Research projects to use AI in detecting palm trees diseases

A graduation project of students from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Qatar University (QU)’s College of Engineering has been exploring the use of drones to monitor palm tree pests based on image analysis using artificial intelligence (AI), Dr Abdulaziz al-Ali, director of the Kindi Centre for Computing Research at the QU has said.
He said that AI is trained to recognise the images of diseases affecting palm trees, and then it monitors trees with pests and identifies the type of pests affecting the tree through drones.
Speaking to local Arabic daily Arrayah, Dr al-Ali noted that the experts at the Kindi Centre hold meetings with experts from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering to develop and discuss ideas for research on the use of drones in AI research.
"Our vision at Kindi Centre is for the centre to have a distinguished and qualitative production in AI and cybersecurity research, and to provide training opportunities for the concerned in the field,” he said. “We design special training workshops for some entities in collaboration and partnership with other departments in the country."
He further stressed the importance of applied research projects as they result in economic returns for the university and the country.
Dr al-Ali expressed pride in Kindi Centre's collaboration with the students from the College of Engineering, including those outside the university at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
He noted that in 2019, the centre only worked with 4-5 students, and now it is working with 55 students who actively participate in research projects with the professors.
Dr al-Ali said that the centre is primarily concerned with research and aims to prepare promising researchers.
The centre takes effort to convince students to pursue postgraduate studies and join the centre as faculty members.
Regarding the impact of AI on employment, Dr al-Ali said: "Some jobs may be replaced by AI technologies, or the person working on them will find life much easier. It will certainly save a lot of time and effort for the users."
He added that AI can greatly benefit researchers in extracting some research information.
For instance, it can spare them reading a 100-page research paper by providing a summary in one page.
Dr al-Ali said that the use of AI applications can be used in medicine in general, and medications can be prescribed according to genetics based on AI techniques in medicine.

These tasks are very precise, he said, creating a new field in medicine called precision medicine.