digital Age
10:00 - 10:20 Prof. Peter Richtárik Recent Advances in Optimization for Machine Learning

Networking Break (10:20 - 10:40)

Session 1-B: AI and Healthcare

Time Speaker Presentation
10:40 – 11:00 Prof. Pierre Magistretti KAUST Smart Health Initiative: Importance of AI and ML
11:00 – 11:20 Prof. Xin Gao Towards AI-based precision medicine in breast cancer – from molecular-, to imaging-, to radiogenomics analysis
11:20 – 11:40 Prof. Jesper Tegner AI and Health – Challenges and Opportunities

Spotlights (11:40 - 12:20)

Vote
 

Networking Break (12:20 - 13:00)

Session 1-C:  AI and Automation

Time Speaker Presentation
13:00 – 13:20 Mohamed Abdel-Aal Practical Lessons and Opportunities from Testing Autonomous Mobility at KAUST
13:20 – 13:40 Prof. Eric Feron Enabling Safe Cyber-Physical System autonomy with AI
13:40 – 14:00 Prof. Shehab Ahmed Automation and Insights for Improved Oilfield Operations
14:00 – 14:20 Prof. Meriem T. Laleg Fish Behavior Recognition and Data-driven Control for Smart Aquaculture
14:20 – 14:40 Prof. Michael Berumen Next-Gen Mapping and Monitoring of Coral Reefs with SLAM and SfM

Networking Break (14:40 - 15:00)

Session 1-D:  AI and Systems

Time Speaker Presentation
15:00 – 15:20 Prof. Marco Canini Accelerated Deep Learning via Efficient, Compressed and Managed Communication
15:20 – 15:40 Prof. Panagiotis Kalnis Efficient Parallel Training for Very Large Deep Neural Networks
15:40 – 16:00 Prof. Khaled Nabil Salama IMCP: An Efficient In-Memory Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) Processor
16:00 – 16:20 Prof. Paulo Esteves-Veríssimo AI for Cybersecurity vs. Cybersecure AI: a chicken and egg problem?

Day 2 - Thursday, April 29th, 2021

Session 2-A: AI Foundations

Time Speaker Presentation
09:00 - 09:20 Prof. Lawrence Carin (KAUST Provost) Counterfactual Representation Learning with Balancing Weights
09:20 - 09:40 Prof. Di Wang From Private Learning to Trustworthy Learning
09:40 - 10:00 Prof. Peter Richtárik On Solving a Key Challenge in Federated Learning: Local Steps, Compression and Personalization
10:00 - 10:20 Prof. Xiangliang Zhang Attackability of Machine Learning Models with Applications in the Discovery of Safety-critical Aerial Operations

Networking Break (10:20 - 10:40)

Session 2-B:  AI and Physics/Chemistry

Time Speaker Presentation
10:40 – 11:00 Prof. Ying Wu Artificial Intelligence(AI) Inspired Designs of Acoustic and Photonics Systems
11:00 – 11:20 Prof. Mani Sarathy Intelligent Design and Discovery of Molecules
11:20 – 11:40 Dr. Didier Barradas-Bautista Training Machines to Recognize Reliable Protein-Protein Docking Poses

Spotlights (11:40 - 12:20)

Vote
 

Networking Break (12:20 - 13:00)

Session 2-C:  AI and Biology

Time Speaker Presentation
13:00 – 13:20 Prof. Xin Gao RNA secondary structure prediction – revisiting an old problem from new perspectives
13:20 – 13:40 Prof. Robert Hoehndorf Revealing functional and phenotypic consequences of molecular aberrations through ontologies
13:40 – 14:00 Prof. Jesper Tegner Machine Learning for Science: Learning Representations and Governing Equations from Scientific Data

Networking Break (14:00 - 14:20)

Session 2-D:  AI and Visual Computing

Time Speaker Presentation
14:20 – 14:40 Prof. Peter Wonka Recent Topics in Generative Modeling
14:40 – 15:00 Prof. Mohamed Elhoseiny Imagination supervised Machines that can See, Create, Drive, and Feel
15:00 – 15:20 Prof. Dominik Michels Physics-based Modeling Meets Machine Learning

Networking Break (15:20 - 15:40)

Panel Discussion

Time Speaker Presentation
15:40 – 16:40 Dr. Tony Chan (KAUST President)
Prof. Lawrence Carin (KAUST Provost)
Prof. Bernard Ghanem
Prof. Xiangliang Zhang
Prof. Jesper Tegner		 Challenges, Prospects and Future of AI

Featured Spotlights