The head of Oxford University’s Department of Computer Science, Professor Michael Wooldridge, will be visiting Qatar next month to launch the new Qatar Center for Artificial Intelligence (QCAI). The center – an initiative of Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) – will develop and promote the use of cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) innovations for the betterment of human society. 

Professor Wooldridge, who is also a member of QCRI's Scientific Advisory Committee, will present a lecture on “Artificial Intelligence: What Little We Know” at 4:00 PM on September 9 at the HBKU Research Complex’s Multipurpose Hall. He will discuss the apparent boom and bust cycles in AI over its sixty-year history, arguing that despite these apparent cycles, there has been steady progress. Professor Wooldridge will also emphasize areas in which our AI knowledge is sparse, and will speculate about challenges for the field going forward.

QCRI’s Executive Director, Dr Ahmed Elmagarmid, described Professor Wooldridge as a pioneer who has carried out ground-breaking research in the area of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. Professor Wooldridge is a recipient of one of the most prestigious research fellowships in Europe, an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council, and in 2006 also won an ACM Autonomous Agents Research Award.

“We are privileged to have an expert of Professor Wooldridge’s caliber not only as another eminent member of QCRI’s scientific advisory committee, but also here for the launch of such an important initiative as QCAI,” Dr. Elmagarmid said.

Dr. Elmagarmid said Professor Wooldridge’s work in designing software programs which can simulate interactive human decision-making and be practical and computationally efficient at the same time "is likely to underpin future multi-functional AI systems."

To attend the inaugural lecture or to learn more about QCAI, visit: https://qcai.qcri.org/.