UNESCO Chair participation on International Conference AIAIE2 in Muscat, Oman

From 3–5 February 2025, Dr. Zaishang Li and Dr. Rafael Fernández, members of the UNESCO Chair on Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Engineering, were invited to participate in the International Conference for Artificial Intelligence: Applications, Innovation, and Ethics (AI²E) in Muscat, Oman.

Dr. Zaishang Li presented the Chair’s latest research, titled “Reinforcement Learning-Based Recovery of Education after Natural Hazards”, co-authored by Dr. Zaishang Li, Dr. Rafael Fernández, and Prof. Dina D'Ayala. This study introduces a novel reinforcement learning-based approach to optimising the recovery of education infrastructure following natural disasters, considering the interdependencies of roads and bridges. The results demonstrate that the AI-driven method outperforms traditional recovery strategies in both efficiency and resilience. Looking ahead, the Chair will focus on scaling the proposed approach to enable its application to larger school networks. 

During the conference, we were delighted to meet with Prof. Issa El-Hussain and Dr. Abdullah Ansari from the UNESCO Chair for Seismic Studies and Tsunami Hazards at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). The two UNESCO Chairs engaged in productive discussions, exchanging valuable information and expressing mutual interest in exploring further collaboration opportunities in the near future.