00:00My goal is to make sure that, of course, to help the leaders to achieve their vision is
00:10to be sustainable, the country, even after oil.
00:15So my motto started beginning of the 21st century, Made in UAE, Sold Globally.
00:24My mother was in a wedding the night before I was born and she tried to enjoy the wedding
00:30and suddenly, it was her cousin's wedding, and suddenly in the morning she had to give
00:36birth to me.
00:37There were no hospitals at those times, so they had to take her to Sharjah.
00:42It seemed like that I was very keen to see the world, so I was born in Dakar.
00:49I was called Isa because I was born on the 5th of December, 1955.
00:54From that day, I'm always on the move.
00:56People tell me, you walk quickly, you work quickly, and everything, because I think from
01:01birth, that's how it was.
01:03Until I was three, I was in Fahadi, but my mother went to Kuwait.
01:11When I was six and a half, nearly seven, my father called me back to Dubai.
01:17When I came to Dubai, there was only one or two buildings in Dera, and for us, we would
01:23look at it and be proud that we have two to three buildings, I think, in Dera.
01:28We'd see it from Fahadi al-Bastakiya earlier, they were calling it, and for us, it was like
01:35something good, but for me, coming back from there, it was just the beginning.
01:39I went to school in al-Sha'ab school, I had two big problems when I came.
01:47First of all, is that I didn't know how to read and write, because everything I learned
01:52in English.
01:53My father took an action, sent me to teachers who teach me Arabic, and when I was in class,
01:59there was always a fight between the first and second, who will come first, who will
02:04come second.
02:05Nobody knew who this guy is, what he'll do.
02:09Strangely, they didn't know that I came first on all of them.
02:13I came first, and in Arabic, I got 50 out of 50, in religion, I got 50 out of 50.
02:19And then I became, at the end, I became a reference in Arabic grammar, till now I am.
02:25In 1971, when this happened, it was, for us, it was like freedom.
02:32Now we are by our own, and now Sheikh Zayed is the president, and Sheikh Rashid was the
02:40vice president.
02:41It was like a dream come true for us, an independent country started.
02:46Sheikh Zayed, he always talked about education, talked about human being.
02:54He said we don't want to build industry, we don't want to build factory, we want to build
03:01the human being that will build these factories.
03:05So he started batches to send abroad for scholarships.
03:10So you all sent abroad, and in 1976, when I finished my bachelor's, my second school,
03:22we asked to apply for scholarship to the United States.
03:28I went to Denver for English language.
03:31So this is how I started.
03:32In Denver, I just started my English.
03:34I did two years of university, which was a half year actually.
03:41I didn't know they didn't have electrical engineering, then I applied, and I got three
03:45acceptances because I was good in the university plus there.
03:49I was accepted in the University of California, San Diego.
03:52And then I did a master's degree, same University of California, San Diego, master's degree,
03:56in telecommunications.
03:58And then my PhD, I went to University of California, Irvine.
04:01There was a rumor in the UA university that I invented a calculator, a rumor I'm talking
04:08about.
04:09So once they interviewed me, I said no, I didn't invent, there is a lab, everyone does
04:16it.
04:17We all designed a calculator.
04:18This is general, it was invented a long time ago, it's not me.
04:23And secondly, they asked me, one of them asked me a question in mathematics.
04:26I was a little annoyed from inside.
04:29For me, it's very simple.
04:30I can do it in a minute.
04:32I told the professor, I'll give you a question, I'll solve yours, you try to solve mine.
04:38And he couldn't solve mine.
04:40Of course, and then I solved it in two minutes, the one I gave him.
04:45So with no question, I was accepted.
04:48I was seconded to Dubai Silicon Oasis.
04:50I was one of the founders of Dubai Silicon Oasis.
04:52And then I was one of the founders of the Richardson Institute of Technology, with the
04:57president of that university when it started in Dubai Silicon Oasis.
05:01Then after five years, I went back to the University of UAE.
05:05And then again, I was seconded to ICT Fund.
05:08So I was seconded to be a CEO of that, and I was the first employee.
05:15So I was CEO on myself until I created it.
05:20And after two years, I retired from the university.
05:22So in 2013, the chairman of the University of Dubai called me, he told me that I wanted
05:29to be the president of the University of Dubai.
05:33And my first motto was, when I went to the University of Dubai, I want quality and only
05:37quality in anything you do.
05:39I will never compromise on quality.
05:41I started college engineering.
05:44And of course, I recruited one of the best.
05:47With him, we started college engineering.
05:49Now he's a provost of University of Dubai.
05:52And of course, everybody has a role in this thing.
05:56So college engineering was the first one.
05:58We have AACSB accreditation, which is for business.
06:02Dubai Business School has AA international accreditation.
06:05College of Engineering and IT, we have ABET accreditation.
06:09Now we're going to go for engineering accreditation.
06:12And we are, of course, licensed and
06:16accredited by the Ministry of Education through CAA, Commission for Academic Accreditation.
06:212002, Ittisalat, Ittisalat company had a strategic plan for higher education.
06:29And they interviewed me.
06:30And in my interview, I proposed for them a project with a conceptual design completely.
06:38And that design is still there in that strategic plan.
06:43Maybe in 2006, they started working with the government.
06:46Then in 2009 or 10-9, it was officially introduced,
06:53officially launched, it's called Ankaboot.
06:58Ankaboot is a national research and education network.
07:01It was at that time the strongest network in the country, internet network.
07:06It's called Internet 2 in the United States.
07:08So that was my achievement.
07:10So my proposal, my conceptual design, they started it.
07:14And then I was funding it when I was in ICT fund.
07:16We funded it when I was in ICT fund.
07:19So this is my big achievement.
07:22And I was recognized by the government of UAE officially by
07:26His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Zayed, President of UAE.
07:34I was honored to get the award in excellence.
07:39The award was called excellence in literature, social and sciences.
07:45I got it in sciences.
07:48I was very proud to receive it.
07:49This is like a Nobel Prize of UAE.
07:54From United States, my goal was to have a manufacturing factory in UAE
08:00in semiconductors, electronics, chip design.
08:05My goal is to make sure that, of course, to help the leaders
08:13to achieve their vision is to be sustainable, the country, even after oil.
08:20So my motto started beginning of the 20th century, 21st century.
08:25Made in UAE, sold globally.
08:27This means that we need not to transfer the technology,
08:35but transfer the knowledge.
08:36Sheikh Mohammed Rasha says, don't restrict your way with a box.
08:42Open it, open it, open it completely.
08:44There's no limitation.
08:47So that thing, anytime I have good idea, there's somebody who's there to adopt it.
08:52One of the things that my father told me, I need to tell the youth,
08:59the strongest thing in this world is the truthfulness, truth.
09:04My father told me, if you tell the truth, you will succeed all your life.
09:10Wouldn't be successful if it wasn't for everybody.
09:13I can't do it alone.
09:15No way I can do it alone.
09:16Everybody has participated, and I thank them all.
