MBZUAI Welcomes Global Attendees To COLING 2025 NLP Conference In Abu Dhabi

The 31st International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING 2025) is set to begin in Abu Dhabi, hosted by the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI). The event, which runs from 19-24 January 2025 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), will welcome over 1,500 participants from around the globe. A co-located event, the inaugural Winter School on Arabic Natural Language Processing, will occur from 18-19 January.

This year marks the first time COLING is held in the Middle East, supported by the Abu Dhabi Convention and Exhibition Bureau (ADCEB) under the Department of Tourism and Culture – Abu Dhabi. The conference will feature 22 workshops, nine tutorials, keynote speeches, and a Winter School aimed at enhancing skills in Arabic NLP research. "COLING 2025 brings together the brightest minds in AI and computational linguistics," stated Professor Preslav Nakov of MBZUAI.

The biennial conference has been a significant event since its inception in 1965. It draws contributions from research centres, academic institutions, industrial research departments, and tech start-ups worldwide. This year, an impressive 853 papers were accepted for presentation at the main conference. Among these, MBZUAI students and faculty contributed 22 papers.

Abu Dhabi has previously hosted other significant conferences like the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM) and IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in 2024. The city also held the Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP) in 2022. These events highlight Abu Dhabi's commitment to fostering technological innovation.

Professor Nakov emphasised that Abu Dhabi embodies a mix of tradition and modernity, aligning with values of connectivity and exploration cherished by the scientific community. "We are proud to showcase our region’s dedication to technology and language innovation," he added.

UAE's Growing Influence in AI

The UAE ranked fifth in the Global AI Power Rankings for 2024. MBZUAI is recognised among the top ten universities globally for its expertise in AI fields such as computer vision, machine learning, NLP, robotics, and computational biology. It also ranks within the top 85 computer science universities according to CSRankings.

As language technology evolves rapidly, COLING provides a platform for discussing how these advancements can address both regional and global challenges. The conference represents a unique opportunity for dialogue among experts aiming to leverage AI for societal benefits.

The upcoming COLING conference underscores Abu Dhabi's growing influence as a hub for AI research and development. By hosting such prestigious events, it continues to attract global attention while promoting knowledge exchange within the field of computational linguistics.

With inputs from WAM