Presenting Omdena at the Abu Dhabi AI Connect Conference and Bringing AI Education in the UAE Community, by Moath Awawdeh, Ph.D.

Moath Awawdeh on how to make a real impact as the Omdena UAE Chapter Lead, and getting the amazing work of the Algeria and UAE Chapter recognized by the local industry and research community in Bahrain and at the Abu Dhabi AI Connect Conference.

Moath also talks about the newly launched Omdena Journal of Artificial Intelligence for Impact.

Moath, what is your background?

I was born in Jordan (officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan), a lovely and peaceful country in the Middle East, and grew up between Jordan and Bahrain, went to school in both, so a nice mix of school life and cultural diversity. After finishing my Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Jordan, I worked in industry traveling between Jordan, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. In 2012 I moved to Italy. At that time, I got a full scholarship to proceed with my postgraduate studies. I moved from Industry to Academia long back, and currently, I’m an assistant professor of engineering and applied research coordinator at a governmental university in UAE.  

What is the role of your Ph.D. in your life?

I did my Ph.D. in Control Engineering; Mathematical Engineering and Simulation, at the University of Genoa. The Ph.D. is a sense and responsibility more than a degree. I completed my postgraduate studies in Italy, the country that I visited for the first time in my life when I joined the University of Genova. Hence my Ph.D. journey was not only to study, learn and do research, but also to explore mainly a new mindset, culture, and lifestyle. Such a journey qualified me to pursue my career in academia, as well as getting some opportunities and experience that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to; not only due to the expert level of knowledge and research skills that we achieve during the Ph.D. study but also due to the level of responsibility, professionalism, ownership, and commitment which are empowered during the Ph.D. journey. Currently, as an educator, it is my responsibility to deliver such knowledge, support the community, and make a difference in the life of my students.  

Which of Omdena’s projects were the most interesting for you? 

For me, all of Omdena’s projects are interesting and promising due to the paradigm that Omdena and its collaborators follow. But the most interesting one for me was the challenge by UAE Omdena chapter, Machine Learning Approach to Detect Dust on Solar Panels in UAE. A Contribution toward Optimizing Cleaning Plan. During this project, we faced many challenges since the beginning, because of many reasons. Mainly I was not so familiar yet with Omdena’s challenges management system, as well as I was running another challenge at the same time. During the first week, I was seriously wondering about our capability of completing the project on time and as per its goal. But, once the collaborators had started showing their skills and dedication, things changed! I was learning more than contributing, learning how such great talents are dedicating their time, showing their passion, and sharing knowledge! The project took great steps forward the week after, and start progressing toward completion. I was happy to see how the team cooperate. Also, I got the opportunity to know the team members closely, and explore their capabilities. The project found a lot of interest in the local community as well as for professionals in the domain. This feedback was very important for us to realize the impact of our projects.

Tell us more about your experience as the Omdena UAE Local Chapter Lead.

Without a doubt! It is one of the best experiences! I have been in different positions, and different domains during my career, but never in such a role. A role derived from a passion to learn, support community growth, and make a difference.

I believe once you start with Omdena, you will never step back! Why? Simply because you are experiencing the impact of Omdena over the community, an impact that is purely fueled by passionate people.  Being an Omdena Community Lead, gave me many opportunities that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to. With all the challenges and requirements such a role is demanding, still, the feeling of making a difference makes it worthwhile!

Follow the Omdena UAE chapter for more exciting news

What is the partnership between your educational company in Bahrain and Omdena?

AI-Enabled for Education and Training is a Bahrain-based establishment with a multi-international partnership win-win agreement in line with the global transformation towards the fourth industrial revolution. It is geared towards empowering individual professionals and organizations in the field of artificial intelligence and emerging tools. AI-Enabled and Omdena share the same mission of empowering the community. We have set different objectives and plans for our partnership which are working towards them. We are currently focusing on providing educational content through Omdena school and Omdena local chapter. We’re exploring additional modes of collaborating with local institutions and agencies in Bahrain through the Omdena school. Also, we’re collaborating to establish here the local Omdena Chapter. We believe in Omdena’s mission of empowering the strength of the worldwide AI community, and we will together support the Bahrain community and share success.

Tell us more about the Omdena Journal of Artificial Intelligence for Impact.

Omdena Journal of Artificial Intelligence for Impact (Omdena JAII) was established as one of the open-access initiatives to support AI researchers, experts, and enthusiasts to publish their work and make it available free of charge worldwide. The journal accepts original research articles in artificial intelligence in different disciplines under various types of submission (regular articles, surveys, applications, applied research, case studies, tutorials, and reports). The journal is completely sponsored by Omdena with a mission of empowering the AI community with fully online open-access quality publications.

Stay tuned with Omdena to know more about Omdena Applied Research Journal

What are your impressions and insights after taking part in Abu Dhabi AI Connect 2022? What was your role in this event?

Abu Dhabi AI Connect 2022 is one of the most important events in UAE for this year which is “a global event that intends to contribute and accelerate the global AI revolution”. We have participated in the event under the demonstration category since the “Green Algeria Project”, a project by the Omdena Algeria Local Chapter, has been successfully selected to be presented during the show. Hence, my role was to present the project and its impact, as well as proudly represent Omdena. Despite my deep faith in Omdena’s message, I did not expect such praise and admiration from the audience. Everyone praised Omdena’s message and the way it works. Some had already heard about Omdena’s projects and were eager to learn more, while some were introduced to Omdena projects for the first time. Among some of the visitors was the Director of Digital Research at Technology Innovation Institute, the main host of the event. He expressed his great admiration for Omdena’s approach and mission in community service, and also his interest in providing the necessary support for Omdena’s projects.

We were visited by specialists from various sectors: academic, commercial, industrial, and research. Proudly, I can say that Omdena has achieved remarkable success through its presence and by introducing visitors to the importance of its projects and the way it works.

How did Omdena change your worldview?

From the first day, I joined the Omdena family. I understood the nobility and importance of its mission. I was not aware at first of the enormity and importance of what Omdena does until I began to notice the impact of its projects on the growth of communities and the level of development of Omdena’s community members.

It really was a surprise! Not only the enormity and importance of Omdena, but the extent to which the participants understood the importance of volunteering, belonging to communities, and being effective. Undoubtedly, Omdena has changed my view of many concepts, the most important of which is that society is still full of young talents who are thirsty for knowledge and eager to support their communities, which increases my responsibility to provide everything possible to contribute to the growth of the artificial intelligence sector and the growth of the local community.

Any tips for people who would like to follow a similar path to yours?

Monika, this is very difficult to answer, I’m not qualified to give such a recommendation. But what I can say is that… Life is full of challenges, but with dedication, belief, patience, passion, and consistent work we can achieve everything! We need always to remember our role in this life and our commitment to communities.  

“Even with a fully booked calendar, we have to find the time to socialize and look after our mental and physical health. The picture on the right is one of our sports activities which I arranged with my engineering team when I was chairing the department.”

Thank you, Moath, for this super-inspiring interview. I hope we’ll have the occasion to repeat this!