How Iran's universities became a target of US-Israeli attacks

On 6 April, a blast ripped through Iran's top engineering university. No casualties were reported, but multiple buildings - notably those housing an artificial intelligence centre - were damaged.  

Often likened to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, Sharif University of Technology is decades old. It is widely regarded as one of the leading engineering schools in West Asia.

Among its alumni is Maryam Mirzakhani, who became the first woman and the first Iranian to be awarded the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics, in 2014.

The university’s president said the targeted artificial intelligence centre housed critical databases, and that its staff had spent the last two years training AI models in Persian.

US sanctions have cut Iran off from global AI research knowledge, so Iranians have done it all on their own.

Read more: How Iran's universities became a target of US-Israeli attacks