The Algerian researcher Riad Baghdadi is considered one of the pioneers of scientific communication in the Arab world. In the virtual space, his scientific page on Facebook has 100,000 followers, and on the ground he is active through an initiative of excellence, in the belief that the nation needs science to advance.
About his scientific career from Algeria to New York University, and about his experience in scientific communication, Riad Baghdadi tells us in an interview with Al Jazeera Net website via e-mail:
First, tell us about your scientific journey that led you from Algeria to America?
My story began with computer science before I joined high school, thanks to my brother, who instilled in me a love for this specialty.. The first steps were in learning programming by reading books and researching the Internet. Before completing my secondary education, I was able to learn several programming languages and write a lot of software, including It has simple games.
After completing my secondary studies in Algeria, I joined the Algerian Higher School of Computer Science, where I obtained an engineer’s degree in computer science, and during these years I published 3 research papers, the first of which was when I was a second-year university student. and PhD at the Sorbonne University in France. After completing my PhD, I went to Boston, USA, where I worked as a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The specialty of artificial intelligence will dominate the global technology in the future, according to Riyadh Baghdadi (Al-Jazeera)
How was your experience at MIT?
It was a wonderful and very sophisticated experience, as during this period I was able to develop a new programming language called Tiramisu , the goal of which is to accelerate artificial intelligence programs to work more efficiently in mobile phones.
I also worked on a new programming language called Halide, which is the language Google currently uses to write image and video processing programs for YouTube and mobile phones. This technology is currently used in all Android mobile phones as every one of the readers when he takes a picture through his mobile phone, that picture is automatically improved by this technology.
In addition to my work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I recently joined New York University to work as a research professor, where I continue to work with my research team in the same field, and from there I recently moved to New York University in Abu Dhabi as a professor for a short period.
What are the prospects for artificial intelligence in the West and in the Arab world?
We are currently experiencing a major revolution in the field of artificial intelligence that will change the world of technology in the coming years. There is a feverish competition between companies and major countries to control this field, as whoever controls artificial intelligence technologies today will own a large share of the economy of tomorrow, which will be based on artificial intelligence.
In particular, there is a great competition between the United States and China in this field, and the balance is currently tilting in favor of China, as the number of researches in the field of artificial intelligence last year in China amounted to 250 thousand compared to 150 thousand research in the United States.
In the Arab world, there is no doubt that we have advanced in this field and we have very distinguished universities and researchers, but we still have not caught up with the developed countries in terms of artificial intelligence.
Many computer science students prefer to study cybersecurity, although the field of artificial intelligence has promising prospects. How do you see that?
True. There is no doubt that the field of artificial intelligence is very important, but there are many areas of computer science that are considered a priority because of our great need for them, especially in the Arab world.
Programming, networking and cyber security are traditional, but very important as we suffer from a shortage of specialists in them. And cyber security in particular is important as it is the specialty that allows companies and governments to protect user data, and any error in protection has serious consequences as it will expose the data of millions of users to the risk of hacking.
There is another important aspect in determining the priorities of students, which is the needs of the labor market, as the specialization of cyber security is characterized by many job opportunities in our Arab world compared to artificial intelligence, which still does not provide many job opportunities, and this may happen in the future, but today cyber security is the field that provides the most jobs Therefore, you see students prefer to specialize in it to ensure their professional future.
In parallel with your academic activity, you are also active in the field of spreading scientific culture through social media platforms. Tell us about your experience?
In fact, a few years ago, I created a page on Facebook with the name " Dr. Riyad Baghdadi ". The page focuses on spreading scientific culture and its audience is mainly university students. Today, it includes about 100,000 subscribers, as we celebrated reaching this number a few days ago.
During the past three years, the number of visitors to the page reached more than 12 million people, which confirms the interest of young people in this type of content, and confirms that science and scientific culture are an attractive field, which continues to attract young people who are passionate about science and technologies.
What topics does your page cover, is it specialized or is it aimed at a general audience?
The topics of the page are diverse, but they are in the aspect of spreading scientific culture, and motivating young people to achieve scientific excellence and seek knowledge. Among the pillars on which my page is based is a series of specialized scientific lectures, the last of which was a lecture in the field of image processing, which is one of the branches of artificial intelligence, and it was activated by the Algerian Dr. Abbas Shaddad, a researcher and associate professor at a Swedish university in the field of image processing.
Among the page's corners is also a series of interviews with distinguished scientific personalities entitled "Our Elite", the aim of which is to motivate young people to take an interest in science and persevere in its acquisition.
For example, in one of the episodes of this series, the Algerian researcher in the United States, Dr. Belkacem Habba, the owner of 1,500 patents, to talk about his experiences launching start-ups. The page also represents a window to launch scientific initiatives and projects, for example, a project to support the Arabic language, where I cooperated with volunteers from the page's followers to develop an artificial intelligence system for the Arabic language (collecting data to develop the system).
This system converts spoken Arabic speech (voices) into written sentences, and it is one of the widely used applications in mobile phones, and it supports the English language well, and we want to improve its support for the Arabic language.
Do you have new projects in the future to improve the content of the page?
I am currently working on preparing a new series that attempts to answer the question “How will our nation rise?”, which is a big and deep question that many scholars and thinkers have raised and is still on the table. Through this pillar, I will try to host scholars to talk in this aspect. He was also prepared to launch a free training course for Arab youth and students, the aim of which is to motivate them to excel in the field of scientific research.
You also have activities outside the virtual space, tell us about them?
Yes, for example, I participated in the establishment of the “ Imtiaz ” association, which is a national association that aims to motivate students to excel in their field. Over the past years, we have organized more than 10 conferences in which we hosted more than 100 specialists who spoke to students in their fields of specialization, and how to excel in those Fields: More than two thousand students from 10 Algerian universities have benefited from these lectures.
Work is still ongoing, and in the future we will organize more conferences and scientific events for the benefit of students, and we expect the future to be more radioactive with the demise of the Corona virus.
Many scientific researchers do not contribute to the dissemination of scientific culture, perhaps because of their lack of time or for other reasons. What is your comment and how did you manage to work in this aspect?
Indeed, lack of time is the main obstacle in such projects. For me, spreading scientific culture is an inevitable priority, as our nation will not have a future if it does not control science.
The economy of countries is now based on science and technology, and if we take the United States as an example, half of its economy today is based on technologies developed during the past 40 years, as is the case with armies. The strength of the most powerful armies today is the advanced weapons that they manufacture.
There is no place for our nation in the future at all without full control of science and technology, and therefore despite the time constraints, I try to allocate a fixed weekly time to work on spreading scientific culture, the subject for me is of great importance.
How do you see the performance of scientists in spreading scientific culture in the Arab world in general, and what are the positives and what are the negatives?
There are many great efforts made by many scientists and scientific researchers to spread scientific culture, but we still suffer from a great shortage. One of the most prominent obstacles hindering our progress is the "existence of chaos in the world of ideas", that is, in the prevailing ideas within Arab societies, or the so-called collective consciousness. For example, the Arab youth, unlike the Western youth, does not read, whether in his field of specialization or outside his field of specialization, and this is due to the weak culture of reading in our societies.
Our youth, most of them, do not seek to develop themselves, and do not care about the major challenges that surround our nation.. These and other problems have many causes, perhaps the most important of which is the corruption of the world of ideas. This means that these young people have wrong ideas that make them act in those wrong behaviors. The media is one of the most effective tools for fixing these misconceptions. Every effort in this aspect will be of great benefit to the progress of our nation forward.
What do you advise students who want to major in artificial intelligence?
It is a very important field with a promising future. The technologies that will rule the world in the future are being developed today, and young people have a golden opportunity to contribute to the development of these technologies.
All the books and lessons that students need are available for free on the Internet. They only have to work hard to be among the distinguished. The most important investment that young people invest in themselves today is learning new skills. These skills will benefit them throughout their lives, and they will make the difference between them and others.
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