BSc in Artificial Intelligence
About This Programme
MBZUAI's first undergraduate degree: a four-year BSc in Artificial Intelligence with Engineering and Business streams and a full year of industry co-operative placement.
Course Highlights
- MBZUAI publishes a cohort profile of under 5% admission rate, an average class of 30, 25+ nationalities, 37.5% female students and a 5:1 instructor-to-student ratio.
- Two streams - Engineering (75% AI/CS/maths) and Business (50% AI/CS/maths) - switchable in the first year.
- 3+1 model: three years of coursework plus a full year of industry co-operative placement, and a six-credit summer internship after year two.
- Merit- and needs-based scholarships covering up to 100% of tuition and cost of attendance, including the Tahnoon bin Zayed Scholarship in AI Excellence for approximately 350 students over six years.
What You'll Study
A four-year, 120-credit degree on the Masdar City campus following a 3+1 model: three years of coursework plus a full year of industry co-operative placement. Students choose an Engineering stream (about 75% AI, computing and mathematics) or a Business stream (about 50% technical, with business and leadership), and may switch streams within the first year.
General education - 7 courses, 21 credit hours (both streams)
Three required courses plus one course from each of four lists (ethics, social science, science, arts and humanities). The Engineering stream may also count BUS1010 Economics under social science; the Business stream may also count ENG2310 Build the Metaverse under arts and humanities.
- Communication: The Power of Words (GE1005)3 credits
- Entrepreneurship: The Founder's Playbook (GE1010)3 credits
- The Emirati Spirit: From Deep Roots to a Bold Future (GE2005)3 credits
Published option lists - one course from each
- Ethics list - Philosophy in the Age of AI: Minds, Machines, and Morality (GE2310)3 credits
- Ethics list - Data Privacy and Security: Safeguarding Information in the Digital Age (GE2312)3 credits
- Ethics list - Ethics and Law in AI: Responsible Innovation in Business and Tech (GE2314)3 credits
- Ethics list - AI and Humanity: Balancing Innovation, Responsibility, and Societal Impact (GE2316)3 credits
- Social science list - AI and Politics: Power, Policy, and the Future of Government (GE2410)3 credits
- Social science list - Governing with AI: Policy, Automation, and the Future of Society (GE2412)3 credits
- Social science list (Engineering stream only) - Economics: Understanding Money and Markets (BUS1010)3 credits
- Science list - Psychology and Cognitive Foundations of AI: Human vs. Artificial Intelligence (GE2510)3 credits
- Science list - AI for Sustainable Living: Smarter Cities and Greener Future (GE2512)3 credits
- Science list - Applied AI for Scientific Discovery: From Data to Breakthroughs (GE2514)3 credits
- Arts and humanities list - Digital Humanities: Exploring Culture through Technology (GE2610)3 credits
- Arts and humanities list (Business stream only) - Build the Metaverse: 3D Vision, Spatial Computing, and Extended Reality (ENG2310)3 credits
Mathematics core - 2 courses, 6 credit hours (both streams)
MBZUAI's course tables give these as AI1110 and AI1120; its study plan and prerequisite notes write the statistics course as MTH1120. Stored as published in the course tables.
- Calculus and Linear Algebra: The Math That Powers AI (AI1110)3 credits
- Probability and Statistics: The Math of Uncertainty (AI1120)3 credits
AI core - 6 courses, 18 credit hours (both streams)
- An Introduction to AI: Thinking Machines (AI1010)3 credits
- Computers and the Web: Inside and Outside the Machine (AI1020)3 credits
- Python Programming: Taming the Potential of Computers (AI1030)3 credits
- Machine Learning: From Data to Intelligence (AI1215)3 credits
- Software, Web, and Mobile Engineering: Code Without Limits (AI1220)3 credits
- Deep Learning and Neural Networks: The Brain of AI (AI1250)3 credits
Internship and industry co-operative - 3 courses, 36 credit hours (both streams)
A six-credit summer internship after year two, then two 15-credit co-op placements in the final year - the '+1' of MBZUAI's 3+1 model.
- Internship Experience: Real World Readiness (AI2990)6 credits
- Co-op Experience 1: Learning by Doing in the Real World (AI4990)15 credits
- Co-op Experience 2: Learning by Doing in the Real World (AI4995)15 credits
Engineering stream - engineering core, 5 courses, 15 credit hours
- Algorithms and Data Structures: The DNA of Great Code (ENG1010)3 credits
- DevOps in the Cloud: Speed, Automation, and Deployment (ENG2010)3 credits
- Natural Language Processing: The Language of AI (ENG2020)3 credits
- Generative AI: Machines That Create (ENG2030)3 credits
- Data Science: From Numbers to Knowledge (ENG3010)3 credits
Engineering stream - business core, 1 course, 3 credit hours
- Project Management: From Vision to Execution (BUS2010)3 credits
Engineering stream - engineering electives, select five (15 credit hours)
Published elective list
- Building the Metaverse: 3D Vision, Spatial Computing and Extended Reality (ENG2310)3 credits
- Human-Computer Interaction: Designing User-Friendly Systems (ENG2315)3 credits
- Synthetic Data in the Generative AI Era (ENG2320)3 credits
- Databases: Organizing, Storing, and Scaling Data (ENG2325)3 credits
- Web Scraping and Data Mining: The Data Gold Rush (ENG2330)3 credits
- Prompt Engineering: Optimizing AI Responses (ENG2405)3 credits
- Data Communication and Networks: Connecting the Digital World (ENG2420)3 credits
- From LLMs to Chatbots: Methods and Engineering (ENG2425)3 credits
- Data Visualization: From Data to Decisions (ENG2430)3 credits
- Medical Imaging and AI Healthcare: Algorithms That Save Lives (ENG2440)3 credits
- Robotics: Rise of the Machines (ENG2445)3 credits
- Speech Recognition and Synthesis: Talking to Machines (ENG2510)3 credits
- Reinforcement Learning: The Science Behind Self-Learning AI (ENG3310)3 credits
- Multimodal Generative AI: Beyond Reality (ENG3410)3 credits
- Big Data: Taming the Data Tsunami (ENG3420)3 credits
- The Creator's Toolkit: Multimedia Production and Design (GE2612)3 credits
Engineering stream - business electives, select two (6 credit hours)
Published elective list
- Economics: Understanding Money and Markets (BUS1010)3 credits
- Finance and Accounting: Mastering Business Finance (BUS1015)3 credits
- Teamwork and Leadership: Building High-Performance Teams (BUS2015)3 credits
- Marketing and Public Relations: Building Brands and Driving Influence (BUS2020)3 credits
- AI Product Design and Development: From Concept to Creation (BUS2315)3 credits
- E-commerce from Scratch: Designing, Launching, and Scaling Digital Marketplaces (BUS2320)3 credits
- Design Thinking for Business: Innovate and Create (BUS2325)3 credits
- AI Business Case Studies: Insights, Best Practices, and Market Impact (BUS3015)3 credits
- Business Strategy: Crafting Competitive Advantage (BUS3020)3 credits
- AI and Fintech: The Digital Revolution in Banking and Investment (BUS3310)3 credits
- Augmented Intelligence: Unlocking Human-AI Synergy (BUS3315)3 credits
- AI-powered Supply Chain: Reducing Costs and Maximizing Speed (BUS3320)3 credits
Business stream - business core, 7 courses, 21 credit hours
- Economics: Understanding Money and Markets (BUS1010)3 credits
- Finance and Accounting: Mastering Business Finance (BUS1015)3 credits
- Project Management: From Vision to Execution (BUS2010)3 credits
- Teamwork and Leadership: Building High-Performance Teams (BUS2015)3 credits
- Marketing and Public Relations: Building Brands and Driving Influence (BUS2020)3 credits
- AI Business Case Studies: Insights, Best Practices, and Market Impact (BUS3015)3 credits
- Business Strategy: Crafting Competitive Advantage (BUS3020)3 credits
Business stream - business electives, select two (6 credit hours)
Published elective list
- AI Product Design and Development: From Concept to Creation (BUS2315)3 credits
- E-commerce from Scratch: Designing, Launching, and Scaling Digital Marketplaces (BUS2320)3 credits
- Design Thinking for Business: Innovate and Create (BUS2325)3 credits
- AI and Fintech: The Digital Revolution in Banking and Investment (BUS3310)3 credits
- Augmented Intelligence: Unlocking Human-AI Synergy (BUS3315)3 credits
- AI-powered Supply Chain: Reducing Costs and Maximizing Speed (BUS3320)3 credits
Business stream - engineering electives, select four (12 credit hours)
Published elective list
- Algorithms and Data Structures: The DNA of Great Code (ENG1010)3 credits
- DevOps in the Cloud: Speed, Automation and Deployment (ENG2010)3 credits
- Natural Language Processing: The Language of AI (ENG2020)3 credits
- Generative AI: Machines That Create (ENG2030)3 credits
- Human-Computer Interaction: Designing User-Friendly Systems (ENG2315)3 credits
- Synthetic Data in the Generative AI Era (ENG2320)3 credits
- Databases: Organizing, Storing, and Scaling Data (ENG2325)3 credits
- Web Scraping and Data Mining: The Data Gold Rush (ENG2330)3 credits
- Computer Vision: Machines That See (ENG2335)3 credits
- Prompt Engineering: Optimizing AI Responses (ENG2405)3 credits
- Data Communication and Networks: Connecting the Digital World (ENG2420)3 credits
- From LLMs to Chatbots: Methods and Engineering (ENG2425)3 credits
- Data Visualization: From Data to Decisions (ENG2430)3 credits
- Medical Imaging and AI Healthcare: Algorithms That Save Lives (ENG2440)3 credits
- Robotics: Rise of the Machines (ENG2445)3 credits
- Speech Recognition and Synthesis: Talking to Machines (ENG2510)3 credits
- Data Science from Numbers to Knowledge (ENG3010)3 credits
- Reinforcement Learning: The Science Behind Self-Learning AI (ENG3310)3 credits
- Multimodal Generative AI: Beyond Reality (ENG3410)3 credits
- Big Data: Taming the Data Tsunami (ENG3420)3 credits
- The Creator's Toolkit: Multimedia Production and Design (GE2612)3 credits
Entry Requirements
Selection includes a screening exam; SAT/ACT optional.
Careers
Graduates are prepared for careers as AI engineers, machine-learning engineers, data scientists and AI product or business specialists, or for graduate study in AI. MBZUAI publishes that approximately 85% of its graduates remain in the UAE after graduation.
Accreditation & Professional Recognition
Licensed by the UAE Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA) under the Ministry of Education.
Programme Details
Award
Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Artificial Intelligence
Start Date
Annual Fall intake (August)
Typical Offer
~90% high-school average incl. Mathematics/STEM; IELTS 6.5
Duration
4 years
Qualification
Bachelors
Subject Area
Artificial Intelligence
Study Pattern
Full time
Delivery Format
In person
Tuition Fee
AED 165,263/yr
USD 45,000 as published, converted at the pegged rate of 3.6725
Apply online at mbzuai.ac.ae. The B.Sc. runs non-binding EARLY ACTION and Regular Decision rounds; a screening exam forms part of selection and an AED 200 application fee is payable on completing it. Tuition is USD 45,000 per annum plus a cost of attendance, with merit- and needs-based scholarships covering up to 100%.