MBZUAI graduate using AI to improve dementia diagnosis

Salma Hassan was named valedictorian of the Class of 2025 for her research work

- BY ASHWANI KUMAR

With an estimated 75 per cent of dementia cases going undiagnosed globally, Salma Hassan, the valedictorian of the Mohammad Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MB-ZUAI) Class of 2025, turned to Al to help change that.

Hassan, who graduated with an MSc in machine learning, focused her thesis on using multimodal graph learning for the early diagnosis and prognosis of dementia and Alzheimer's disease — a field she describes as under-explored but carrying enormous human impact.

"It is estimated that every three seconds, someone is diagnosed with dementia — though 75 per cent of cases are never even diagnosed, let alone treated. It is a global challenge, and I saw an opportunity for AI to bridge this gap and improve the situation," the 23-year-old said.