Euro-Mediterranean University of Fez, Winning Bet on Future

By Dr. Abdel Haq Azzouzi

The Euro-Mediterranean University headquarters in Fez, Morocco, has witnessed the opening of a branch allotted to activities of the Chair of Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) that called: “Women in Science: Artificial Intelligence and the Future”

That chair aims at sustaining scientific research in the field of AI, encouraging girls and women in this field, and fixing the Culture of Outlook.

During his keynote speech on the opening, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, General-Director of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), expressed his delight at the inception of the Chair at the Euro-Mediterranean University in Fez which considered one of the most important universities that take distinguished place among other universities in the Islamic world.

The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fez, Morocco, has inked an agreement to establish the Chair of   ICESCO for Arts, Sciences and Civilizations at the university in order to upgrade the scientific products with added value in fields of art and thought and promote them.

Dr. Mustafa Bousmina, President of the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fez, indicated that 51% of the staff of the university is women and the female students are distinguished.

He explained that the Chair of the ICESCO  contributes to achieving equality between the two genders through building capabilities of female students, sustaining their existence and their contribution in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and continuing work in new fields.

In fact, the Euro-Mediterranean University comprises 43 state- members in the Mediterranean space and I have the honor to be one of the founders and a member of the Board of Directors.

The university can pride itself on two factors, the first one is that it is chaired by my friend Dr. Mustafa Bousmina, who is one of the most prominent scientists of physics in the world.

He is supervised by numerous scientists, has dozens of patents, and hundreds of Ranked scientific papers.

Dr. Mustafa Bousmina has a good name in the world as he has a unique biography because he is either a member or the president of the world academies for sciences and technology.

He is an ex-director of a major scientific at La Vale University in the Quebec area (Canada).

He was awarded many international prizes and he was selected by the most important universities in the world as one of the best scientists in the field of physics in the world.

Secondly, the university, with its numerous majors, has succeeded in positioning itself as a Mediterranean, African, and Arab hub to qualify future generations in the majors that will benefit their countries, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI); a matter which can be deduced from hosting the ICESCO Chair “Women in Science: Artificial Intelligence and the Future” at the university's campus.

Winning the bet on the future based on investment in strategic fields such as Artificial Intelligence.

We know that the US Senate has recently ratified, during a rare moment of between the understanding between the Democrats and Republicans, a motion to allot huge investment in sciences and technology.

That motion is considered a historic draft to resist the Chinese economy. The US plan suggests allotting more than $ 170 billion to fund research and development in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

The plan budgets $120 billion to a government agency (US National Sciences Foundation) to encourage research in various fields that considered the main ones such as Artificial Intelligence.

The plan also allots $1,5 billion to develop networks of the Fifth Generation (G5) in communications which is one of the basic controversial causes between the United States of America (USA) and China.

The Biden administration has sought for months ways to sustain the local products of industrial components like chips to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers.

Our university believes that whoever wins the race to technologies of the future such as Artificial Intelligence will be the leader of the world economy as nations make the world according to their concepts.

Moroccan Minister Mohamed Kabbaj, one of the pillars of development and economy in the country, had recently assured me in a metaphoric meaning story, that the nations achieve the smart reforms in the fields of economy, development, and outlook fields will win the bet on the future.

These reforms should be the engine that tow all cars of the train or in other words, some smart investment may bring with it all forms of development and guarantee upgrading, progress and well-place for societies.

But wasting time in marginal reforms or Arab-like reform,s never pushes the train of development.

Despite this investment may be huge it will be locked in place.

So a number of nations convince that winning the bet on the future, based on investment in strategic fields topped by Artificial Intelligence.

In our Arab countries, we should urgently discuss the question of majors and jobs of the future in the shadow of urgent and unprecedented conformations that are brought by the fourth industrial revolution and Artificial Intelligence.

This stirs a number of questions about the future of education and its relation with jobs of the future, especially in the light of studies that expect robots will replace and smart devices man in many fields of life and jobs over the years to come.

The states which scientifically secure a good place in the future, those succeed in developing and sustaining the national manpower in a manner that suits the high- sped changes that take place in the world, especially, in the fields of the economy of knowledge, the fourth industrial revolution and the Artificial Intelligence which needs development of programs and curricula to qualify human cadres that are able to handle with technologies of the fourth industrial revolution.

In this context, teachers and academics should be qualified to assure that they acquire abilities and skills of knowledge that enable them to transfer knowledge and modern skills to their students as well as aware of social, cultural, and political aspects that accompany the process of technological change.

Translated by Ahmed Moamar