Moroccan scientists lead advances in artificial intelligence
The Mohammed VI Polytechnic University's Science Week has highlighted the fundamental role of Moroccan researchers and scientists in the field of artificial intelligence.
- AI innovations in meteorology and soil
- AI advances in drug discovery
- Morocco consolidates its position on the global technology scene
Among the debates and sessions that took place during the event, a panel entitled "Young Moroccans at the top of the AI world" featured eight young Moroccan researchers who have made significant advances in this field.
Speaking to Morocco World News, Ali Kettani, director of the Faculty of Computer Science at UM6P, expressed optimism for the future during the panel and stressed the importance of inspiring the next generation of Moroccan academics.
Kettani underlined the enormous effort required to participate in prestigious conferences such as NIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems), predicting that these achievements push the boundaries of scientific exploration and pave the way for Morocco's technological sovereignty.
For his part, Rachid Guerraoui, a Swiss-Moroccan computer scientist, stressed the importance of AI in the transition to a digital world, highlighting the feat of eight Moroccans who participated in top-level conferences, something that "indicates Morocco's readiness to join the AI revolution".
Guerraoui emphasised the Kingdom's progress in digitisation, positing a future where AI applications are used in everyday life in Morocco.
AI innovations in meteorology and soil
Oussama Boussif, a student at MILA (Montreal Institute of Learning Algorithms), shared on the panel his journey from Benguerir to the global AI research scene.
Reflecting on his formative years at a local high school of excellence, Boussif's trajectory highlights the transformative potential of education in shaping the AI landscape in Morocco.
In particular, his work on the use of AI in meteorology, in collaboration with Moroccan solar power plants, highlights the tangible impact of Moroccan research in addressing the challenges of climate change.
Similarly, Ghait Koukachab, a PhD student at the University of Vienna, presented his work on improving soil forecasting, highlighting the importance of accurate forecasts for optimising agricultural production and energy management.
Koukachab's innovative approach, which uses a multimodal machine learning architecture called CrossVibit, integrates satellite imagery and time series data to improve the accuracy of soil density forecasts.
AI advances in drug discovery
Lena Nehale Ezzine, a PhD student at MILA, delved into the topic of AI as it relates to drug discovery. She emphasised the potential of AI to accelerate the drug development process, in particular by predicting protein structures.
Ezzine explained the complexity of predicting protein structures and the importance of DeepMind's breakthrough in solving this problem.
However, she also noted a limitation in current approaches, as they only predict a single 3D structure for each protein despite its dynamic nature.
Ezzine's research aims to address this limitation by exploring diverse three-dimensional protein structures, thereby improving drug discovery efforts.
Morocco consolidates its position on the global technology scene
The UM6P Science Week, whose theme was "Transitions", consolidates its position as a beacon of intellectual exchange and collaboration. President Hicham El Habti emphasised its importance in fostering unity across UM6P campuses and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration.
El Habti emphasises the role of Science Week as a platform for external engagement and collaboration with international researchers.
Likewise, this event represents a collective call to action, urging researchers, public institutions and citizens to address the myriad of current transitions.
The Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, for its part, demonstrates with this event its unwavering commitment to the promotion of knowledge. It also underlines Morocco's fundamental role in shaping the global technological landscape.