Technology Innovation Institute to Convene the World’s Leading Quantum Researchers at the TII Quantum Technology Symposium

• A first of its kind event for the region bringing together prize-winning quantum scientists, researchers, and technologists 

• To be held in Abu Dhabi from 27-29 January 2025

Abu Dhabi, UAE – 2nd July 2024: The Technology Innovation Institute (TII), a leading global scientific research center and the applied research pillar of the Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), will be hosting the world’s leading researchers and quantum technology professionals at the TII Quantum Technology Symposium.

Following the United Nation’s recent declaration to name 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, the introduction of this landmark event will bring together globally-renowned experts in the field to discuss the latest advancements and applications in quantum technology. As an official partner of the UN’s initiative, TII’s event will provide a platform for networking, collaboration, and the exchange of groundbreaking ideas to the global quantum community.

Through panel discussions and moderated sessions, research paper presentations, and robust debate, the TII Quantum Technology Symposium will explore the future impact of quantum science. Confirmed speakers already include:

• Prof. Dr. Artur Ekert, Professor of quantum physics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, and winner of Maxwell Medal and Prize (1995), Descartes Prize (2004), Hughes Medal (2007), Fellow of the Royal Society (2016), and the Micius Quantum Prize (2019).

• Prof. Dr. Rosario Fazio, Head of the Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics, International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, winner of the International "Luigi Tartufari" prize from the Accademia Nazionale Lincei (2016), the "Google Quantum Research Award" (2019) and an ERC Advanced Grant (2022).

• Prof. Dr. Piet O. Schmidt, Head of the Institute for Experimental Quantum Metrology, PTB, Braunschweig, Professor at Leibniz Universität Hannover, and member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering.

• Prof. Dr. John M. Martinis, Quantum Computing team leader at Google Quantum A.I. Lab and 2021 John Stewart Bell Prize winner.

Dr. Najwa Aaraj, CEO, Technology Innovation Institute, commented: “This symposium is being held as part of the world’s celebrations of 100 years of quantum sciences to recognize the significant impact of the field and lay the foundations for the years to come. The TII Quantum Technology Symposium, reinforces UAE’s position as a hub for innovation, and a place for those leading the field to convene and discuss future initiatives.”

As Chief Researcher of TII’s Quantum Research Center, Prof. Dr. José Ignacio Latorre, said: “I have spent my career dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and furthering our understanding of physics, quantum, and impact these cutting-edge disciplines have on society. I am excited to discuss and debate the latest developments with my peers from around the world. The investment of the UAE’s leadership in pushing the boundaries of science is testament to their commitment to solving such critical challenges that will shape the world of tomorrow.”

Further information on additional speakers and the event’s agenda will be made available later in the year, and will be shared, along with attendance registration on the official website: www.qts.tii.ae

معهد الابتكار التكنولوجي يستضيف نخبة من الباحثين العالميين في ندوة تكنولوجيا الكم 

• أول حدث من نوعه في المنطقة يجمع علماء وباحثين في مجال الكم والحاصلين على جوائز عالمية في المجال 

• الندوة المرتقبة ستُعقَد في أبوظبي بين 27-29 يناير 2025

أبوظبي- الإمارات العربية المتحدة - 2 يونيو 2024: يستضيف معهد الابتكار التكنولوجي، المركز العالمي الرائد للبحث العلمي وأحد أعمدة الأبحاث التطبيقية التابع لمجلس أبحاث التكنولوجيا المتطورة في أبوظبي، باحثين وخبراء في مجال تكنولوجيا الكوانتوم في ندوة تكنولوجيا الكم في أبوظبي.

وتعقيباً على إعلان الأمم المتحدة مؤخراً عن تسمية عام 2025 السنة الدولية لعلوم وتكنولوجيا الكم، فإن استضافة هذا الحدث التاريخي سيجمع خبراء عالميي المستوى في هذا المجال لمناقشة أحدث التطورات والتطبيقات في مجال تكنولوجيا الكم. وبصفته شريكاً رسمياً في هذه المبادرة التابعة للأمم المتحدة، سيقدم الحدث المرتقب من معهد الابتكار التكنولوجي منصةً فعالة للتواصل والتعاون وتبادل الأفكار بين أعضاء مجتمع الكم العالمي.

وتضم ندوة تكنولوجيا الكم  في أبوظبي مجموعة من الحلقات النقاشية والعروض البحثية والمناقشات المتعمقة بهدف استكشاف الآفاق المستقبلية لعلوم الكم. وتشمل قائمة المتحدثين المشاركين في الندوة:

• الأستاذ الدكتور آرثر إيكرت، بروفيسور الفيزياء الكمية في معهد الرياضيات التابع لجامعة أكسفورد، والحائز على ميدالية وجائزة ماكسيل (1995) وجائزة ديكارت (2004) وميدالية هيوز (2007) والزميل في الجمعية الملكية (2016) وجائزة ميكيوس في الكوانتوم (2019).

• الأستاذ الدكتور روزاريو فازيو، رئيس قسم المواد المكثفة والفيزياء الإحصائية في المركز الدولي للفيزياء النظرية في تريستا، والفائز بجائزة لويجي تارتوفري الدولية من أكاديمية نازيونالي لينسي (2016) وجائزة جوجل للأبحاث الكمية (2019)، وحصل على منحة متقدمة من مركز البحوث الأوروبية (2022).

• الأستاذ الدكتور بيت شميدت، رئيس معهد القياسات الكمية التجريبية التابع لمعهد PTB في براونشفايج، والأستاذ في جامعة هانوفر وعضو في الأكاديمية الألمانية للعلوم والهندسة.

• الأستاذ الدكتور جون م. مارتينيس، قائد فريق الحوسبة الكمية في مختبر جوجل كوانتوم للذكاء الاصطناعي والفائز بجائزة جون ستيورات بيل لعام 2021.

ومن جانبها، قالت د. نجوى الأعرج، الرئيس التنفيذي لمعهد الابتكار التكنولوجي: "تُعقَد هذه الندوة كجزء من الاحتفاء الدولي بمرور 100 عاماً على انطلاق مجال العلوم الكمية وإقراراً بالأثر الواسع لهذا المجال، وسعياً من المجتمع إلى إرساء أسس القطاع في السنوات القادمة. وتساهم ندوة تكنولوجيا الكم في أبوظبي في ترسيخ مكانة دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة باعتبارها مركزاً للابتكار ووجهة تجمع قادة المجال لمناقشة المبادرات والبرامج المستقبلية."

وبدوره، قال البروفيسور خوسيه إغناسيو لاتوري، كبير الباحثين في مركز بحوث الكوانتوم التابع لمعهد الابتكار التكنولوجي: "أمضيت مسيرتي المهنية سعياً لتعميق معرفتنا وفهمنا لتخصصات الفيزياء وميكانيكا الكم ومدى تأثيرها على المجتمعات، وأشعر بالثقة والحماس تجاه مناقشة آفاق هذا المجال وآخر تطوراته مع زملائي من مختلف أنحاء العالم. وقد أثبتت دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة التزامها الراسخ تجاه إيجاد الحلول الفعالة لمجموعة واسعة من التحديات الرئيسية التي يواجها العالم ومساهمتها في تمهيد الطريق نحو مستقبل مشرق، وذلك من خلال الاستثمارات الضخمة التي تضخها في الجهود العلمية والبحث والتطوير."

يرجى العلم بأنه سيتم توفير المزيد من المعلومات حول المتحدثين وأجندة الحدث في وقت لاحق هذا العام على الموقع الإلكتروني إلى جانب صفحة تسجيل الحضور: www.qts.tii.ae 

Saudi Arabia to host the first-ever International Conjoined Twins Conference on 24–25 November 2024: KSrelief

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, July 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Nations has announced that 24 November 2024 will be 'World Conjoined Twins Day' and will be observed each year, to emphasize the need to address the condition of conjoined twins, advocate for their treatment and care, and promote their well-being and social inclusion. 

Since its inception in 1990, The Saudi Conjoined Twins Programme has become a leader in the field of conjoined twin separation. The programme team has reviewed 139 cases from 26 countries and has successfully separated 61 pairs of twins. Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, in addition to being an Advisor to the Royal Court and Supervisor General of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), is also a renowned pediatric surgeon who has served as Head of the Saudi Conjoined Twins Programme since it began.

"The United Nations General Assembly," Dr. Al Rabeeah stated, "has adopted a resolution to observe 'World Conjoined Twins Day' on 24 November each year. This is a very proud day for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its ongoing humanitarian efforts to help these special children. I would like to thank the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for their continued support for the Saudi Conjoined Twins Programme, which has been a leader in the field of conjoined twin separation, since the programme began in 1990."

To further emphasize the importance of World Conjoined Twins Day, Saudi Arabia will host the first-ever International Conjoined Twins Conference on 24–25 November 2024, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The conference, which will be co-hosted by King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) and the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, will bring together global medical experts, representatives from humanitarian organizations and others interested in the topic of conjoined twins, to shed light on success stories and challenges of conjoined twin separation and to discuss potential collaboration and recommendations. The conference will also include a panel discussion titled 'Exploring the Multifaceted Impact of Separation on Conjoined Twins and Their Families', which will delve into the physiological, psychological, and social consequences of separation surgeries. 

For more information, visit KSrelief's website

Nicholas Cumins Takes Charge as CEO of Bentley Systems, Ushering in a New Era

 

First non-Bentley family member to lead company, Cumins unveils vision for infrastructure resilience powered by AI, focus on operations phase of lifecycle

EXTON, Pa. – July 1, 2024 – Following the CEO transition plan previously announced by Bentley Systems, Incorporated (Nasdaq: BSY), Nicholas Cumins today takes charge as CEO. Cumins succeeds Greg Bentley, the eldest of the five brothers who founded Bentley Systems, who becomes Executive Chair of its Board of Directors. 

Cumins is the first CEO in the company’s 40-year history who is not a Bentley family member, marking a significant milestone in the company’s development. The Bentley brothers redefined what was then computer-aided design (CAD) software when they developed MicroStation as a groundbreaking engineering application platform. Four decades of innovation and more than 120 acquisitions later, Bentley Systems is the leading provider of infrastructure engineering software, with its infrastructure digital twin solutions used to design, build, and operate critical infrastructure around the world. 

The transition to Cumins’ leadership comes at a critical time for infrastructure sectors. There are not enough engineers to accomplish the work required to achieve global sustainability targets while also adapting aging infrastructure vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Cumins unveiled Bentley’s vision for infrastructure resilience, noting that engineering firms and asset owner-operators are looking to software to help them overcome the limitations of scarce talent. 

“Infrastructure is at a watershed moment. Despite the massive capital investment in infrastructure projects and jobs post pandemic, so much more remains to be done to make infrastructure more resilient. Our ability to bridge that gap will literally determine the quality of life for generations to come. Fortunately, a paradigm shift in software is reshaping the landscape. AI-powered digital twin solutions are unlocking the value of data across the infrastructure lifecycle.” 

For example, Bentley’s AI solutions are already transforming the way organizations are monitoring the health of roads, bridges, dams, water networks, and telecommunications towers. 

“Every owner-operator in the world is looking for a simpler and more effective way to understand the condition of their assets. Think what the power and possibilities of AI imply for improving asset performance and making infrastructure more resilient. This is the moment for our generation to apply its ingenuity and build upon the legacy of innovation to continue advancing the world’s infrastructure for better quality of life.”

Before his promotion to CEO, Cumins served as Bentley Systems’ COO from January 2022. He joined Bentley Systems as Chief Product Officer in September 2020 prior to the company’s IPO. Previously he was General Manager of SAP Marketing Cloud and served as Chief Product Officer of Scytl, a platform for online voting, and as Senior Vice President of Product with OpenX, a pioneer in programmatic advertising. Before OpenX, he had already served in a variety of senior roles at SAP, including product management, corporate strategy, and business development. Cumins is a dual French and U.S. citizen and is based in France.

MBZUAI launches five new “first-of-its-kind" LLMs to support real-world applications and use cases

 

 

 

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, March 14, 2024: Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence’s (MBZUAI) Institute of Foundation Models (IFM) is breaking new ground in generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools by deploying “first-of-its-kind” specialized language and multimodal models.

 

The IFM was launched last year to bring together top AI scientists, engineers, and practitioners to develop large-scale, broad-utility, and efficient AI models with the capacity to be adapted to a wide range of downstream, sustainable applications. MBZUAI is world-renowned for its expertise in this area following the success of the launch of Jais – the world’s most advanced Arabic large language model (LLM) – with Core42 and Cerebras Systems, and Vicuna – a sustainable model in partnership with other universities.

The launch of the five new models – BiMediX, PALO, GLaMM, GeoChat and MobiLLaMA – is an important milestone in the institute’s journey and for the research community. They include both small and large language models and large multimodal models (LMMs) which deploy multimodal learning to process and analyze data from multiple modalities or sources beyond text, including audio and images with a special emphasis on Arabic language capabilities.

The five models are designed to make a real-world impact on healthcare, detailed visual reasoning, multilingual multimodal capabilities, multimodal reasoning for the geo-spatial domain, and efficient LLMs for mobile devices, respectively, and were each developed from extensive research from the university’s faculty, researchers, and students.

“These models showcase the ability of the Institute of Foundational Models to transform cutting-edge research into applications that address novel use cases across society,” MBZUAI’s Acting Provost and Professor of Natural Language Processing, Professor Timothy Baldwin, said. “By going beyond the limitations of single-modality models and offering numerous applications across industries, multimodal models can be tailored to meet specific needs. This approach ensures that the university is fulfilling its vision to drive excellence in knowledge creation and transfer and AI deployment to foster economic growth, while positioning Abu Dhabi as a hub for the international AI community.”

With demand for AI across healthcare soaring, BiMediX is the world’s first bilingual medical mixture of experts LLM, which outperforms many existing LLMs on medical benchmarks in both English and Arabic including medical board exams. Transformative potential use cases include virtual healthcare assistants, telemedicine, medical report summarization, clinical symptom diagnosis, medical research, counseling and mental health support, or diet plans and lifestyle enhancement.

 

GLaMM is a first-of-its-kind LMM capable of generating natural language responses related to objects in an image at the pixel-level, offering an enhanced and richer version of automated image captioning, reasoning, and the ability to switch objects in images. Real-world applications include sectors such as e-commerce, fashion, safe and smart city, and home retail. GLaMM has been accepted for publication at CVPR 2024.

PALO is the world’s first multilingual LMM to offer visual reasoning capabilities in 10 major languages, namely English, Chinese, Hindu, Spanish, French, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Urdu, and Japanese. The solution ensures high linguistic fidelity even for low resource languages such as Urdu or Bengali, covering two-thirds of the world’s population and helping to bring the benefits of AI to more people. The model has broad potential applications, including everything from monitoring crops, to recording wildlife, and aiding with search and rescue missions.

 

GeoChat is the world’s first grounded LMM, specifically tailored to remote sensing (RS) scenarios. Unlike general-domain models, GeoChat excels in handling high-resolution RS imagery, employing region-level reasoning for comprehensive scene interpretation. Leveraging a newly created RS multimodal dataset, GeoChat exhibits robust zero-shot performance across various RS tasks, including image and region captioning, visual question-answering, scene classification, visually grounded conversations, and referring object detection. The accompany paper has been accepted to the IEEE/ CVF Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR 2024) and has broad potential applications in intelligent Earth observation, climate-related monitoring, and applications along with urban and sustainable planning.

 

MobiLLaMA is a fully transparent and open-source lightweight and efficient small language model (SLM) for resource-constrained devices such as mobile phones, which can be readily deployed and used on your smartphone or tablet. It uses a novel parameter-sharing scheme to reduce the pre-training computing and deployment costs, and memory footprint along with having multimodal capabilities. The model is fully transparent with complete training data available as part of the LLM360 initiative, intermediate checkpoints, training and evaluation code, along with a mobile deployment environment.

جامعة محمد بن زايد للذكاء الاصطناعي تطلق خمسة نماذج لغوية كبيرة

هي الأولى من نوعها لدعم استخدامات الذكاء الاصطناعي في الحياة اليومية

 

 

أبوظبي، الإمارات العربية المتحدة، 14 مارس 2024: يفتح معهد النماذج التأسيسية في جامعة محمد بن زايد للذكاء الاصطناعي آفاقاً جديدة في مجال أدوات الذكاء الاصطناعي التوليدي، إذ يحرص الباحثون فيه على تطوير نماذج لغوية متخصصة ومتعددة الوسائط تُعتبر الأولى من نوعها في العالم.

 

هذا وقد تم إطلاق المعهد العام الماضي ليكون مركزاً يتيح لكبار العلماء والمهندسين والمتخصصين في مجال الذكاء الاصطناعي تطوير نماذج واسعة النطاق يمكن استخدامها في مجالات متعددة وتتميز بفعاليتها، فيما تتمتع بالقدرة على التكيّف مع مجموعة واسعة من التطبيقات المستدامة. وقد حصدت جامعة محمد بن زايد للذكاء الاصطناعي شهرة عالمية نظراً إلى خبرتها في هذا المجال، لاسيما بعد نجاحها في إطلاق نموذج "جيس"، وهو النموذج اللغوي الكبير للغة العربية الأعلى جودة في العالم، بالشراكة مع مجموعة "جي 42" وشركة "سيريبراس سيستمز"، ونموذج "فيكونا"، وهو نموذج مستدام عمل على إطلاقه المركز بالتعاون مع مجموعة من الجامعات.

 

الجدير بالذكر أن إطلاق النماذج الخمسة الجديدة يُعد محطة مفصلية في مسيرة المعهد والباحثين في الجامعة. وتنقسم نماذج "بايميدكس" و"بالو" و"جلام إم" و"جيوتشات" و"موبايل لاما" إلى نماذج لغوية صغيرة، وكبيرة، ونماذج كبيرة متعددة الوسائط تستخدم التعلّم متعدد الوسائط لمعالجة البيانات وتحليلها من وسائط أو مصادر متعددة تتخطى حدود النصوص لتشمل المقاطع الصوتية والصور، مع التركيز بشكل خاص على قدرات هذه النماذج في اللغة العربية.

 

يُذكر أن الباحثون قد صمموا النماذج الخمسة لإحداث تأثير إيجابي على أرض الواقع في مجال الرعاية الصحية، والاستدلال البصري التفصيلي، والقدرات متعددة الوسائط متعددة اللغات، والاستدلال متعدد الوسائط للمجال الجغرافي المكاني، والنماذج اللغوية الكبيرة الفعّالة على الأجهزة المحمولة. وقد طوّر المركز هذه النماذج بناءً على أبحاث مكثفة أجراها أعضاء الهيئة التدريسية والباحثون والطلاب في الجامعة.

تعليقاً على هذه الإنجازات، قال البروفيسور تيموثي بالدوين، عميد الجامعة بالإنابة، وأستاذ معالجة اللغة الطبيعية: "تُبرِز هذه النماذج قدرة معهد النماذج التأسيسية على تحويل الأبحاث المتطورة إلى تطبيقات تتيح استخدام هذه التقنيات في المجتمع بطرق جديدة. من خلال تخطي القيود التي تفرضها نماذج البيانات المنفردة، وتقديم تطبيقات عديدة يمكن استخدامها في مختلف القطاعات، من شأن تصميم النماذج متعددة الوسائط أن يلبي احتياجات محددة في قطاعات معيّنة. ويأتي هذا النهج في إطار رؤية الجامعة التي تقوم على التميّز في توليد المعرفة ونقلها ونشر الذكاء الاصطناعي لتعزيز النمو الاقتصادي، وترسيخ مكانة أبوظبي كمركز عالمي للذكاء الاصطناعي."

 

في ظل تزايد الطلب على تطبيقات الذكاء الاصطناعي في مجال الرعاية الصحية، يُعد نموذج”BiMediX“ (بايميدكس) أول نموذج لغوي كبير ثنائي اللغة في العالم مخصص للقطاع الطبي يتفوق على العديد من الأنظمة المُستخدمة باللغتين الإنجليزية والعربية، بما في ذلك اختبارات المجالس الطبية. ومن الممكن استخدام هذا النموذج بطرق مبتكرة، مثل مساعدي الرعاية الصحية الافتراضيين، وتقديم الخدمات الطبية عن بعد، وتلخيص التقارير الطبية، وتشخيص الأعراض السريرية، والبحث الطبي، وتقديم الاستشارات والدعم في مجال الصحة النفسية، ووضع الأنظمة الغذائية، وتحسين نمط الحياة.

 

أما نموذج”GLaMM“ (جلام إم)‏، فهو أول نموذج كبير متعدد الوسائط قادر على توليد استجابات لغوية طبيعية ترتبط بالأجسام التي تَرِد في الصور على مستوى البيكسل. إذ يُعتبر أفضل وأكثر تفصيلاً من الشرح الآلي للصور والاستدلال والقدرة على تبديل الأجسام في الصور. كما من الممكن الاستفادة من هذا النموذج في العديد من القطاعات، مثل التجارة الإلكترونية والأزياء والمدن الآمنة والذكية وتجارة التجزئة المنزلية. ولا بد من الإشارة إلى أنه تمت الموافقة على نشر البحث الخاص بهذا النموذج في مؤتمر الرؤية الحاسوبية والتعرف إلى الأنماط للعام 2024.

 

ويُعَد نموذج "PALO" (بالو) أول نموذج كبير متعدد الوسائط في العالم يشمل قدرات الاستدلال البصري بعشر لغات رئيسية، تشمل الإنجليزية والصينية والهندية والإسبانية والفرنسية والعربية والبنغالية والروسية والأوردو واليابانية. ويضمن هذا النموذج مستوىً عالياً من الدقة على الصعيد اللغوي، حتى عند استخدام اللغات محدودة الموارد، مثل الأوردو أو البنغالية، ليتيح بذلك لثلثي سكان العالم الاستفادة منه ويساهم في توفير إمكانيات الذكاء الاصطناعية لعدد أكبر من الأشخاص. يُذكر أنه يمكن استخدام هذا النموذج في العديد من التطبيقات، بدءاً من مراقبة المحاصيل الزراعية، مروراً برصد الحياة البرية، ووصولاً إلى المساعدة في مهام البحث والإنقاذ.

 

أما نموذج"GeoChat" (جيوتشات)، فهو أول نموذج لغوي أرضي كبير على مستوى العالم مصمم خصيصاً لحالات الاستشعار عن بعد. فعلى عكس النماذج العامة، يتميّز هذا النموذج بالتعامل مع الصور عالية الدقة التي يتم التقاطها عبر الاستشعار عن بعد باستخدام الاستدلال على مستوى المنطقة لتفسير المشهد من منظور شامل. وقد أثبت النموذج أداءً متميزاً من خلال الاستفادة من مجموعة بيانات جديدة متعددة الوسائط أُنشئت للاستشعار عن بعد، وذلك من دون تدريب مسبق على مختلف مهام الاستشعار عن بعد، بما في ذلك تسمية الصور والمناطق، والإجابة عن الأسئلة المرئية، وتصنيف المشاهد، والمحادثات المبنية على الرؤية، والتعبير بناءً على الأجسام المكتشفة. هذا ووافق مؤتمر الرؤية الحاسوبية والتعرف على الأنماط الذي ينظمه معهد مهندسي الكهرباء والإلكترونيات للعام 2024 على نشر البحث الخاص بهذا النموذج الذي يتمتع بتطبيقات واسعة النطاق في المراقبة الذكية لسطح الأرض، ومراقبة المناخ، وغيرها من التطبيقات في مجال التخطيط العمراني المستدام.

 

وأخيراً، تجدر الإشارة إلى نموذج”MobiLLaMA“ (موبايل لاما)، وهو نموذج لغوي صغير مفتوح المصدر خفيف الوزن يتمتع بفعالية كبيرة ويمكن استخدامه على الأجهزة محدودة الموارد، مثل الهواتف الذكية والأجهزة اللوحية. ويستخدم هذا النموذج نموذج مشاركة مَعلَمات مبتكر للحد من تكاليف الحوسبة التي تسبق عملية التدريب، والبصمة التي تتركها ذاكرة التطبيق، وتكاليف نشره، إلى جانب امتلاكه لقدرات متعددة الوسائط. هذا ويُتاح للمستخدمين الوصول إلى النموذج إلى جانب بيانات التدريب الكاملة كجزء من مبادرة LLM360 ، فضلاً عن نقاط التحقق الوسيطة، ورموز التدريب والتقييم، وطرق استخدامه على الأجهزة المحمولة.

Group-IB strengthens partnership with INTERPOL to enhance global efforts in fighting cybercrime

 

Singapore, February 23, 2024 — Group-IB, a leading creator of cybersecurity technologies to investigate, prevent, and fight digital crime, and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) have extended their strategic partnership with the formalization of an agreement aimed at reducing the global impact of cybercrime. The signing ceremony took place in the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore and was witnessed by Dmitry Volkov, Group-IB’s CEO, and Stephen Kavanagh, INTERPOL’s Executive Director of Police Services. The agreement follows a series of successful joint anti-cybercrime operations in 2023 and marks another significant milestone in the collective dedication of two organizations to fight against cybercrime on a global scale. 

The continued collaboration between INTERPOL and Group-IB, a long-standing partner of the organization’s Cybercrime Directorate, centers around three major areas: investigative support, training initiatives, and cyber threat intelligence sharing.  

Having a presence in 195 member countries, INTERPOL has created an unparalleled network of national cyber police forces and private industry, enabling swift intelligence sharing and rapid threat response to incidents worldwide. Collaboration with trusted private sector partners, like Group-IB, who usually are the first responders to cyber incidents, enables INTERPOL to effectively merge critical intelligence and cutting-edge technologies in a unified effort to bring threat actors to justice. 

 

As an intergovernmental organization, INTERPOL has the authority to facilitate cross-border investigations and prosecutions, making it a key force in the fight against digital crime, which is translational in nature. Group-IB’s Cyber Investigation team has provided on-the-ground investigative and intelligence-gathering support to INTERPOL’s cyber arm in dozens of successful operations around the world. In recent years, their collective efforts resulted in the identification and apprehension of multiple cyber threat actors responsible for money thefts amounting to millions of dollars. 

 

In 2023 alone, Group-IB’s experts assisted in three INTERPOL-led operations targeting cybercriminals. In August, Group-IB participated in a global INTERPOL-coordinated international operation targeting the notorious phishing-as-a-service platform 16shop. Later that same month, Group-IB’s investigators made a key contribution to the INTERPOL-led Africa Cyber Surge II operation, which resulted in the arrests of 14 suspected cybercriminals and the identification of more than 20,000 suspicious cyber networks on the African continent, linked to financial losses amounting to more than USD $40 million. In July, under the auspices of Operation Nervone, INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Directorate, Group-IB, and Orange S.A. exchanged intelligence that helped identify and arrest a suspected senior member of OPERA1ER, a French-speaking financially-motivated cybercrime syndicate believed to have stolen at least $11 million during attacks on banks, financial services firms, and telecommunications companies.

  

“Our partnership with Group-IB fosters a synergistic approach, reinforcing our collective capacity to fight cybercrime. By harnessing our expertise and resources with Group-IB’s experience and technologies, we create an efficient and effective alliance against ever-evolving cyber threats, enhancing our ability to safeguard the communities,” says Craig Jones, INTERPOL’s Director of Cybercrime. 

 

“Our collaboration with INTERPOL is making a significant impact in the ongoing battle against cyber threats, and we are honored to deepen our cooperation,” said Dmitry Volkov, CEO of Group-IB. “This partnership signifies another step forward in our shared mission of fighting against cybercrime worldwide. With the full power of Group-IB’s Digital Crime Resistance Network spread across the Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well as our technologies, we will continue supporting INTERPOL in its efforts against cybercrime.” 

Middle East Airports Expanding in a Fast-forward Mode to Handle Zooming Passenger Numbers

 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

• Up to US$2. 7 billion investments for DXB expansion

• Middle East airports to handle 1.1 billion passengers by 2040

• US$151 billion is required for ME airport capacity expansion

• Global airport construction market to reach US$1.8 trillion by 2030

• ME to be the world’s fastest-growing aviation market by 2033

• The region has 110 commercial airports and 69 operating carriers

 

With the civil aviation industry almost fully recovered after the steepest fall in passenger numbers due to the 21^st century’s second pandemic, airports across the world are bracing themselves to handle a big boom in air travel until 2030 by going in for expansions and redevelopments.

 

H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum

 

The Middle East Aviation Market, valued at US$60 billion in 2023, is predicted to rise substantially until 2030. Air connectivity in the Middle East had seen a 26 percent-plus growth in 2022 as compared with 2019.

 

The Middle East airports are set to handle 1.1 billion passengers by 2040, more than double the 2019 figure of 405 million passengers. They will be required to invest around US$151 billion in capacity expansion. The region, with over 110 airports, is among the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world.

 

Airport developers, officials, and suppliers from across the world will come to Dubai in mid-May 2024 to participate in the world’s largest annual event dedicated to the global airports industry. The 23^rd edition of the three-day B2B event at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), the Middle East’s leading exhibition and convention venue, will have more than 150 exhibitors from more than 20 countries and 7,500 visitors from over 30 countries attending. The Airport Show will have co-located events - ATC Forum, Airport Security Middle East, and the 11^th edition of the Global Airport Leaders Forum (GALF).

 

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, and Patron of Airport Show said, “The business event will provide the industry professionals from Middle East, South Asia, and Africa region, the opportunity to see innovations in airport sustainability, digitalization, and urban air mobility.”

 

He added, “Airport Show will remain the best venue to select and source the cutting-edge technologies and newest innovative products to better the airport operations.”

 

Organized by RX, part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools that organizes about 400 events in 22 countries across 42 industry sectors, the show is supported by prominent players in the aviation industry, including the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), Dubai Airports, Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP), and dnata.

 

Remarked May Ismail, Event Manager at RX, “The airport industry will be back to full business when we meet in 2024. The pace of growth and expansion that was halted is back at a phenomenal rate. The projects that took off again clearly suggest there is no end to expansion and growth. What had been put on the back burner is now in the front.”

 

According to a CAPA report, 425 major construction projects were on at existing airports worldwide, with US$450 billion in investments. There were 225 new airport projects and more than 70 percent of the investment was in Asia Pacific. There were 1074 airport investors, of which 258 were airport operators, groups or consortiums. About 68 percent of all projects were based on terminals, either expansions or new developments. A report has disclosed that the global airport construction market grew to US$1.14 trillion in 2023, and would reach US$1.8 trillion by 2030.

 

Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest airport for international travelers continuously for nine years, is also building up the capacity and facilities to make the hub more impressive. Now serving 250 destinations in 104 countries through 95 airlines, DXB has mega expansion plans that will entail investments of up to US$2. 7 billion. The enhancements in capacity and service levels over the coming 10 years have been necessitated as its home base carriers ordered another 120 aircraft - 90 Boeing-777s for Emirates and 30 Boeing-787s for flydubai.

 

Sharjah, home to the Arabian Gulf’s first airport, has started work on an AED1.2 billion (US$327 million) terminal expansion that will increase the airport’s capacity to 20 million passengers a year. The expansion project will separate the arrivals from departures areas and enhance its systems and amenities. It is the largest phase of expansion work being undertaken at a total cost of AED2.4 billion and is expected to be completed in 2027. Improvements will include additional self-check-in kiosks, electronic boarding gates, a spacious waiting zone, dining facilities, and a transit passenger hotel. Sharjah Airport, home of the MENA region’s largest LCC Air Arabia, added six new passenger destinations and three air cargo routes in 2023. The airport handled about 13.1 million passengers in 2022 and will be able to handle up to 25 million passengers by 2026.

 

A plan is underway to transform King Abdelaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Saudi Arabia into one of the world’s largest airports with an SR115 billion expansion plan that will increase its capacity to 114 million passengers a year. The largest components of the plan cover the design and expansion of Terminal 1 and the construction of a new passenger terminal to be called Terminal 2. The expected completion date for the expansion project is 2031.

 

A new Hajj and Umrah terminal at the airport in Jeddah will handle 15 million passengers a year and is expected to be completed by 2025. The airport aims to accommodate up to 120 million passengers by 2030 and 185 million by 2050. For cargo, the goal is to process 3.5 million tons a year.

 

Another major airport is planned for Neom, close to the Tabuk end of the 170-kilometre-long Line development. Neom International Airport’s first phase will have the capacity to handle 25 million passengers a year. A second phase could take the capacity up to 50 million passengers a year. There is an aspiration for the airport to become the largest in the world, with a capacity of 100 million passengers a year. Abha International Airport will undergo a makeover that will see its terminal grow from 113,000 square feet to 700,000 square feet.

 

The existing airport can handle 1.5 million passengers annually. The new one will be capable of handling 13 million by the time the first phase of the development is completed in 2028. The expansion will include the construction of passenger jetways, self-service facilities for passenger check-in and baggage handling, and high-capacity parking facilities. Saudi Arabia is building in Riyadh one of the world’s largest airports which will have six parallel runways. The airport will help drive annual passenger traffic to 120 million by 2030 and 185 million by 2050.

 

Airports in Oman are expected to witness 40 million passengers by 2030. The Sultanate currently attracts 18 million passengers. The country currently can handle around 24 million passengers. Officials opened new airports in Muscat and Duqm in 2019 in addition to two new air cargo terminals. Musandam Airport is being constructed for US$250 million and is expected to be ready by Q4 2026. The work includes the construction of two runways and a passenger terminal with a capacity of 250,000 passengers per year.

 

Lebanon has on anvil plans to construct a US$122 million terminal at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport to be completed in four years. The new terminal will help it handle 3.5 million passengers annually when operations are planned to begin in 2027. The airport currently handles 8 million passengers a year, and the plans are to reach 20 million in 2030.

 

Bahrain is exploring plans to have a second airport by 2034. It has undergone expansion as part of the US$13 billion investment into its tourism industry. The new passenger terminal building at Bahrain International Airport doubled its capacity. The new greenfield airport will eventually replace the existing Bahrain International Airport (BIA) due to the inadequacy of its current infrastructure in meeting the kingdom's growing airport needs.

 

Kuwait has plans to expand its airport terminal capacity from six million passengers per year to 20 million by 2030 and turn Kuwait International Airport into a major passenger and cargo hub. The new passenger terminal (T2) was one of the projects aimed at modernizing its infrastructure to serve Vision 2035. The US$4.36 billion Kuwait Airport’s Passenger Terminal-2 expansion will boost its annual passenger handling capacity to 13 million passengers per year by 2025.

 

Egypt is working at expanding and bettering aviation facilities keeping in view the plans to receive up to 30 million visitors by 2028. The UAE’s aviation is set to witness growth as the UAE Tourism Strategy aims to host 40 million visitors by 2031. The first phase of Navi Mumbai International Airport is expected to be completed by December 2024. By 2032, Navi Mumbai Airport would also have the capacity to handle 2.5 million tons of cargo. The US$3.8 billion Noida International Airport is set to open by September 2025.

 

Maldives is working to develop airports in its six islands as its new government works on a policy to have an airport within 30 minutes of every residential island. Its capital city, Male, will have a new terminal by 2025. China aims to construct 216 new airports by 2035 to meet the growing demands for air travel.

 

A report by Statista said Asia-Pacific had been the region with the highest number of airport infrastructure projects under construction, with over half of the new airport construction taking place in this region. It also had the lead for construction projects in existing airports. When considering the value of airport construction projects worldwide, Asia-Pacific was also at the top of the ranking.

 

“Airports will be core drivers of (aviation) industry-wide change, while themselves being transformed in the process,” remarked a study on the ‘Evolution of Airports – Travel Trends in The Next 30 Years’ published by Oliver Wyman, a global consultancy, Airports Council International (ACI) World, and the Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC).