A delegation from New Uzbekistan University visited Nazarbayev University (NU) and the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) on April 30, 2026, following an earlier institutional engagement.
The delegation included Dr. Abdurakhmon Umarov, Vice Rector for Innovation and Research; Dr. Shukhrat Mardonov, Head of the Scientific Research Department; and Mr. Qobiljon Toshnazarov, Senior Lecturer.
The visit focused on exchanging experience in research management and institutional development, as well as exploring opportunities for collaboration in artificial intelligence, robotics, and advanced computing. The delegation highlighted Nazarbayev University as a strong regional benchmark and expressed interest in learning from its research ecosystem development approach.
The program began with a tour of NU laboratories, where researchers at ARMS Lab presented ongoing work in robotics and AI, including vision-language systems for industrial inspection, mixed-reality solutions for infrastructure diagnostics, and autonomous robotic platforms for inspection and maintenance tasks. The delegation also visited the PCMC Lab, where Dr. Ahmad Bala Alhassan introduced research in computational modeling, followed by a presentation at the Energetic Cosmos Laboratory by Dr. Ernazar Abdikamalov on space science and energy systems.
The delegation also visited NU’s computing infrastructure, where ISSAI Executive Director Yerbol Absalyamov and NUITS Senior Engineer Boris Potapchuk introduced the university’s high-performance computing resources, including the Irgetas cluster, emphasizing its role in supporting large-scale AI training and scientific research.
At ISSAI, the delegation was introduced to ongoing research in speech technologies, multilingual AI, and vision-language models for low-resource languages. Dr. Huseyin Atakan Varol shared his experience in developing and managing research activities at ISSAI and Nazarbayev University. “Building a strong research ecosystem requires not only infrastructure and talent, but also close integration between disciplines and a clear path from research to real-world impact,” said Dr. Huseiyn Atakan Varol.
The session was also attended by Executive Director of ISSAI Yerbol Absalyamov, Government Relations Manager Alaidar Amirseiit, and Senior External Affairs Manager Aigerim Sarsenova, along with ISSAI researchers.
During the session, ISSAI researchers presented their work in key areas of speech and language technologies. Rakhat Meiramov introduced advances in Kazakh speech recognition, focusing on named entity transcription using synthetic data, achieving significant reductions in error rates and developing systems such as Persona-ASR for multi-speaker environments.
Akylbek Maxutov presented research on language and vision-language models for Kazakh, including the KazCulture Dataset for improving cultural understanding in AI systems, as well as Qolda, a compact vision-language model designed for consumer-grade hardware, alongside ongoing work on integrating web search into small language models.
The delegation expressed strong interest in ISSAI’s work on language technologies and applied AI systems, emphasizing its relevance for building emerging research ecosystems. The visit concluded with discussions on potential collaboration in AI research, academic exchange, and joint capacity-building initiatives between the two institutions.