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Higher Educ. Announces Establishment of Tech Univ. in NAC


Sun 08 Sep 2019 | 04:39 PM
Mai Shaheen

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and Major General Mohamed El Assar, Minister of Military Production, inaugurated the First International Conference on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Modern Information Technologies in Building the Egyptian Knowledge and Innovation Society.

 

This conference is organized by the Computer and Information Sector of the Supreme Council of Universities in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology,  with the participation of a group of scientists and experts in the field of artificial intelligence and smart systems.

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and Major General Mohamed El Assar, Minister of Military Production

Eng. Amr Talaat said that cooperating with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research began when the President of the Republic issued his directives to prepare a strategy for artificial intelligence. He pointed out that the House of Representatives will discuss a legislation of data protection law to protect Egypt's data.

 

The minister stressed that investments in the field of artificial intelligence reached more than 37 billion dollars this year, while the investment value will reach 100 billion dollars, with an annual increase of 28% by 2023.

 

The proportion of spending in Africa and the Middle East does not exceed $ 290 million in the field of development of artificial intelligence applications; it is set to reach $ 500 million by 2023.

 

Talaat pointed out that Egypt has taken serious and good steps in multiple projects and produced a large amount of data, during the past decades.

 

He stressed that in the coming years, the government will apply the applications of artificial intelligence in diagnosis, medicine and agriculture.

 

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Al-Assar, said that the file of artificial intelligence is very important for the defense industries. The Ministry of Military Production is trying to cope up with modern industries by implementing production lines for the Fourth Revolution Industries in cooperation with the Research Center of the ministry.

Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research

On his part, Dr. Khalid Abdul Ghaffar, said that there is coordination among the state agencies to promote the artificial intelligence sector, pointing to the role of the Military Production Ministry in manufacture the materials or the artificial intelligence devices.

 

He explained that the role of the Supreme Council of Universities is to develop a plan and a vision to add new departments in the faculties of computers and information.

 

On the other hand, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Universities Mohammed Latif, stressed that the conference aims to maximize the utilization of expertise; to achieve the knowledge society and Egypt 2030 strategy, which coincides with the current state vision that includes the launch of smart governmental applications and digital transformation, noting that the use of artificial intelligence in many fields helps to develop them.

 

Head of the Committee of Computers and Information Sector of the Supreme Council of Universities, Dr. Gamal Darwish, said that they are currently preparing for the establishment of the University of Information Technology in the new administrative capital “NAC”, they will add two artificial intelligence departments in the faculties of computers and information in addition to the establishment of five new colleges.

 

He pointed out that the conference discusses a number of important topics, including: appropriate strategies and methodologies to build the Egyptian knowledge and innovation society through the use of artificial intelligence and modern information technologies, the exchange of knowledge and making use of global experiences and strategies in the development of appropriate methodologies to build the Egyptian knowledge and innovation society in order to achieve Egypt's strategy for Sustainable development 2030.

 

Darwish added that the initial framework of the technological basis, artificial intelligence and knowledge strategy is being prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications, pointing out to the impact of technology that allowed the emergence of new types of jobs and contributed to increasing the production, and supported innovation.

 

Several sessions will be held on the sidelines of the conference, on the prospects of artificial intelligence technologies in Egypt, the Egyptian national strategy in the field of artificial intelligence, the strategy of Singapore in the field of artificial intelligence, insights on improving information technology industry using artificial intelligence, universities plans to improve artificial intelligence, the impact of digitization and artificial intelligence on modern universities, as well as the future of innovation, information technology and artificial intelligence in Egypt, smart universities, and applications of artificial intelligence.

 

The conference is expected to host innovation and artificial intelligence exhibition.  12 leading international companies in the fields of information technology, such as (Cisco) and (IBM), in addition to universities such as (Cairo, Ain Shams, Zewail and Nile) will take part in the conference.

 

 

 

Contributed by Basant Ahmed