UAEU Launches ‘Future Class’ Project To Educate Students In Cooperation With Cisco International

AL AIN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 24th Jan, 2021) The United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), today has launched the first smart lecture room project called "Future Class", which employs artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and the Fourth Industrial Revolution requirements, in cooperation with Cisco International.

Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh, Minister of State - Chancellor of the UAEU, said, "The UAEU has a pioneering and pivotal role in building the future of generations who contribute to creating and pioneering the future, especially since we are in a country that believes that the future is made by people of this country. It also has a role in advancing higher education, creating a knowledge society, as well as expanding in the fields of industrialisation and artificial intelligence, and linking different majors within an educational environment that simulates the work of industrial sectors, in light of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and AI in line with the UAE national agenda for the next 50 years."

The chancellor also stated that this kind of smart classroom enhances the university’s role in smart learning, creates an AI-based innovative environment, and helps students as well as researchers to use smart tools and advanced technologies.

Shukri Eid, Cisco’s Managing Director -Gulf region, said, "The UAE believes that traditional educational methods will not attract current students nor satisfy their ambitions, and that technology is the key to a successful and prosperous society. The "Future Class" project translates the commitment of the UAE and its pioneering educational institutions such as the United Arab Emirates University for not limiting the advance of the education sector based on the future alone, but to be a global education leader as well."

He praised Cisco’s role in harnessing its accumulated experience in the field of smart cities, smart manufacturing and digitisation to execute many technical projects with its partners in the country which contribute to shaping the future in various sectors as well as accelerating the achievement of the digital transformation agenda.

The "Future Class" project re-imagines the teaching and learning experience in the classroom through the use of state-of-the-art digital solutions and technological techniques. It includes the registration of students' attendance automatically through the student geolocation. Besides, it assimilates automatically the students' thinking, feelings and preferences in learning, allowing the teacher, in cooperation with AI techniques, to choose the best method to communicate information to the students.

The modular design of the classroom has also been adopted by reconfiguring the internal activities to enhance the desire to learn and transfer knowledge through the use of robots within the smart classroom, and the exchange of knowledge and roles between the robot, the student and the teacher. It is supported by Cisco’s international smart systems to enhance learning methodologies in the classroom. Cisco’s smart technologies allow the student to use the "Timetable" technology, which enables the student and the teacher to deal with the required information and classroom materials in addition to recent related reports.

The "AI Note Taking" tool, based on AI, is a "Virtual Assistant" that takes lecture notes and automatically captures and highlights the notes received and delivered by the teacher, the student, and the academic materials. "Robot Assistance is a remotely-controlled integrated robot that performs several tasks, including facilitating interaction between students and their teacher in the virtual environment and the physical location in the future class. It is a new experience that enhances the effective interconnection between the student and the teacher at different times and places. In addition, there is "Location-aware Feedback" technology, which is a modern technique that makes up the "Future Class" project.