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Sandeep Reddy Sandeep has a background in Health Service Management, Medical Informatics, Public Health and Medicine. In addition to a medical degree, he has qualifications in medical informatics, management and public health. Following some years in clinical practice and medical education, Sandeep attained extensive experience managing various health service projects and formulating high-level policy in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Sandeep has in the past focused on teaching and research in healthcare management and public health. He is now researching and teaching the application of artificial intelligence in healthcare, evaluation of health technology and hospital management.
View profile → Darlington Akogo Darlington Akogo is a global leader in Artificial Intelligence. He’s the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at minoHealth AI Labs; an AI Healthtech company; karaAgro AI; an AI-powered Plant & Pest Disease Detection and Precision Agriculture platform, Runmila AI Institute; an AI and Data Science training institute, and Gudra AI Studio; an organisation broadly exploring AI and Exponential Technologies applied various domains including Transportation, Sanitation and Energy.
He’s the Lead (Topic Driver) for Topic Group on AI for Radiology under the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and World Health Organization (WHO) Focus Group on ‘Artificial Intelligence for Health’ (FG-AI4H). At UN FG-AI4H, Akogo leads the development of global regulations and standards for AI in radiology.
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Emmanuel Noutahi Emmanuel Noutahi is a principal scientist and technical leader at Valence Labs, a research engine within Recursion Pharmaceuticals.
His work spans representation learning, out-of-distribution generalization, generative modeling, and human-in-the-loop approaches for scientific discovery.
He led the creation of LOWE (LLM-Orchestrated Workflow Engine), an innovative system using LLMs for orchestrating drug discovery workflows, marking a significant step towards autonomous AI agents in scientific discovery.
Emmanuel has also made substantial contributions to Datamol, an open-source framework for AI in drug discovery, and co-founded Studio Point Virgule in Benin, which hosts projects like Eureka, aiming to highlight the work of African researchers.
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Mary-Anne "Annie" Hartley Mary-Anne "Annie" Hartley is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Data Science. Her research is focused on developing and validating novel data-driven tools designed to improve healthcare in low-resource settings, with a special interest in Africa.
She completed her undergraduate degrees at the Universities of Pretoria and Cape Town before moving to Switzerland, where she completed a PhD and MD at the University of Lausanne, with an MPH at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
In 2019, she started the research group, "Intelligent Global Health" in the School of Computer Science at the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL) and continues this work in LiGHT (Laboratory for intelligent Global Health Technologies).
Through these groups, she maintains a strong presence and partnership between EPFL and Yale through student exchange, research collaboration, and a visiting professorship.
The groups collaborate with international NGOs and clinical partners to create and validate needs-based digital global health technology using novel approaches in data science and informatics.
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Tariq Daouda Dr. Tariq Daouda specializes in applications at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and
Biomedical sciences. He holds a bachelor’s in mathematics and Computer Science from the
Université de Lorraine, a Master’s in Machine Learning from Université de Montréal, and a
PhD in Bioinformatics also from the Université de Montréal. Dr. Daouda then moved to
Boston to pursue postdoctoral training, where he was affiliated to the Broad Institute,
Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He recently joined the
University Mohammed VI Polytechnic to become head of AI for biomedical applications at
the Faculty of Medicine. His research focuses on the development of novel artificial
intelligence methods to improve our understanding of biology and accelerate the
development of clinical applications. Over the years he has worked on the identifications of
markers of cancer and infection at the surface of cells, the integration of different types of
single cell sequencing to create accurate maps of individual cell biology, and the analysis of
viral sequences to identify strains likely to transition between species.
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Vukozi Marivate Prof Vukosi Marivate is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and holds the ABSA UP Chair of Data Science at the University of Pretoria. He specialises in developing Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to extract insights from data, with a particular focus on the intersection of ML/AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). His research is dedicated to improving the methods, tools and availability of data for local or low-resource languages. As the leader of the Data Science for Social Impact research group in the Computer Science department, Vukosi is interested in using data science to solve social challenges. He has worked on projects related to science, energy, public safety, and utilities, among others. Prof Marivate is a co-founder and CTO of the Lelapa AI, an African startup focused on AI for Africans by Africans. Vukosi is a chief investigator on the Masakhane NLP project, which aims to develop NLP technologies for African languages. Vukosi is also a co-founder of the Deep Learning Indaba, the leading grassroots Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence conference on the African continent that aims to empower and support African researchers and practitioners in the field.
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Alexandra Ebert Alexandra Ebert is a Responsible AI, synthetic data & privacy expert and serves as Chief Trust Officer at MOSTLY AI. As a member of the company's senior leadership team, she is engaged in public policy issues in the emerging field of synthetic data and Ethical AI and is responsible for engaging with the privacy community, with regulators, the media, and with customers. She regularly speaks at international conferences on AI, privacy, and digital banking and hosts The Data Democratization Podcast, where she discusses emerging digital policy trends as well as Responsible AI and privacy best practices with regulators, policy experts and senior executives. Apart from her work at MOSTLY AI, she serves as the chair of the IEEE Synthetic Data IC expert group and was pleased to be invited to join the group of AI experts for the #humanAIze initiative, which aims to make AI more inclusive and accessible to everyone. Before joining the company, she researched GDPR's impact on the deployment of artificial intelligence in Europe and its economic, societal, and technological consequences. Besides being an advocate for privacy protection, Alexandra is deeply passionate about Ethical AI and ensuring the fair and responsible use of machine learning algorithms. She is the co-author of an ICLR paper and a popular blog series on fairness in AI and fair synthetic data, which was featured in Forbes, IEEE Spectrum, and by distinguished AI expert Andrew Ng.
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Girmaw Abebe Tadesse Girmaw is a Principal Research Scientist and Manager at Microsoft AI for Good Research Lab which aims to develop AI solutions for critical problems across sectors including agriculture, healthcare, biodiversity, etc. Prior to that he was a Staff Research Scientist at IBM Research Africa working on detecting and characterizing systematic deviations in data and machine learning models. At IBM Research, Girmaw led multiple projects in trustworthy AI including evaluation of generative models, representation analysis in academic materials and data-driven insight extraction from public healthy surveys, with active collaborations with external institutions such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Stanford University, Oxford University and Harvard University. Previously, Girmaw also worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford, where he primarily developed deep learning techniques to assist diagnosis of multiple diseases, with collaborations with clinicians and hospitals in China and Vietnam. Girmaw completed his PhD at Queen Mary University of London, under the Erasmus Mundus Double Doctorate Program in Interactive and Cognitive Environments, with a focus on computer vision and machine learning algorithms for human activity recognition using wearable cameras. He has interned/worked in various research groups across Europe, including the UPC-BarcelonaTech (Spain), KU Leuven (Belgium), and INESC-ID (Portugal). Girmaw is an Executive Member for IEEE Kenya Section, and he is currently serving as a reviewer and program committee member for multiple top-tier AI focused journals and conferences.
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Tanya Berger-Wolf Dr. Tanya Berger-Wolf is the Director of the Translational Data Analytics Institute and a Professor of Computer Science Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at the Ohio State University. Recently she has been awarded US National Science Foundation grant to establish a new field of study: Imageomics. As a computational ecologist, her research is at the unique intersection of computer science, wildlife biology, and social sciences.
Berger-Wolf is a member of the US National Academies Board on Life Sciences and CNRS International Scientific Advisory Board, Artificial Intelligence for Science, Science for Artificial Intelligence (AISSA) Centre. She served on the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) working group on AI and Biodiversity, WWF working group on AI Collaboration to End Wildlife Trafficking, AAAS-FBI Big Data in the Life Sciences and National Security Working Group, and the organizing committee of the National Academies First U.S.-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Symposium, among many others.
Berger-Wolf is also a director and co-founder of the AI for wildlife conservation software non-profit Wild Me, home of the Wildbook project, has been chosen by UNSECO as one of the top AI 100 projects worldwide supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It has been featured in media, including Forbes, National Geographic, The New York Times, CNN, and The Economist.
Prior to coming to OSU in January 2020, Berger-Wolf was at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is widely published and is a sought-after invited speaker. Berger-Wolf has received numerous awards for her research and mentoring, including the highest honor of University of Illinois Scholar, UIC Distinguished Researcher of the Year, US National Science Foundation CAREER, Association for Women in Science Chicago Innovator, and the UIC Mentor of the Year.
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Mohamed Abdelfattah Mohamed Abdelfattah is an Assistant Professor at Cornell Tech and in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. His research interests include deep learning systems, automated machine learning, hardware-software codesign, reconfigurable computing, and FPGA architecture. Mohamed’s goal is to design the next generation of machine-learning-centric computer systems for both datacenters and mobile devices.
Mohamed received his B.Sc. from the German University in Cairo, his M.Sc. from the University of Stuttgart, and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. His Ph.D. was supported by the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and he received three best paper awards for his work on embedded networks-on-chip for FPGAs. His Ph.D. work garnered much industrial interest and has since been adopted by multiple semiconductor companies in their latest FPGAs. After his Ph.D., Mohamed spent time at Intel’s programmable solutions group, and most recently at Samsung where he led a research team focused on hardware-aware automated machine learning.
View profile → Charlette N'Guessan Charlette N’Guessan is a results-driven data and AI product solutions engineer, propelled by a profound belief in the capacity of technology to positively impact lives. Her journey began in her native Ivory Coast, where she studied Electronic and Computer Science before specializing in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
With significant experience in the AI industry, Charlette is notably recognized as one of the pioneers in the development of facial recognition technology in Africa.
In 2018, she co-founded and led the product development of BACE API, a secure identity verification software utilizing AI-powered facial recognition technology. The primary objective was to combat online identity fraud and address biases associated with facial recognition, particularly those related to skin identification, within the African context.
Currently, she serves as the Data Solutions and ecosystem Lead for a deep-tech African company, addressing data scarcity in Africa by leveraging AI and Space technology to establish a secure environmental data infrastructure at scale. The mission is to foster economic inclusion for farmers and enhance supply chain resilience in Africa and beyond.
In addition, Charlette is an AI Expert Strategy consultant for the African Union High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET), leading research and strategy formulation on Data Foundations and use in AI Systems; a crucial component of the African Union continental AI strategy.
A global speaker and advocate for responsible AI, Charlette is a member of Afrokwary, a term crafted by merging 'Africa' and 'Nokware,' meaning 'truth' in Akan language. Afrokwary is a call for voices to reshape the authentic data narrative of Africa.
Charlette has also co-authored publications, including "The AI Book" by Wifey and Fintech Circle (2020) and "The Rising to the Top" Volume IV by IFEES(International Federation of Engineering Education) and GEDC (Global Engineering Deans Council).
Her impactful contributions in technology have not only garnered numerous prestigious awards but have also inspired girls and women in STEM especially in Africa. She is the first woman to win the Africa Prize of Engineering awarded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and is a proud recipient of the Disruptive Technologies Excellence Award from CISO. Additionally, she has been recognized as a Global AI Ambassador for 2023 by SwissCognitive and featured in the list of “80 African Women Advancing Artificial Intelligence in Africa and Around the World “ by African Shapers Media.
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John Kamara John Kamara by heart is a Tech Entrepreneur with over 20 successful years of experience working in new market acquisitions across various technology verticals in Europe, America, Asia and Africa.
John is one of Africa’s leading experts on how businesses can leverage key technology trends, instantly transform organizations and drive competitive advantage for impact in industries including finance, agriculture, health, education, gaming and startup enterprises.
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Marcel Salathé Marcel Salathé (born 1975 in Basel) is a Swiss digital epidemiologist. He is currently an associate professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) He is the director of the Lab of Digital Epidemiology, based at EPFL’s Geneva Campus. In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Salathé was the most quoted scientist in the Swiss media.
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Nour Ghalia Abassi Nour Ghalia Abassi is a Business Leader at DigeHealth and a Data Scientist with a specialized interest in sound recognition in gastro-enterology.
With an educational background focused on integrating AI into medtech.
With her team at DigeHealth, Nour has developed a medtech device designed to monitor patients with bowel disorders by recognizing, counting and categorizing bowel sounds. This innovation reflects Nour Ghalia’s commitment to applying data science to improve patient outcomes.
Her work in data science is directed towards creating a system capable of flagging anomalies. It aims to distinguish non-invasively between normal and abnormal bowel behaviors, underscoring her commitment to advancing non-intrusive diagnostic methods in healthcare.
View profile → Ibrahim Yusuf Ibrahim is an AI Research Engineer at InstaDeep. He is passionate about utilizing AI for the betterment of humanity and has expertise in geo-spatial machine learning, computer vision and computational biology. Ibrahim's portfolio showcases projects ranging from enhancing food security and disaster response to advancing immunology research and development.research and development.
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Kamil Seghrouchni Kamil Seghrouchni is Founding Engineer and Operations Lead at Isospec Analytics, an EPFL spinoff building metabolomic and glycomic intelligence layers for drug research and clinical development. He manages large scale patient molecular screening projects across oncology, cardiovascular disease, and neonatal health, coordinating hospital partnerships, wet lab operations, and ML powered data pipelines from concept through delivery.
Previously, Kamil worked as an ML Engineer and AI Consultant at Visium SA, where he led AI projects for tier one pharmaceutical clients including Novartis, Roche, and Takeda, spanning RNA sequencing analysis, causal modeling, and clinical decision support systems.
Kamil holds an MSc in Life Sciences Engineering with a Data Science minor from EPFL. He is a fellow of Included VC Africa and has served as an advisor to Applied Machine Learning Days in Africa since 2021, helping shape the conference agenda and bringing African AI leaders to the stage in Kenya and Morocco
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Ayisha Piotti Ayisha Piotti is Director of AI Policy at ETH Zurich's Center for Law & Economics and Managing Partner at RegHorizon.
Ayisha is a strategic alliance builder with a strong business background and with extensive experience in Government Affairs tackling complex regulatory & fiscal challenges through working with politicians, diplomatic missions, international organizations, government ministries, consumer and business associations.
She has over 20 years of experience in the private & public sector, including with the United Nations. Prior to joining ETH Zurich, Ayisha created the Swiss based strategic consulting firm RegHorizon and was Senior Director of Business Development and Corporate Affairs within a large multinational, where she built and led cross-functional teams and projects spanning diverse geographies, including Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Ayisha’s educational background is in Economics and Management, and she is the alumna of the London School of Economics & Political Science (UK), Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy (USA), MIT’s Sloane School of Management (USA), INSEAD (France) and the IMD (Switzerland).
Ayisha strongly believes in the role of education in empowering youth and is Co-Founder and Board Member of the federally supervised the Swiss LSE Alumnae and Alumni Foundation. She is also actively engaged in various organisations promoting women in leadership and technology.
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Hafiz Alaka Professor Hafiz Alaka is the founding Director of the Big Data Technologies and Innovation laboratory (for construction and infrastructure). He also leads the ‘Prediction of Climate and its Impacts' group in the Centre for Climate Change Research.
His focus area is the application of technologies like big data and artificial intelligence/machine learning, to construction, infrastructure, business/finance, and agriculture, among other sectors.
Current projects for Hafiz include the development of an app which allows the public to find out the predicted air quality of somewhere they're going at a very local level – this is particularly helpful for vulnerable people with asthma and other respiratory conditions as well as older people. He is also involved in a project that is using machine learning to assess the fire safety of a building at the design stage – to prevent disasters such as Grenfell.
He is engaged in other projects that benefit the construction industry including helping developers use a new method of building that is much safer and faster than normal construction methods, but requires expensive training. Hafiz and the team have developed a plugin that helps overcome the training problem and makes it easier for developers to design with this new method in mind, saving time and money.
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Mazdak Abulnaga Mazdak Abulnaga is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and AI Lab (CSAIL) and Harvard Medical School. His research is focused on the development of machine learning and geometry processing methods for applications in health care.
Currently, he is pursuing research in computational neuroscience, where he aims to develop a standardized representation of the brain for functional analysis. He is also pursuing research applications in structural biology. Previously, he completed his Ph. D. in computer science at MIT. He was part of CSAIL, where he was co-advised by Prof. Polina Golland and Prof. Justin Solomon. During this time, he was part of the Medical Vision Group and the Geometric Data Processing Group. The primary focus of Dr. Abulnaga's Ph.D. research was on advancing machine learning and shape analysis for computer graphics and healthcare. His research focused on developing methods to study fetal-maternal health using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He developed a standardized representation for the placenta which is currently being used by researchers globally to study several disorders in pregnancy affecting fetuses globally. During his PhD, he collaborated closely with physicians and clinical researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, to deploy these methods for research in fetal-maternal health. Dr. Abulnaga received several PhD fellowships the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship, the MathWorks Fellowship, and the Siebel Fellowship. Beyond research, he has a particular interest in improving technical communication and mentorship. At MIT, he led several initiatives dedicated to supporting and improving research opportunities for students. You can find more details on his website: http://abulnaga.com/.
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Mark Irura Gachara Mark Irura is currently an Artificial Intelligence Advisor with GIZ. Previously, he has been an analyst with extensive experience heading end-to-end digital implementations for bilateral and multilateral development agencies, government ministries, and the private sector.
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Attila Steinegger Attila is leading the digital transformation of WWF. He drives WWF's digital strategy and roadmap as well as the use of emerging technologies such as remote sensing, artificial intelligence and Web 3 for conservation purposes. In addition, he acts as expert speaker, panelist and represents WWF in various committees around topics of digitalization, emerging technologies and sustainability. Prior to that, he used to work for 10 years at various consulting firms, focusing on strategy, innovation and digital transformation. In 2023, he was named as one of the Top 100 Digital Shapers in Switzerland by Bilanz. He holds a bachelors degree in Business Administration from the University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen and a masters degree in Corporate Sustainability from Cranfield University in the UK.
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Marvin Ngese Marvin is Technical Program Manager / Engineering Manager / Machine Learning Engineer specializing in signal and image processing, specifically in the field of computer vision. He has a strong background in handling and analyzing sensor cloud data.
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Chris Emezue Chris Emezue is a seasoned researcher committed to developing intelligent systems that can learn even in low-resource scenarios, and are reliable. His research areas are natural language processing, causality, and reinforcement learning. As a dedicated contributor to the field of AfricaNLP, he has worked on several key projects to improve the representation of low-resource African language technologies and datasets. Furthermore, as an entrepreneur, Chris is building Lanfrica, a startup that aims to accelerate the development of AI applications in under-represented regions.
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Judy Gichoya Judy is a medical doctor specializing in radiology with training and more than 6 years experience in informatics. She has worked with multiple organizations for global health in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Colombia and Tanzania implementing mhealth and ehealth solutions targeting patient care.
Her passion is to create health care ecosystems through a social entrepreneurship model that combines her medical and technology skills.
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Sandra Barteit Sandra Barteit holds a Master of Science in Analytics (Computational Data Analytics), a Master of Arts in Computational Linguistics, and a doctorate (Dr.sc.hum.) from the Institute of Global Health at Heidelberg University. Her dissertation comprised of a mixed-methods evaluation of a Zambian e-learning medical intervention, which was part of a larger effort to improve medical education in Zambia through digital technologies, and Dr Barteit leads as the principal investigator: the Blended Learning in Zambia (BLZ) project, which is a partnership between the largest medical university in Zambia and an international organization (Levy Mwanawasa Medical University).
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Leah Mutanu Mwaura Dr. Leah Mutanu Mwaura is currently a full-time faculty at the United States International University – Africa in the department of computing, where she teaches Computer Technology courses for undergraduate and graduate programs. She has a special interest in Software engineering and Information Systems Research. Her research activities include designing Early Warning Systems and Autonomous Computing solutions for development, with related publications in these areas. She has over fifteen years of research and teaching experience in academia. As part of her work in academia, she has supervised students in various computer-related research areas. Leah holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and a Master of Science degree in Managing Information Systems.
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Santiago Hincapie Potes Santiago Hincapie Potes is a Research Engineer at Google Research team in Accra. Santiago’s current work focuses on using AI for weather forecasting in low-resource regions. Prior to Google, I worked as a Machine Learning Engineer in various startups in America.
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Akram Zaytar Akram is a Senior Research Scientist at the Microsoft AI for Good Lab specializing in leveraging satellite imagery and advanced computer vision techniques to address environmental challenges.
He did his postdoc at IBM Research working on weather forecast postprocessing and geospatial ML tooling.
He is deeply invested in exploring the frontiers of deep neural networks, foundation models, and advancing the field of self and weakly-supervised learning.
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Shikoh Gitau <strong>Dr. Shikoh Gitau</strong> (circa 1981) is a Kenyan computer scientist. She finished her undergraduate studies in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Science">Computer Science</a> at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Nazarene_University">Africa Nazarene University</a> and attained her <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhD">PhD</a> at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cape_Town">University of Cape Town</a>.
She is known for inventing M-Ganga and Ummeli, mobile applications for promoting health and medicine and matching unemployed workers with employment opportunities. Gitau was the first African to win the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, received in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper_Celebration_of_Women_in_Computing">Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing</a> based on her inventions and thesis.
She contributes and manages the Technology Innovations for Inclusive Growth program, where she is presently employed in the Africa Development Bank (AfDB).
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Thomas Chen Thomas Chen is a computer science researcher and Egleston Scholar at Columbia University with a focus on machine learning, computer vision, and computer graphics.
Thomas has multiple peer-reviewed publications, including a sole-author spotlight workshop paper in NeurIPS (selected for oral presentation) and 7 papers in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences.
He has also given talks at top scientific conferences and events, including Open Data Science Conference, AAAI Spring Symposium, ACM SIGGRAPH, Applied Machine Learning Days, Machine Learning Week Europe, European Space Agency, NASA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute, NOAA Climate Prediction Center, and Caltech AI4Science.
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Julian Kuehnert Julian is a Research Scientist at IBM Research Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. He is part of the Climate & Sustainability initiative, working with climate impact models for improved decision making. His current research interests focus around boosted calibration of model parameters using Bayesian optimization frameworks and uncertainty estimation in dynamical systems using Machine Learning approaches.
Prior to joining IBM Research in 2020, Julian studied Geophysics and received his PhD in 2019 from the IPGP in Paris, France, where he worked at the interface of computational and environmental seismology.
If you want to get a personal glimpse into Julian's life at the research lab in Nairobi, you can listen to his conversation with Jon Lenchner and Victor Akinwande on the "On Not Knowing" podcast, available on Spotify and Audible.
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Bonaventure F. P. Dossou Bonaventure F. P. Dossou is a 3rd-year PhD candidate, AI researcher, author, and technology pioneer with a robust background in mathematics, healthcare, and language technology. He is renowned for integrating Fon, a traditionally underrepresented African language, into Google Translate and for championing the inclusion of marginalized languages on global digital platforms. Recognized by peers worldwide as a rising star in machine learning research, he has a proven track record of delivering impactful talks at top AI conferences spanning both academic and business spheres. He is deeply committed to bridging the gap between advanced technology and practical applications to address global challenges, advance healthcare, and break communication barriers across linguistic and cultural divides.
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Warren Ochieng Ochieng Warren is the Cofounder & CEO of Intelliverse,
a collaborative AI research platform and innovation
ecosystem that empowers AI Researchers, AI engineers, data scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, and Data Engineers across Africa with the tools, datasets, and vibrant community they need to build AI solutions to solve some of the continent’s most pressing challenges.
With a background in Economics and Statistics, Warren has over 5 years of professional experience working as a software engineer at CM Advocates, Adanian Labs and Asanti Consulting, with key focus on building robust and scalable applications.
He is passionate about building public private partnerships and building a bridge between
academia and industry to foster sustainable development across the African
continent
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Alfred Ongere Alfred Ongere is an AI consultant , founder and programs lead of Ai Kenya. He has been leading capacity development and general ecosystem building in artificial intelligence in Kenya for the past 6 years. He is a passionate Artificial intelligence evangelist dedicated to helping individuals and organizations understand how best to leverage and be part of the AI revolution.
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Carol Muchemi Carol is a highly motivated and dedicated professional with over four years of experience in Data Science and Backend Software Engineering, she excels in executing data-driven solutions to enhance internal data processing efficiency, accuracy, and utility. Her expertise encompasses the application of cutting-edge technologies, advanced troubleshooting techniques, and collaborative engagement with global stakeholders. In her current role, she has a proven track record of partnering with teams to reproduce and resolve customer issues, providing valuable insights for service improvement. Known for driving customer communication during critical events and leading projects to enhance support processes, she is adept at addressing complex business problems. Additionally, her commitment extends to knowledge sharing through speaking engagements in technical forums. Her career focus aligns with roles that offer opportunities for advancement and ongoing skill development.
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Elnathan Tiokou Elnathan Tiokou is a Ph.D. student and researcher in cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence. He is dedicated, and determined to contribute to changing the Narrative of Africa, building Trustworthy, Inclusive and Responsible Artificial Intelligence systems.
Besides Artificial Intelligence, he is the Founder of the young African tech company CHRONEXIS. In his spare time, he creates content on social media to inform, educate and inspire people with his knowledge, stories, experiences, and achievements.
His mission is to make young people believe they can achieve greatness in their lives and this with nothing less than a deep hunger. He is open to opportunities which could include: Partnerships, Fellowships, Mentorships, and many others...
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Yassine Hamdaoui As the CEO of NEURODATA, Yassine Hamdaoui leads a global team of experts in creating and scaling AI solutions for various industries and domains. With over 6 years of experience, Yassine has been instrumental in developing innovative applications of machine learning and computer vision, with a particular focus on optical character recognition (OCR) and handwriting text recognition (HTR). Yassine is the mind behind NEUROPARSER, an advanced OCR technology designed to facilitate quick and accurate extraction of text and data from images. NEUROPARSER supports handwriting text and over 64 languages, including Arabic.
Under Yassine's leadership, NEURODATA's OCR solution empowers customers to effortlessly scan and digitize printed documents, receipts, invoices, forms, and more, converting them into editable text for use in their preferred applications. Yassine holds a degree in Computer Software Engineering from ESPRIT, where skills in prototyping and developing proofs of concept were acquired. Additionally, a solid foundation in mathematics and physics was laid at IPEIM.
With a strategic vision, leadership prowess, and change management skills, Yassine excels in leading multidisciplinary projects and teams. Driven by a passion for solving complex problems, Yassine is dedicated to delivering value to NEURODATA's customers and partners.
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Retief Gerber As the CEO and co-founder of Spatialedge, Retief Gerber leads a team of software engineers and business professionals who are passionate about developing innovative enterprise solutions utilising big data and artificial intelligence.
With over twenty years of experience in this field, he has successfully launched and scaled several products and services that help clients across various industries improve their decision making and operational efficiency.
His core competencies include business development, negotiation, analytical skills, computer science, and entrepreneurship. In addition, He has published multiple research papers on topics such as metaheuristic optimization, superconductivity, and circuit design. He is always eager to learn and apply those learnings to solve real-world problems. His goal is to make Spatialedge a global leader in big data and artificial intelligence solutions.
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Kudzai Shaun Mpakairi Experienced wildlife conservation researcher with a proven track record in the higher education industry. Skilled in data analysis, management, leadership, training, research, and machine learning. Kudzai's multidisciplinary research interests include climate change, natural resources management, land-use assessments, and machine learning applications to wildlife conservation. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of the Western Cape.
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Victor Jotham Ashioya As a Machine Learning Engineer at Omdena, Victor drives change in real-world problems through open source data science projects, employing data collection, preprocessing, and modeling techniques. He has contributed to multiple projects in domains such as healthcare, education, and sustainability, using Python and SQL to build predictive models and machine learning algorithms.
He is also a Community Manager at TechUp Africa, where he leverages his background in NLP, Responsible AI, and data privacy advocacy to create and share content, resources, and opportunities for aspiring and emerging data scientists in Africa. He is passionate about extracting insights and creating innovative solutions using ethical AI practices and advocating for responsible data use. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Data Science from WorldQuant University and several certifications and courses in data science, machine learning, cloud, and cybersecurity. He is excited to continue growing his experience and skills in data science, especially in language, ethics, and data privacy.
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Mohamed Ali Dhraief Mohamed Ali Dhraief is a Data Scientist at IBM, applying cutting-edge machine learning techniques to enhance medical treatments. He is also the President of AMLD Africa, pioneering free Applied Machine Learning conferences across the continent. With a background in academia from EPFL, Mohamed Ali's expertise spans problem-solving, analytical reasoning, and data analysis. He has contributed to groundbreaking research in healthcare and industry, showcasing a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship. Mohamed Ali's leadership and dedication continue to drive progress in data science and technology worldwide.
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Andrews Kangah Ata serves as the Lead Software and DevSecOps Engineer at MinoHealth AI Labs, an AI Healthtech company, and KaraAgro AI Labs, an AI-powered Plant & Pest Disease Detection and Precision Agriculture platform. Ata contributed in the past to The Startup and Better Programming on Medium as a content creator. He was also a mentor at the 2021 Google Africa Developers Scholarship Program as a cloud track instructor. Prior to his current role, Ata was a Contingent Software Engineer at Morgan Stanley, where he contributed to the Central Tools team.
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Marilyn Ronoh Dr. Marilyn C. Ronoh is a Lecturer and Researcher of Applied Mathematics and Infectious Disease Modelling. She is currently teaching at the University of Embu, Kenya on a full-time basis. She has a BSc. degree in Mathematics, MSc. in Applied Mathematics and PhD in Applied Mathematics (Mathematical Modelling). She is also an alumni of the Mawazo PhD Scholars programme and has supported the implementation of the Mawazo Learning Exchange (MLEx) programme and the MLEx mentorship programme. Her recent research centered on constructing mathematical models to understand the transmission dynamics of HIV/AIDS among the adolescents and young people in Kenya. She has authored and co-authored published manuscripts in emerging infectious diseases. Currently, she is involved in multidisciplinary and international research collaborations, particularly modelling the social drivers of HIV/AIDS disease, sexual and reproductive health research, infectious diseases and climate changes and applications of artificial intelligence to HIV/AIDS disease dynamics among the youth in Kenya
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Ismaila Seck Dr. Ismaila Seck is CTO of Lengo, where he leads efforts to build AI models for shopkeepers in Senegal now and across Africa in the future. Ismaila is also a young teacher-researcher: after obtaining his engineering degree in Mathematics and Modeling, he did a thesis on "adversarial examples" at INSA Rouen before joining the African Master of Machine Intelligence (AMMI) as a post-doctoral researcher where he worked on ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition). He is also very active in the Senegalese AI community, GalsenAI, as the Academic Program Manager.
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Elizabeth Mutua Elizabeth has completed her PhD at Strathmore University School of Computing and Engineering sciences, Kenya. Her research topic is “A Deep Learning Model for Retinopathy of Prematurity Stage III Disease Diagnosis”. Her PhD was funded by the following organizations: Mawazo institute, DAAD, OWSD and Google PhD fellowships. She holds a master’s degree in IT Management from the university of Sunderland (UK), under the sponsorship of Commonwealth scholarship and a bachelor’s degree, BSC Computer Science (First Class Honors) from Kabarak University. She has been a lecturer at Dedan Kimathi University, School of Computer science and IT for the past ten years and the founder of Joasher Technologies & Consultancy, a software developing company based in Nairobi Kenya. She is an active participant of Data Science and Machine Learning conferences where she has been awarded many awards, among them Umuntu Award by Deep Learning Indaba 2023, GOMYCODE poster award 2022, Innovation throughout Africa 2020. She is passionate about mentoring young girls pursuing STEM courses and careers where the year 2016, she founded a RuralYoungTech program, which work to motivate and support girls from slums and rural areas here in Kenya. The program teaches the girls basic computer applications and software development without having them pay a fee. Girls who graduate from the program are linked with Tech companies for internship.
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Angelica Willis Angelica Willis is a software engineer and AI Researcher at Google who has a passion for leveraging artificial intelligence to advance the quality and longevity of human life. Her core work involves developing AI-driven healthcare solutions to help doctors make better decisions. Previous career adventures include machine learning research at Apple, NASA, and Bank of America.
Willis received a master's degree in computer science, with a focus in artificial intelligence, and in human-computer interaction, from Stanford University. Her graduate school research focused on AI-based tutoring systems designed to help K-12 students gain math, science, and reading skills outside of the classroom. She earned an undergraduate degree in computer science from North Carolina A&T State University.
Honored as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, Willis is also a Google Women Techmaker Scholar, an Apple HBCU Scholar, and a Buick National Achiever. She is an advocate for computer science education and diversity in STEM, and was recognized by President Obama as a 2016 White House Champion of Change for Computer Science Education. In her free time, Angelica enjoys advising startups through the Google for Startups Founder's Academy program and cooking (both her own recipes and ones generated by an <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181219-what-to-do-with-your-leftover-christmas-food&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1617140190914000&usg=AOvVaw3tNXLvjFRCQ3JqZegof9O4">AI model she built</a>).
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Kais Bouslama Kais Bouslama is a third-year resident in hepatogastroenterology who has completed his studies and is currently practicing in Tunisia. He has a keen interest in the applications of AI within the specialty, both in digestive endoscopy and clinical prediction models. Currently, his research focus revolves around bowel sounds.
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Kiko Muuo Kiko Muuo is the CEO of Angaza Elimu and Edtech company leveraging AI to deliver on demand skill based learning to African youth to help them thrive in a digital economy
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Mumbe Mwangangi Mumbe is a dedicated social innovator committed to driving positive change in Africa and beyond. Currently serving as the co-founder of Nyansapo AI, Mumbe leads initiatives that leverage Artificial Intelligence to enhance the literacy and numeracy skills of primary school children in underserved African communities. Through Nyansapo AI, Mumbe has collaborated with partners and fundraisers to support over 5,000 children, providing them with essential foundational skills for their educational journey.
Prior to her work with Nyansapo AI, Mumbe served as an African Young Women Leaders Fellow at UNDP Cameroon, where she spearheaded initiatives promoting gender equality and women's empowerment. Her experience spans diverse areas such as Sports Diplomacy, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Digital for Development, addressing critical challenges facing Africa. Additionally, Mumbe's tenure with international NGOs like Peace First and Pace Maker International has equipped her with valuable skills in program management and youth empowerment.
Looking ahead, Mumbe aspires to integrate her expertise in technology, development, and policy-making to drive systemic change. Inspired by the African concept of Ubuntu, she believes in the collective power of action and empathy to transform societies. Committed to lifelong learning and collaboration, Mumbe seeks to forge connections with fellow changemakers and explore innovative opportunities to build a better world grounded in equity, opportunity, and solidarity.
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Ngugi Karega Ngugi's journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. He embarked on a 10-year adventure in India, where he honed his skills and expertise while working for IBM and even founded a startup. But that wasn't the end of his story. Ngugi's thirst for enlightenment led him to the Himalayas, where he lived as a monk, embracing a life of simplicity and introspection.
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John Bagiliko John is currently a PhD student at the University of Rwanda. His PhD is fully funded by a scholarship from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, given through the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. He is researching how to leverage machine learning to improve satellite rainfall estimates for African rain-fed agriculture.
He obtained a BSc. Mathematics from the University for Development Studies, Navrongo, Ghana, in 2017. Subsequently, he obtained an MSc. Mathematical Sciences (Big Data and Computer Security) from AIMS Senegal, in 2019. His research interests include data science, machine learning, remote sensing, climate change, climate science, and applied mathematics.
He was recently a research scholar at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, Mali, where he researched how to leverage machine learning with satellite images for plot delineation in the African rain-fed agriculture setting.
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Grace Wangui Grace is a Software Developer with a demonstrated history of working in the health care and financial industry. She is skilled in Analytical Skills, API development and design, Web Design and Development, Data Analysis and Machine Learning. She has strong engineering professional with a Bachelor's degree focused in Computer Science from the University of Nairobi.
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Rendani Mbuvha Rendani Mbuvha is a Google DeepMind Academic Fellow in Machine Learning at the Queen Mary University of London and an Associate Professor in Actuarial Science at the University of Witwatersrand. He received his PhD from the University of Johannesburg in 2021, where his research focused on Bayesian Neural Networks for renewable energy forecasting. He is a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (UK), Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA) and a holder of the Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary designation.
Rendani's research interests lie in the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and actuarial science. He is particularly interested in the development of Bayesian machine learning methods for applications in risk management, finance, and healthcare.
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Therence Bois Therence Bois is a Co-founder & COO of Valence Discovery, a research group specializing in AI for drug discovery. In 2023, Valence Discovery was acquired by Recursion Pharmaceutical, a prominent AI-first biotech company. Therence now leads the product and translational research team at Valence Labs, a semi-autonomous research group within Recursion.
Before starting Valence, Therence pursued his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Medicine at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM). He was also part of the initial team of Front Row Ventures, the first student-run venture capital firm in Canada, where he now serves on the board of directors.
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Cornelius Maroa Professional Summary:
An accomplished AI Researcher and Data Scientist, Cornelius is currently making significant strides in artificial intelligence through His role as a Co-founder at Intelliverse AI. With a passion for promoting AI research and innovation, Cornelius has dedicated His career to exploring the boundaries of AI technology and its applications.
Career Highlights:
<ul>
<li>- AI Researcher and Data Scientist: Cornelius has a rich background in data science, specializing in developing advanced algorithms and predictive models that power AI solutions. His research has contributed to machine learning, neural networks, and AI-driven analytics breakthroughs.</li>
<li>- Co-founder of Intelliverse AI: Leading the charge in AI innovation, Cornelius co-founded Intelliverse AI, a company at the forefront of AI technology. Under His leadership, the company has developed cutting-edge AI solutions transforming industries and driving technological progress.</li>
</ul>
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Payel Das Dr. Payel Das is a Principal Research Staff Member and manager in the Trusted AI Department of IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. She is also an adjunct associate professor at the department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics (APAM), Columbia University and an IBM Master Inventor. She is also the principal investigator of AI Horizons Network IBM-University of Montreal partnership. She received Ph.D. degree from Rice University, Houston in 2007, where her thesis focused on statistical physics and machine learning. She was a visiting fellow at the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) at UCLA and a visiting student in Princeton University. Her research interest is at the interface of artificial intelligence (AI), statistical physics, and neuroscience. In her current role, she leads research on generative AI models and bio-inspired learning, the final goal being the development and deployment of trustworthy and controllable machine systems that enable acceleration in scientific and enterprise applications. Das has co-authored over 50 publications and several patent disclosures, and given dozens of invited talks. She has served in the editorial advisory board member of the ACS Central Science journal and in SUNY Stony Brook Advisory Board. Das is the recipient of IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award (the highest technical award at IBM), IBM Special Division Award, two IBM Research Division Awards, one IBM Eminence and Excellence Award, five IBM Invention Achievement Awards, and several US and EU-based government funding awards. Her work has been also recognized by Harvard Belfer Center's Technology and Public Purpose (TAPP) Project.
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Moses Kemibaro Moses is an entrepreneurial digital media & and marketing professional with over 20 years of working experience in some of Africa's most successful Internet companies including Opera, Perform Group (the company behind Goal.com), InMobi, Naspers (for Dealfish, formerly OLX Kenya and now known as Jiji Kenya), Dotsavvy, 3mice Interactive Media, Africa Online and Kenyaweb (formerly Form-Net Online). Goals include participation in highly successful entrepreneurial and Pan-African digital and mobile marketing business ventures over the next 5 years.
Specialties: Key competencies in sales, marketing, account management, project management, finance administration, strategic planning, digital marketing, digital media, consulting, and general management.
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Omolola (Lola) Omole-Odubekun Lola is a personable lawyer and social scientist with award winning credentials. She brings resilience and a problem-solving mentality honed from multi-faceted life experience living and working in east and west Africa, south Asia, the U.K., and the United States.
Along with college teaching, empirical research, and advocacy in the not-for-profit sector, Lola brings practical experience in higher education governance, editorial work, and international development.
Dr. Omole-Odubekun's strengths include excellent written and verbal communication skills, outstanding analytic abilities, and a collaborative leadership style. She currently resides in Newark, NJ.
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Confrey Alianji Confrey Alianji is an innovation expert and venture builder, currently serving as the Innovation Enabler for the Africa Region at WWF, In addition to initiating and leading the WWF-Kenya Innovation Program, "PandaLabs," he coordinates WWF's Finance Practice Startups and Ventures Workstreams, collaborating with startups in Asia and Africa. With over ten years of experience, he is a proficient business and strategy designer, addressing the innovation needs of impact organizations, African entrepreneurs, and businesses.
He is an Expert Reviewer for World Economic Forum's (WEF's) Climate Justice Challenge. Serves as the Innovation Council Member for CCSI an initiative of Baylor University and Compassion International. He co-founded the start-up UTAFITI, has worked as a design thinking consultant for Bluesky Innovations, and participated in the Unleash Innovation Lab in Denmark to work on groundbreaking solutions for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals where his team’s concept, Afterain, won second place in Health.
As part of his work he believes feeling connected to nature, being outside in nature, has a positive impact on people and he is driven to support connect and engage WWF Kenya in global work on innovation through designing and running innovative processes and to build a career on protecting the future of nature and people.
He has a passion for mentoring the creative talents of young people and has supported the Safaricom Blaze BYOB program as the Technology Mentor, Contributor at KamiLimu and Andela's professional development sessions, and Entrepreneurship trainer at the Young African Leadership Initiative
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David Kihumba David Kihumba, a finance, supply chain & business management professional with over a decade of experience in several sectors and currently working as value chain manager in Global Health & Sustainability unit in Novartis.
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Clinton Oduor Clinton is a Machine Learning Engineer at Amini, a Nairobi based startup building Africa’s environmental data infrastructure. His work harnesses the power of AI and earth observation to find solutions to some of the most pressing and urgent environmental challenges of our time, such as climate change and food security. Prior to Amini, he worked at Edge Impulse as a Developer Relations Engineer, and co-founded Rhinos Lab, a wildlife conservation startup building AI powered camera traps to prevent poaching and human wildlife conflicts . In his free time, he leads the TinyML Kenya community, bringing together over 1000+ developers, researchers, and engineers with a shared interest in machine learning at the edge.
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Steve Firsake <em>Steve Firsake is a Geospatial Engineer with a Software development and Data science background who has been working in cross-cutting fields for the past 10 years. He has worked for organisations such as NASA, FAO, World Vision and is currently the Senior Geospatial Engineer at Amini. He is passionate about the opportunities and research outcomes that spatial data science offers to solving real world challenges especially in the global South.</em>
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Gilles Q. HACHEME Currently, in his fourth year of Ph.D. in quantitative economics, Gilles is passionate about using mathematical and computer science tools to solve real-life problems. His Ph.D. is about using online data to better analyze markets. And also how to mix machine learning methods with econometrics ones in order to solve original economics problems. He is also actively working on several entrepreneurial and social projects.
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Felix Malombe As a Keynote Speaker, EdTech Coach, and Digital Citizenship Leader, Felix Malombe is at the forefront of educational innovation and technology integration. With a background as an Instructional Designer and advocate for Computer Science education, he champions digital skills development and sustainability education. His actions drive positive change in education, from designing remote and hybrid learning platforms to advocating for ethical technology use. He collaborates with educational institutions and EdTech companies to develop tools empowering educators and students alike. With strategic project management, he delivers impactful solutions that elevate schools and educators, making a lasting mark on the education landscape. His steadfast belief in the power of technology guides him as he pioneers a brighter future for learning.
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Mohammed Fazalullah Qudrath Mohammed Fazalullah (call me "Faz") is a Senior Developer Advocate at AWS for the MENA region. He is based in the UAE and educates and empowers developers on achieving cloud capabilities, allowing them to concentrate on interesting problems while AWS handles the heavy lifting. An architect and a technical evangelist at heart, he speaks on various trends in the technology space with the focus of building and scaling in the cloud in and around Asia. He has designed and built products for over 18 years in the enterprise and SME space, along with building engineering teams and helping them scale.
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Jonas van Duijvenbode Translating real-world problems to automated solutions is his greatest passion. Learning about agriculture and environment and being taught the skills at Wageningen University to do so have prepared him for his passion and he is happy to be able to work on this. Whether he digs into these problems and translates them to code himself or enables a team of people to do so, he always enjoys finding solutions step-by-step.
He feels strongly about reducing global environmental impact. Using simple but thought-out solutions to environmental problems can result in great global and local impact; he wants to do his part in information-providing technologies, using aerial imagery and GIS-applications.
View profile → Yves Gaetan Nana Teukam Yves is a Pre-Doctoral Researcher at IBM Research affiliated with the Technological University of Eindhoven. He has a background in Bioinformatics and Data Science.
During his master thesis, he worked on synthesis planning using deep learning. Part of this work resulted in a publication in Nature Communication in 2022. Yves, as a contributor to the Generative Toolkit for Scientific Discovery, is currently working on generative models for enzyme design using evolutionary-based algorithms.
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