MBZUAI to open AI lab at UAE climate ministry
New lab to focus on climatetech, agriculture and food security
#UAE #climate - Abu Dhabi-based Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has signed an agreement to establish the UAE's Ministry of Climate Change and Environment's (MOCCAE) first dedicated AI laboratory. The partnership aims to develop environmental, agricultural, and climate-related AI solutions to support the UAE's food security strategy and advance United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through innovative technology applications.
SO WHAT? - The agreement marks the launch of the ministry’s first ever AI lab, which will drive innovation in environmental, agricultural, and climate-related AI solutions. The UAE has one of the world's most challenging agricultural environments characterised by water scarcity and extreme temperatures, deserving of innovative technology solutions. The new lab will enable the ministry to develop AI solutions for environmental sustainability and food security challenges.
Here are some key points about this new initiative:
Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) has signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the UAE's Ministry of Climate Change and Environment's (MOCCAE) first dedicated AI laboratory.
The agreement was signed by Mohammed Saeed Al Nuaimi, Undersecretary of the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, and Professor Sami Haddadin, MBZUAI's Vice President of Research and Professor of Robotics.
The new laboratory will focus on developing AI applications for smart irrigation systems, crop planning optimisation, real-time air and water quality monitoring, climate risk prediction, carbon tracking, and agricultural robotics.
MBZUAI has already developed an AI-powered strawberry-picking robot designed to address global agricultural challenges through precision harvesting, waste reduction, and round-the-clock operation capabilities.
The university operates a partnership with US technology giant IBM to develop AI tools for monitoring, modelling, and visualising climate change effects, particularly focusing on urban heat island mapping.
MBZUAI's AI climate monitoring system analyses satellite imagery to map urban surface temperatures, identify hotspots, and guide urban greening initiatives across densely developed areas.
The laboratory represents the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment's first dedicated artificial intelligence research facility, marking a new phase in the UAE's environmental technology strategy.
Agricultural AI applications being developed include data-driven farming intelligence systems that conduct field surveys, yield estimation, and productivity enhancement through automated monitoring technologies.
ZOOM OUT - MBZUAI is already one of the region’s leading research institutions in climate and agricultural AI applications, with multiple ongoing projects leveraging AI for climate challenges. For example, the university developed the first grounded large vision-language model specifically designed for remote sensing scenarios, which combines satellite imagery with advanced language processing to analyse environmental data. A researfch team also developed a GeoChat+ project, for a wide range of climate- and environment-related tasks including tree species classification for biodiversity monitoring, methane plume detection for climate change mitigation, land cover classification for sustainable development, earthquake prediction through ground deformation analysis, local climate zone mapping to address urban heat islands, and canopy height monitoring for deforestation tracking.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]