Research & Collaboration Groups
Meetups are where you meet people. Groups are where the work happens: three or more members, one shared question, a regular slot, and something concrete at the end.
How they work
Small, self-organizing, and accountable to nobody but themselves
A group is whatever its members need it to be — a reading group, a joint proposal team, a prototype squad, a benchmark effort. The community's only asks are that it stays open to new members, that it meets on a predictable schedule, and that it reports back at a meetup once a term so the rest of us know what it is up to.
- Three people minimum, ideally from more than one department.
- One convener who books the room and sends the reminder. That is the whole job.
- A cadence you can keep — every two weeks or monthly beats an ambitious weekly slot that quietly dies.
- An output in mind: a paper, a proposal, a benchmark, a tool, a course module, a report. Even a well-written negative result counts.
- Open doors. Anyone from the community can join or sit in.
What the community provides
- A slot at a meetup to recruit members and present progress.
- A page on this site, plus a repository in the community GitHub organization.
- Help finding collaborators with the skills you are missing.
- A track at the quarterly symposium to publish your results internally.
Groups are not a commitment device
If a group has run its course, say so and close it. Ending cleanly is better than a calendar invitation that everyone quietly declines.
Proposed themes
Six directions to start from
These are suggestions, not a fixed list — a starting menu drawn from the interests we expect across campus. Claim one, merge two, or propose something entirely different.
Agents for Smart Mobility
Explore how AI agents can understand context, preferences, and real-time conditions to provide personalized mobility services and support smarter travel decisions.
Industrial & Energy Operations
Explore agents that reason over sensor data, operational knowledge, and real-time conditions to support monitoring, maintenance, optimization, and decision-making.
Agents for Business
Explore how AI agents can automate workflows, coordinate tasks, analyze information, and support decision-making across business functions and organizational processes.
Arabic & Domain-Specific Agents
Develop agents that understand Arabic language, local context, and specialized terminology while addressing the unique knowledge and requirements of specific domains.
Agents in Education
Explore AI agents that personalize learning, support teaching and research, assist in labs, and enable new forms of interaction between students, educators, and knowledge.
Evaluation, Safety & Governance
Study how to evaluate agent capabilities, identify failure modes, manage risks, and establish responsible practices for deploying AI agents in real-world settings.
Nothing here fits your question? Good — that is a new group.
Start your own
Four steps from idea to first meeting
The bar is intentionally low. Most groups here start with one person saying out loud at a meetup that they want to understand something better.
- Step 1Write three sentences
The question, why it matters, and what a good outcome would look like six months from now.
- Step 2Pitch it in two minutes
At the next meetup's open floor, or by email if you would rather not present. We will circulate it.
- Step 3Find two others
We help with introductions. Two committed people beats ten interested ones.
- Step 4Pick a slot and start
We add the group to this site, set up a repository, and put you on the symposium programme.
Directory
Active groups
| Group | Convener | Meets | Working on | Open? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI for Smart Mobility | IRC for Smart Mobility and Logistcis and ISE Department | Biweekly, Thu 12:00 | Agentic AI, Transporation, Software-defined Vehicles | Accepting members |
Explore. Share. Connect. Build.
Find the three people you need
Most collaborations here started as a two-minute pitch at a meetup. Bring yours.