(Photo: His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi at IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi)

Abu Dhabi: His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, visited the Abu Dhabi campus of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi) on September 2, 2024, and blessed its first batch of undergraduate students, marking a historic milestone in international engineering education under the prestigious brand of IIT. The inaugural undergraduate batch of 52 students will pursue B.Tech. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering, and Energy Engineering.

(Photo: His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi with students at IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi)

The incoming class is a mix of students who have qualified the JEE Advanced, or the Combined Admission Entrance Test (CAET), that IIT Delhi had specifically curated for the UAE nationals and residents.

Setting up of a campus of IIT in the UAE was part of the Vision Document launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi and UAE President H.H. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in February 2022, which is a roadmap for expansion of the India-UAE relationship into new areas of collaboration. H.H. Sheikh Khaled’s visit marks an important milestone in this project.

Earlier, in January 2024, IIT Delhi - Abu Dhabi had launched its first Masters of Technology (M.Tech.) in Energy Transition and Sustainability. His Highness also met and interacted with the students of that program. The first M.Tech. cohort had met Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi during his visit to Abu Dhabi in February this year.

India and the UAE have been working in earnest to make the IIT Delhi - Abu Dhabi campus a world-class and state-of-the-art institution. In October 2023, India’s Hon’ble Minister of Education, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, visited the campus while it was in the early stages of its construction.

The sprawling campus inaugurated by H. H. Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed is a testimony to the untiring efforts of the two countries. The campus, with its beautifully landscaped surroundings, is emblematic of the ever-growing India-UAE partnership. His visit to the campus is a testament to the importance accorded by the UAE to bilateral collaboration in the field of education and the value attached by the UAE leadership to the IIT Delhi campus in Abu Dhabi.

Many other important dignitaries were present on the occasion, including H.E. Sara Musallam, Chairperson of Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK); H.E. Sunjay Sudhir, the Ambassador of India to the UAE; H.E. Mubarak Hamad Al Mheiri, Undersecretary of ADEK; H.E. Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and CEO and Managing Director of ADNOC; H.E. Reem Al Hashimi, SUAD Chair of the Board of Trustees; H.E. Shamma Al Mazrui, Zayed University Board of Trustees Chairperson; H.E. Rima Al Mokarrab, Executive Director of the Strategic Affairs Unit of the Executive Affairs Authority (EAA); and H.E. Dr. Ahmed Al-Shoaibi, Executive Director of Higher Education.

His Highness and the dignitaries met and interacted with Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Director of IIT Delhi, and Prof. Shantanu Roy, Executive Director of IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi, along with other distinguished faculty members from IIT Delhi, who are currently seconded to the Abu Dhabi campus.

Signing of Strategic MoUs

In a significant segment of the event, IIT Delhi signed key Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) of strategic importance with several top academic and research institutions in Abu Dhabi, namely Mohammed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), Khalifa University, Zayed University, and Sorbonne University - Abu Dhabi.

IIT Delhi has been working together with these institutions since the time it first started working towards establishing its campus, and all of them have warmly welcomed IIT Delhi to Abu Dhabi and supported the activities of the campus as it grew from scratch.

The signing of the MoUs was a step towards formalizing these relationships and, in turn, marked an important milestone in enhancing Abu Dhabi’s academic, research, and innovation ecosystem, fostering partnerships that will support cutting-edge research and the local start-up ecosystem.

With its commitment to academic excellence, cutting-edge research, and global exposure, IIT Delhi-Abu Dhabi is poised to play a leading role in transforming the landscape of engineering education and research in the UAE, the Middle East, and beyond.

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