Latest news with #DanielGebre
Khaleej Times
3 days ago
- Science
- Khaleej Times
AI without internet: How graduate from UAE's MBZUAI creates smart apps that work offline
When Daniel Gebre was growing up in Dekemhare, a small city in Eritrea, internet access was a rare luxury. He and his classmates would take turns using a single campus connection, share downloaded files, and rely on offline copies of Wikipedia just to study. That experience stayed with him — not as frustration, but as fuel. 'Growing up in a place where internet access was scarce, I know the frustration of being curious and eager to learn but constantly being held back by limited digital resources,' he said. 'That challenge pushed me to think about how technology could be made to work in environments like the one I came from.' Now 27, Gebre is a recent graduate of Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), where he focused his master's research on how to bring artificial intelligence (AI) tools to people without internet access. His thesis project, iShrink, compresses large language models (LLMs) so they can run offline on mobile devices — an innovation aimed at students and professionals in low-connectivity areas. 'There were times in Eritrea when even downloading a simple document or video was a challenge,' he said. 'iShrink is about making sure people do not have to wait for internet access to be part of the AI conversation.' How it works 'In simple terms, iShrink is a framework designed to make large language models smaller and more efficient without significantly affecting their performance,' Gebre explained. 'It does this by identifying and removing parts of the model that are less important, then fine-tuning the remaining components so they still work well. This makes the models faster, lighter, and easier to run on devices with limited resources.' Shrinking smaller models poses a unique challenge, he said, because they contain fewer redundant parameters compared to larger models. 'Despite this, we achieved about a 22.5 per cent and 19.7 per cent size reduction on models such as LLaMA 3.1-1B and Falcon 1B respectively.' 'iShrink currently supports LLaMA, Falcon, and Qwen models, with plans to expand to other open-source architectures in the future.' To test the tool, Gebre developed a mobile application that runs entirely on a local device. 'The results were promising,' he said. 'In the future, I aim to enhance it with voice and multimodal capabilities to make it even more useful in real-world scenarios,' he added, 'I plan to make iShrink fully open source so it can be used and improved by the AI community.' Scholarship to the UAE Gebre moved to the UAE in 2019 on a scholarship from the Ministry of Education, awarded to top engineering students in Eritrea. He completed his undergraduate degree in information technology at Zayed University with a focus on cybersecurity. It was during a research internship at MBZUAI that his direction changed. Mentored by Dr Moayad Aloqaily and Professor Mohsen Guizani, he became immersed in the possibilities of AI and how it could address real-world problems. 'They really encouraged me to explore AI more seriously,' he said. 'I had planned to pursue my master's elsewhere, but Professor Mohsen kept urging me to apply to MBZUAI. Eventually I did, and that decision changed everything.' Gebre described his first semester of graduate school as the most difficult academic experience of his life. He spent long nights reinforcing his math skills and adjusting to the pace of the programme. 'I had to catch up fast,' he said. 'There were days I studied until three in the morning just to stay afloat.' His perseverance paid off. He completed his thesis, co-authored three academic papers, and presented at international conferences, including the IEEE International Conference on Human-Machine Systems in Abu Dhabi. 'You really grow when you take ownership of your learning,' he said. 'It was difficult, but transformative.' From research to real-world impact Since graduating in May 2025, Gebre has joined Inception, a G42 company, as an Applied Scientist. He is now working on domain-specific AI solutions for industry — a transition supported by a prior internship at the Technology Innovation Institute. 'That was the first time I saw what it takes to bring AI into production,' he said. 'It gave me a much clearer picture of how research turns into impact.' While his focus today is on refining his skills in industry, Gebre's long-term mission remains unchanged: to expand access to technology for underserved communities. 'In Eritrea, many students still have not heard of tools like ChatGPT or Gemini,' he said. "Even at college, they often have to gather around one internet access point to download materials. The gap is real, which means the potential is even greater." Future plans "Absolutely," he said, when asked whether he plans to return to Eritrea to work on digital infrastructure and education. 'Given the current technology gap in our country, I want to be among the pioneers who lay the foundations for a thriving tech industry in Eritrea. My goal is to lead AI enablement programs across various domains and initiatives.' When it comes to Eritrea's many ethnic groups and languages, he believes the lack of digital representation is an issue that can and should be addressed. 'Our population is around six million, and while English is used in some areas, it is not universal,' he said. 'The main challenges are data and computation. As a small population country, gathering sufficient data is not easy. Most of our literature in local languages exists in hard copy form, so collecting these materials, digitising them, and preparing them for training is a significant but achievable task. With adequate resources and collaboration, it is certainly possible to build such a model.' 'At the moment, I am fully engaged in my role at Inception. In the future, I plan to launch an initiative to bring together individuals with backgrounds in AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to contribute to open-source projects that develop models aligned with Eritrea's diverse languages, cultures, and values.' Advice to students from under-served communities 'During a panel discussion at MBZUAI, one of my professors said that the key to excellence in any field is mastering the fundamentals, no shortcuts. That advice completely changed my perspective, and I would pass it on to anyone starting out in AI,' he explained. 'For students from backgrounds similar to mine, I would add that talent and good academic performance are not enough. The right mindset, consistent effort, strong interpersonal skills, and building a solid professional network are equally important in determining how far you can go.' When he received his degree, his mother was in the audience — a proud moment marking how far he had come. 'I am so grateful to the UAE for giving me this opportunity,' he said. 'It changed the course of my life.' He hopes his work is only the beginning. 'If iShrink or any part of what I have done can help students like me learn, explore, and grow — no matter where they live or what resources they have — that's the kind of impact I want to keep building.'
The National
28-05-2025
- Health
- The National
More than 100 tech specialists graduate from Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence
The latest class of graduates from the world's first dedicated artificial intelligence university have proudly completed their studies. More than 100 students graduated from Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence on Wednesday during a ceremony in Abu Dhabi. They hail from 24 countries, and include 91 master's degree and 12 PhD students, with 20 Emiratis among them. The cohort's research covered a range of cutting-edge areas, including detecting Alzheimer's disease, developing climate change models and building Arabic-language AI tools. The university opened in 2020 as part of the UAE's strategy to become a global centre for AI development and innovation. Among the 104 graduates was Daniel Gebre, 27, from Eritrea, who completed a master's degree in machine learning. His research focused on making AI models smaller and more efficient so they can be used on mobile phones in areas with limited internet access. 'This was deeply personal. I grew up in a place with poor internet,' he told The National. 'I wanted to build tools that people like my friends back home could use for studying and daily activities, without needing a connection.' Mr Gebre arrived in the country in 2019 through a UAE government scholarship programme and earned a bachelor's degree in cybersecurity from Zayed University. He now has a job offer as a machine learning engineer from technology group G42. Umaima Rahman, 29, from India, earned a PhD in computer vision, with a research focus on deep learning for medical imaging. She is now exploring postdoctoral roles and jobs focused on AI applications in health care. 'The journey was difficult but extremely rewarding,' she said. 'One of the best things about the university is the collaborative research environment – you're encouraged to work across disciplines.' Making the grade For Yevheniia Kryklyvets, 24, from Ukraine, the ceremony was especially emotional. After missing her undergraduate graduation in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine, this marked her first official ceremony. She completed a master's degree in computer vision. 'It was so exciting, especially seeing the support from the country's leadership,' Ms Kryklyvets said. 'This is a research-based university, so what we're doing is an applied AI. Our projects can be published and can be interpreted into the real world and used for problem solving.' Career fairs hosted by the university connected her with industry leaders already seeking to recruit from the graduating class, but she is yet to decide which direction she would like to take. 'The UAE is not just contributing to the global AI movement, but is at the centre stage,' Prof Eric Xing, MBZUAI president, told The National. 'I think that the university had an impact in taking the country into that league. The function of the university is really to make the impossible possible with our hard work and also with minds.' The university's curriculum includes core disciplines like machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing, with research applications in fields such as health care, climate and language technology. It recently announced a five and 10-year plan, including establishing two new colleges – for digital public health and decision science. 'This really entails adding additional disciplines and under the foundation of AI know-how, but addressing real problems in the space of medicine, biology and also operational research and business administrations,' said Prof Xing. In 10 years, the university will look to establish a school of arts and sciences and a school of engineering. Earlier this month, the UAE and US announced plans to build a new five-gigawatt AI Campus in Abu Dhabi during US President Donald Trump's visit. According to the US Department of Commerce and state news agency Wam, the campus will host data centres that allow American tech companies to offer faster AI services to nearly half of the world's population living within 3,200km of the UAE. It will be one of the largest AI centres outside the US, the Department of Commerce said.
