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275 speakers · 275 in: All events
Dr. Abdel Labbi is an IBM Distinguished Engineer and Head of Data & AI at IBM Research - Zurich. He leads a global team of researchers and engineers in developing the next-generation Hybrid Cloud Data Fabric, designed to provide secure, efficient, and governed enterprise data for AI. With over 20 years of experience in research, engineering, consulting, and teaching, Dr. Labbi specializes in large-scale Data & AI platforms and digital transformation. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Grenoble (France) and an MBA from Henley Business School (UK). Dr. Labbi has collaborated with several Fortune 500 companies on cutting-edge AI projects and has co-authored more than 80 research papers and two books on various aspects of Data and AI theory and applications.
Abdelhak is Associate Professor of Computer Science at Mohammed V University (Rabat, Morocco) and permanent Researcher at L'IMIARF Laboratory. His main research involves ML/DL in Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing applied to Healthcare. In the past, in 2010, Abdelhak worked as a Machine Learning Research Engineer at Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone (INT) (Marseille, France) under the Neuromed project in the 7th European Framework. In 2014, he joined, as a Postdoc ML Researcher, the Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) project administered by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
<div class="trix-content"> Abdellah EL MEKKI is a Ph.D. candidate at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco working on machine learning and natural language processing (NLP). Mainly, his work is on NLP for low-resource languages. He has published many works on adapting NLP systems for Arabic dialects with zero labeled data. He is interested in transfer learning for NLP and making AI more accessible </div>
<div class="trix-content"> - Consultant in AI and Operations Research at OCP Solutions from November 2018 to now - PhD candidate at UM6P-School of Computer Science in NLP from January 2022 to now - 2015 - 2018 Ecole des Mines de Nancy: French cross-sector engineering school. Majoring in Applied Mathematics. "Major de promotion", GPA: 3.8/4 - 2017 - 2018 Ecole Polytechnique de Paris: p French Master’s degree in Probability and Finance. - 2016 - 2017: Université de Lorraine, France: Master in Mathematics in parallel with Ecole des Mines. GPA: 17/20 - 2013-2015: Classes Préparatoires Moulay Youssef, Rabat Maroc, Two-year selective post-baccalaureate university-level courses. Second year in the MP* class </div>
Abdoulaye Baniré Diallo is a Full Professor of Bioinformatics and Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Computer Science at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) and a leading international expert at the intersection of AI, data science, and life sciences. He is the founder and director of the Montreal Bioinformatics Laboratory (LaBiM) and co-leads the WELL-E Research and Innovation Chair on Artificial Intelligence and Well-Being, which initiated Canada’s first digital living lab. His research focuses on developing advanced algorithms for the integration and analysis of large-scale, heterogeneous biological and health data, with applications spanning precision medicine, reproductive health, and rare diseases. A former associate researcher at the Broad Institute and postdoctoral fellow at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Prof. Diallo also brings strong translational and entrepreneurial experience as co-founder of My Intelligent Machines (MIMs), an AI-for-biotechnology company. Beyond academia, he is a trusted advisor to international organizations including the UN, UNESCO, OECD, and the World Economic Forum, and is deeply committed to building sustainable AI and research ecosystems across Africa, notably as General Coordinator of Guinea’s City of Science and Innovation. (Fell free to remove extra details )
Abdoulaye Diack is a husband, father of two and a Program Manager for <a href="https://research.google/">Google AI</a> 🤖 in Accra, where he leads talent building programs and applied AI research projects. He was previously a Program Manager for Google Brain 🧠. With expertise in AI/ML research and research Ops, Abdoulaye has accumulated more than 20 years of engineering and management experience in various countries, focusing on mobile financial services, payments, and big data solutions for Telcos. He holds a BSc degree in Computer Science from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and is originally from Senegal. In his current role, Abdoulaye is part of a team that focuses on AI impact-driven research and innovation, with a particular focus on sustainable development in Africa.
Abdulganiyu Jimoh is an internationally recognized expert in artificial intelligence, environmental intelligence, and sustainable development. He is the founder of HydroFutures / AquaWise.ai, an innovative platform leveraging AI, open data, and collective intelligence to transform water management, climate adaptation, and environmental monitoring. Through HydroFutures, Abdulganiyu has pioneered novel approaches to integrate real-time environmental data with predictive AI models, enabling evidence-based solutions for critical water and climate challenges. He contributes to a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER-funded research project investigating the impacts of dust deposition on vegetation health in the Great Salt Lake in the Western United States. By combining hyperspectral imaging, advanced AI, and environmental modeling, his work has delivered novel insights into ecosystem dynamics and resilience, reflecting a unique blend of technical innovation and environmental impact. Abdulganiyu has also served as a formal AI policy contributor to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), providing expert recommendations that informed the U.S. National Artificial Intelligence Action Plan. His contributions addressed cross-sector regulatory barriers in AI adoption, including healthcare, water systems, transportation, smart grids, and climate resilience. Recognized for his expertise, he was invited for follow-up consultations to help identify and reform federal statutes that hinder AI innovation in the United States. Through his pioneering research, technological innovation, and AI policy leadership, Abdulganiyu has demonstrated sustained national and international impact. His work exemplifies extraordinary ability in applying AI to solve critical environmental and societal challenges, advancing both scientific knowledge and practical solutions with broad relevance and recognition in his field.
Abigail Annkah is a research engineer at Google. Prior to doing full-time, she was an AI resident. She holds a masters in machine intelligence from the AIMS African Masters in Machine Intelligence program, Rwanda. She is interested in computer vision and optimization based research.
Dr. Abramson has spent the past 12 years researching, working with and innovating for African smallholder farmers. He is currently building a digital platform for SHFs - Farmster - to accelerate market linkages and access to digital services and information using NLP to optimize the experience for offline users. www.farmster.co
Dr. Ahsan Mahboob is Head of the Sibanye-Stillwater Digital Mining Laboratory (DigiMine) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, one of the world’s leading testbeds for underground digital mining. Since 2019 he has led partnerships between Wits, Sibanye-Stillwater and more than 30 technology and industry partners to translate Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as automation, data analytics, real-time monitoring and intelligent systems into safer, smarter and more energy-efficient African mines. Reflecting the broader continental focus on progress through partnerships, Dr. Mahboob’s work emphasises collaborative digital solutions for critical minerals, ESG performance and social licence. He leads several high-impact digital mining and geospatial innovation projects, including the EU Horizon funded Intelligent Community Dialogue Agent (ICDA), alongside multiple fast-track programmes in underground communication systems, IoTbased safety monitoring, digital sensing, renewable energy modelling and mine electrification. He drives international collaborations with leading universities and research organisations across Africa, Asia and Europe. With a strong background in geospatial science, data analytics and digital systems, and a PhD from Wits in data-driven mineral exploration, he has published over 50 papers on geospatial data science, mining digitalisation, IoT-based safety systems and cyberphysical mining operations. Widely regarded as an academic intrapreneur, he leads multidisciplinary teams and collaborative programmes that position DigiMine as a strategic partner for investors seeking scalable, future-ready digital mining solutions in Africa
Founder of Farmz2U, an agritech enterprise based in Nigeria and serving Sub-Saharan African markets. Farmz2U’s solution was recognized as a promising practice by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, thus validating its social impact. Also, UK NGO ‘One Young World’ measured Farmz2U’s social return on investment as 49 versus an aggregate score of 19 which further indicates its impact.
Aisha is a Senior Technical Staff Member and manager at IBM Research Africa - Nairobi, Kenya. She leads a team of phenomenal, brilliant researchers and engineers that use AI, Cloud, and other technologies to advance the state-of-the art in the Future of Health and Climate. Aisha has a strong interest in developing AI tools for Global Health (see her work on COVID-19 interventions, https://ibm.github.io/wntrac), and working across sectors to create innovative, sustainable AI solutions to transform emerging economies. She is also a program co-chair for ICRA'22, https://www.icra2022.org, and looking to engage the African community in AI, robotics, and automation.
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.
Alejandro Yousef da Silva is working at Schneider Electric where he is in charge of the development of microgrid energy management algorithms. He graduated in 2014 in electric engineering and obtained a master of advanced studies in energy systems optimization from the Ecole des Mines ParisTech in 2017
Alex Pryor is a veteran technology executive who has worked with top tier companies around the world for more than 20 years. Alex is a globally recognised speaker and author, sharing her broad knowledge of innovation, leadership, and emerging technology on stages and in boardrooms. She is committed tohelping companies leverage technology to maximise value and impact. Alex is a also founding member of the World Metaverse Council and her must-read emerging technology book, Risking Irrelevance, was released in 2023.
Alexander Immer is a Ph.D. student at the Max-Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems interested in probabilistic machine learning and data science. Before that, he was a Master’s student at EPFL and an intern at RIKEN AIP in Tokyo. The current focus of his work is on scalable Bayesian model selection and applications to biomedical problems.
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.
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.
Ali Hussein is an AI researcher at Ronin Institute. He works in low-resource NLP and AutoML/NAS
Amal Tarifa from Tunisia, gets her engineering degree from the National School of Computer Sciences (ENSI) university. In the field of computer sciences, Amal's Ph.D. thesis (2021) is in the area of Natural Language Processing (NLP), combined with cognitive agents. Amal is also an active researcher at ESPRIT-TECH. She has joined the academic staff of ESPRIT since 2018. She is a scientific member of various known journals and conferences. Besides, she is an NVIDIA certified ambassador
Amieroh Abrahams is a Junior data scientist at Fathom Data, where she forms part of the training division lead by Astrid. She is a certified CarpentryConnect instructor and R evangelist. She will co-presenting this lesson on Tidymodels - a tidy approach to modelling in R.
<section> <div class="container--center"> <div class="grid grid__c3"> <div class="grid__item--s2"> <div class="markdown__body"> <div class="trix-content"> Aminat is a Data Scientist at Sidmach Technologies. building cross-functional and scalable data solutions. With background experience in software development, she helps customers choose and implement data solutions tailored to their business needs. She is also the technical lead for the data science team. Aminat is passionate about blockchain and tech communities. She is a leader/organizer at Datafest Africa. </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </section><header class="section-header bg-color-light"> <div class="container--center display-grid-system"></div> </header>
<div class="trix-content"> Amit Joshi is a Professor of AI, Analytics and Marketing Strategy at IMD. He is the Program Director of the <a href="https://www.imd.org/da/digital-analytics-course/">Digital Analytics</a> open programs, the co-director of the program on <a href="https://www.imd.org/ai/artificial-intelligence-course/">Artificial Intelligence</a> and the Director of the <a href="https://www.imd.org/dtp/digital-diploma/">Digital Excellence Diploma</a>. In 2020, he was named a ‘Digital Shaper’ in Switzerland, as one of a handful of individuals who would shape the digital economy in the future. Amit is an award-winning professor and researcher and has interacted with a variety of corporate clients in several industries, including telecom, banking and financial services, media, manufacturing, retailing, pharma, education and automobiles. He is frequently invited to provide keynote speeches the world over, and also provides advisory services to senior executives. Amit’s research, which focuses on long-run marketing strategy, analytics and AI applications, has been published in top journals, including Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Culture, Journal of Cultural Economics and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. His research has twice won the MSI / H. Paul Root Award, for the best paper in the Journal of Marketing (2010 and 2015) the Robert D. Buzzell Best Paper Award (2006) for the MSI publication with the most long-term impact and been nominated for the Sheth Foundation Award for long-term contributions. His dissertation won an honorable mention in the 2004 Alden G. Clayton Dissertation Proposal Competition. He is also an award-winning case writer. His research and opinions have been extensively covered in the popular press and media, appearing in outlets including NPR, CNN, NBC, Nikkei, Fast Company, Business Standard, Fox News, Bloomberg, Forbes, Investor Relations Magazine, The Conversation, and Science Daily. Amit earned his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pune, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (P.G.D.M.) from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India, and a Ph.D. is from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. </div>
Dr. Amos Chege Kirongo, PhD, is a distinguished academic and innovator with over 15 years in Information Technology. A dedicated Lecturer in Computer Science at Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST), he specializes in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing. His PhD research developed a "Digital Imaging Model for Plant Stress Detection," forming the foundation for his impactful work applying AI and IoT to solve challenges in agriculture, healthcare, and accessibility. A proven leader in securing funding, Dr. Kirongo has won over KES 25 million in grants from the National Research Fund, Mozilla Foundation, and others for projects like assistive technologies for disabilities and AI-driven crop pest surveillance. An accomplished academic leader, he has served as MUST's Deputy Director of Innovation and Postgraduate Coordinator. He is also a certified startup coach and external examiner. His practical innovations include the AI-powered Tunza Leaf app for plant disease detection, a digital pathology system, and a "Camera Mouse" assistive input device. Bridging academia and industry, Dr. Kirongo is a respected consultant, certified trainer (Microsoft, Huawei, NVIDIA), and an active member of IEEE and ACM. He holds a PhD in IT, an MSc in Data Communication, and a BSc in Computer Information Systems.
Anass Sedrati is the vice president of Wikimedia Morocco, the official Wikimedia affiliate in Morocco. He is one of the founders of the group, and organized several Wikipedia-related event, both locally and internationally. Anass is among the team that created Wikipedia Darija and Wikipedia Tachelhit. Anass is working as a management and strategy consultant, and pursues a PhD in IoT security and governance.
<div class="trix-content"> As a Microsoft Solution Architect for AI and Data Science, Andreas Kopp advises enterprise customers on the planning and implementation of AI based business solutions. He is focused on Azure Machine Learning, Cognitive Services and Applied AI solutions including medical imaging and responsible AI frameworks and tools </div>
Andrew is Data Scientist who works mostly in R and Python. He was a Physicist in a previous life.
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.
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>).
Anitha Vijayakumar is a Technical Project Manager on the TensorFlow team. She got her engineering degree from India and a Masters in Computer Engineering from UCLA. She has been working at Google for more than 9 years and is most recently leading program management for the TensorFlow Ecosystem.
Antje Barth is a Developer Advocate for AI and Machine Learning at Amazon Web Services (AWS) based in Düsseldorf, Germany. She is co-author of the O'Reilly Book, ""Data Science on AWS."" Antje is also co-founder of the Düsseldorf chapter of Women in Big Data. She frequently speaks at AI and Machine Learning conferences and meetups around the world and chairs and curates content for O’Reilly AI Superstream events. Previously, Antje was an engineer at Cisco and MapR focused on data center technologies, cloud computing, big data, and AI applications.
Antoine Bosselut is an assistant professor at the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne (EPFL). Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and a Young Investigator at the Allen Institute for AI (AI2). He received his PhD at the University of Washington in 2020. His research focuses on developing AI reasoning methods that can be translated to important societal problems in health, education, and helping underserved communities. He was named as one of the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Science and Healthcare in 2021, an ELLIS Scholar, and an AI2050 Early Career Fellow. He is also on the steering committee of the Swiss AI Initiative and one of the co-leads of the Apertus project to responsibly develop LLMs for societal good.
Astrid is a data scientist at Fathom Data, where she heads up the training division. She is a certified RStudio Tidyverse trainer and R evangelist. She will be joined by colleague Amieroh Abrahams to present this lesson on Tidymodels - a tidy approach to modelling in R.
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.
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.
<div class="trix-content"> I create strategies, transform them into concepts, and lead creative teams that bring them to life. At the core of my work is building connections through stories. I am currently working on a diverse range of projects at Google, highlighting some of the most historically untold stories. </div>
Beldine Moturi is a Software Engineer at IBM Research – Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, where she is part of the Accelerated Discovery team – Climate and Sustainability. Her current work focuses on building tools and software for accessing, processing, and onboarding geospatial datasets, fine-tuning pre-trained geospatial foundation models, and running inference on these models. Through this work, she aims to empower developers and researchers to seamlessly derive insights without engineering complexity by abstracting technical processes into intuitive, end-to-end platform experiences. Previously, Beldine contributed to a healthcare project, collaborating with a multidisciplinary team to design and build a user-friendly, web-based interface that integrates Biomedical Foundation Models (BMFM) for accelerated drug discovery workflows. This work was presented at IJCAI 2024 in the paper SPARK: Harnessing Human-Centered Workflows with Biomedical Foundation Models for Drug Discovery. Beldine holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Statistics from University of Nairobi, Kenya. She is passionate about advancing AI and software solutions for climate resilience and sustainability and actively engages in the tech ecosystem by contributing to community and knowledge-sharing initiatives, including presenting at PyCon Kenya 2025, mentoring participants during the UNEP Hack4Env 2025 hackathon.
Benjamin Rosman is a Professor in the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where he runs the Robotics, Autonomous Intelligence and Learning (RAIL) Laboratory. In 2024, he became the founding Director of the Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, focused on the fundamental science of intelligence in machines, humans, and animals. He is also a founder of Lelapa AI, building AI for Africans, by Africans. In 2025, he was made a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, in Learning in Machines and Brains. He was named one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2025. He received his Ph.D. in Informatics in 2014, and previously obtained his <a href="http://M.Sc">M.Sc</a>. in Artificial Intelligence, both from the University of Edinburgh. He also has a <a href="http://B.Sc">B.Sc</a>. (Hons) in Computer Science and a <a href="http://B.Sc">B.Sc</a>. (Hons) in Applied Mathematics, both from the University of the Witwatersrand. His research interests focus primarily on reinforcement learning and decision making in autonomous systems, specifically on how learning can be accelerated through abstracting and generalising knowledge gained from solving related problems. He is a founder and organiser of the Deep Learning Indaba machine learning summer school, with a focus on strengthening African machine learning, which now has satellite events in 47 African countries. He was made a 2024 National Geographic Explorer, 2022 CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, was a 2017 recipient of a Google Faculty Research Award in machine learning, and a 2021 recipient of a Google Africa Research Award. In 2020, he was made a Senior Member of the IEEE. <!-- notionvc: cef5b3d0-84f5-445e-85c8-f3e81c32e38a -->
<div class="trix-content"> Benji obtained a BSc in Mechatronics Engineering at UCT, after which he worked as a software engineer and business analyst at the Cyest Corporation in Johannesburg, Chile and Australia. Next he obtained an MSc in Neurotechnology at Imperial College London. His main research areas at Imperial focussed on machine learning and computational neuroscience. Thereafter he joined Uber, where he worked as an Operations Manager for Sub Saharan Africa. He was responsible for building the analytical models that led to data-driven, strategic decisions around supply growth, efficiency and performance. Benji is currently the co-founder and CTO of Aerobotics, a Cape Town based company using aerial imagery to help farmers find problems early and optimize performance. Benji is responsible for both the data science and software application areas of the business, designing and building predictive, automated insights that farmers can use to easily make decisions through a range of web and mobile applications. </div>
16 years in emerging markets developing GIS, imagery analysis and AI/ML products and services tailored to the local context. I love tech delivered in a sustainable, scaleable and impactful package
Dr. Bienvenu Agbokponto Soglo is the Vice President for Technology, Policy & Innovation at Blacklin Associates. A seasoned technology executive and policy strategist with over two decades of international experience, he focuses on leveraging AI-driven innovation to advance inclusive growth across emerging markets. He also serves as a Research & Innovation Associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering, at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). As Founder & CEO of BICAS, a deep tech advisory and innovation firm, Dr. Soglo aims to help governments, companies, and institutions design future ready digital ecosystems that balance technological advancement with societal impact. Previously, Dr. Soglo held senior roles at Intel, Qualcomm, and Huawei, leading policy engagement on AI, 5G/6G, broadband, spectrum, data governance, and digital inclusion. He spearheaded the Intel Community Reach Program, dedicated to bridging Africa’s digital divide and enabling local AI innovation; and chaired the GSA ATU Spectrum team for nearly four years. A recognized thought leader in deep tech ecosystems, he has contributed to major continental and international policy dialogues through the ITU, WTO, AU, ATU, Smart Africa, and B20; and serves as Thematic Lead for Entrepreneurship & SME Growth at the ITU Innovation & Entrepreneurship Alliance for Digital Development and was a member of the South Africa’s National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI) Working Group on AI. Fluent in English, French, and Chinese, he holds a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University and executive certification in Corporate Governance from Wharton.
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.
Bravian Nyatoro is an environmental scientist turned software developer specializing in AI-driven systems. Working in Rust, Go, and Python, he creates tools that use machine intelligence to empower communities and solve everyday challenges. He currently works at Zone01 Kisumu, where he continues to build scalable, accessible tech. His upcoming project, FloodWatch Africa, uses AI to offer simple, reliable early-warning alerts in areas often overlooked by traditional systems. Driven by a belief in accessible, low-cost tech, Bravian is committed to making powerful AI tools, like WeatherNext2, available to people and places that need them most.
Dr. Walker is a professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology; director of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard; and an adjunct professor of medicine at University of KwaZulu-Natal. Bruce Walker’s research is focused on learning from patients to define mechanisms of immune system control of chronic viral infections, with an emphasis on those who control HIV infection in the absence of antiviral therapy. Through an international collaboration, Walker and his team are investigating the immunologic, virologic, and host genetic mechanisms that account for this phenotype. They are applying their discoveries to prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine development, and to define specific antiviral responses of various subsets of immune cells. Walker also directs population-based research studies on HIV infection at South Africa’s Nelson Mandela School of Medicine.
Bunmi Akinremi is a machine learning engineer and researcher with a background in computer science and mathematics, working at the intersection of AI systems and real-world impact. Her work spans reinforcement learning, large-scale ML pipelines, anomaly detection, and responsible data use, with experience across industry and research. She has spoken at international conferences and leads community initiatives focused on ethical, inclusive, and practical applications of AI.
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.
Dr. Ödman is Associate Professor at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa and Associate Director, Development and Outreach at the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA). Trained in physics at EPFL in Switzerland, she holds a PhD in cosmology from Cambridge University, UK where she worked on Bayesian approaches to cosmological parameter estimation. She has done research in several fields of physics and developed educational programmes based on science from early childhood to postgraduate training. She has also worked in a financial technology startup. She now focuses on researching and bringing a development agenda to science. Her work has earned her numerous awards nationally and internationally. In 2018 she was awarded a Special prize by the International Astronomical Union for her work in Education Development and Outreach. Most recently, she was part of the #InspiringFifty 2020 South Africa cohort.
Dr. Nakalembe is an Associate Research Professor at the University of Maryland. She is the NASA Harvest Africa Program Director, is a member of the NASA SERVIR Applied Sciences Team serving as the Agriculture and Food Security Thematic Lead. Catherine has broad research interests including applications of satellite remote sensing and machine learning to agriculture and food security, land use and land-use change mapping, water resources, and climate change, and supports several capacity-building in the use of remote sensing for agriculture monitoring and research. She is a 2020 Africa Food Prize Laureate for her dedication to improving the lives of smallholder farmers by using satellite technology to harness data to guide agricultural decision-making. Her efforts have also promoted the formulation of policies and programs that are directly impacting farmers against the impacts of food failure. Dr. Nakalembe was a 2020 UMD Research Excellence Honoree and in 2019 was a recipient of the Inaugural GEO Individual Excellence Award. She was featured in the 2020 Women and GIS, Volume 2: Stars of Spatial Science ESRI Press book. Her work led to the development and establishment of food security and crop monitoring bulletins that integrate satellite data including the Tanzania National Food Security Bulletin, the Uganda National Integrated Early Warning Bulletin, Kenya, Rwanda Crop Monitor reports, and the Eastern Africa Crop Monitor as well as designing the trigger mechanism of the disaster risk financing program in Uganda that has supported over 300,000 households in the Karamoja region as part of her Ph.D. research.
<strong>Celina Lee</strong> is a co-founder and the CEO of Zindi (<a href="http://www.zindi.africa/">www.zindi.africa</a>), the first data science competition platform of its kind in Africa. Celina has a passion for unleashing the power of data for social good. Celina has a proven track record of thought leadership in the intersect between data and development and has played central roles in launching global initiatives including the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (<a href="http://www.afi-global.org/">www.afi-global.org</a>), insight2impact (<a href="http://www.i2ifacility.org/">www.i2ifacility.org</a>), and now Zindi (www.zindi.africa). Celina's work has expansively bridged across the private and public sectors and across various development areas including financial inclusion, micro and small enterprise development, gender, climate change, and public health. She has lived and worked in countries throughout Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Celina holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Applied Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science and a Master’s of International Affairs both from Columbia University.
Chance is a Program Manager at Google Arts & Culture where he coordinates heritage preservation efforts through international partnerships which employ innovative technology for 3D documentation, education, and public dissemination. Recent partnerships include the British Museum, UNESCO, CyArk, World Monuments Fund, Pergamon Museum, Brazil’s National Museum, Rhizome and ML Experiments Fabricius and Woolaroo.
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.
Chijioke Okorie is a leading legal scholar, NRF-rated researcher, and policy advisor at the dynamic intersection of intellectual property (IP), emerging technologies—with a focus on AI and data science—and African development. She is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria, where she is the founder and Principal Investigator of the Data Science Law Lab (DSLL). The DSLL is a pioneering interdisciplinary research group dedicated to developing evidence-based, Afrocentric policy and governance frameworks to support the responsible growth of Africa's digital economy. Since 2019, Chijioke has received over ZAR12million in grants, donations and commissions from inter alia: Canada's International Development Research Centre; Mozilla Foundation; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Meta (formerly Facebook); South African Competition Commission; CRDF Global in partnership with the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of international Studies, US; Arcadia Group through American University Washington; University of Pretoria; Coimbra Group, Europe; Volkswagen Stiftung; etc. Beyond academia, Chijioke translates her research into practice as the founder of Penguide Advisory, providing strategic guidance on technology law and regulation to governments, non-profits, and entrepreneurs. She is also a respected international voice on African IP law through her long-standing role as a correspondent for the highly-regarded IPKat blog. Her work is characterized by a commitment to bridging the gap between law, technology, and policy to build a more equitable and innovative future for Africa.
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.
Chris Fregly is a Principal Developer Advocate for AI and Machine Learning at Amazon Web Services (AWS) based in San Francisco, California. He is co-author of the O'Reilly Book, "Data Science on AWS." Chris is also the Founder of many AI-focused global meetups including the global "Data Science on AWS" Meetup. He regularly speaks at AI and Machine Learning conferences across the world including O’Reilly AI, Open Data Science Conference (ODSC), Big Data London, Big Data Spain, and Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC). Previously, Chris was Founder at PipelineAI where he worked with many AI-first startups and enterprises to continuously deploy ML/AI Pipelines using Spark ML, Kubernetes, TensorFlow, Kubeflow, Amazon EKS, and Amazon SageMaker.
Digitalisation Unit head within the department of Infrastructure, Industrialisation and Trade at the African Union Development Agency. Her duty includes managing a portfolio of 11 foundational infrastructure projects from the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), supporting the implementation of AU continental frameworks and strategies for Member states. Christelle has a background in Computer Science Engineering and Business Administration.
Claude Formanek is 24 years old and lives in Cape Town South Africa. He completed a undergraduate degree (B.Sc.) in Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2019. In 2020, he completed his B.Sc. Hons. In Applied Computational Mathematics at UCT. Claude did two research projects in his Honours year, one on Deep Reinforcement Learning and another on Graph Neural Networks. He was awarded first class grades for both projects. In 2021 Claude enrolled for a M.Sc. In Applied Computational Mathematics at UCT. His supervisor is Dr. Jonathan Shock and his research is on Offline Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning. Concurrently Claude is also doing a full-year internship at InstaDeep ltd. Claude is a research intern working in the Cape Town based InstaDeep research team. The Cape Town team is led by Dr. Arnu Pretorius and primarily focuses on research in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL). In June 2021 the Cape Town team released an open-source framework for MARL called Mava which they have been developing since the start of the year. Claude was one of the main contributors on that project, having written a significant amount of code in the code-base.
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.
Colleen M. Farrelly is a lead data scientist whose industry work spans TDA, NLP, time series, and GIS applications. She's passionate about data science for social good. She and Dr. Gaba are the authors of The Shape of Data (No Starch Press, 2023).
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
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>
<div class="trix-content"> Cyrus Vahid is a Principal Developer Advocate for AI/ML at AWS. He focuses on delivering engaging talks to inspire builders and customers on how they can use AI/ML to shape their products and services, along with the responsibilities of building such services. </div> <div class="text-icon__links"></div>
Damien Hilloulin is a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Oracle Labs Zurich, where he focuses his work on Graph Machine Learning and Recommender Systems projects.
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.
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.
Dhruti Dheda received the B.Sc. (Eng.) and M.Sc. (Eng.) degrees in chemical and metallurgical engineering and the M.Sc. (Eng.) degree (cum laude) in electrical and information engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where she is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the School of Electrical and Information Engineering. Her doctoral research explores the multiple objective optimization of hybrid renewable energy systems using metaheuristic algorithms. Her research particularly emphasises environmental and social aspects of the implementation of technology and innovation. Her research interests include deep learning algorithms and their application to the environmental conservation, water quality monitoring and wastewater analysis, water footprinting, and carbon nanotubes.
Dr Edmund Terem Ugar is an AI ethics and governance expert, specialising in ethical design, deployment, and governance of AI systems in healthcare (public health and mental health). I hold a PhD (by publication) from the University of Johannesburg, where my research addresses algorithmic bias, discrimination, patient moral agency, and data ethics. My work advances Afro-relational ethics as a human-centred, context-sensitive framework that guides responsible AI innovation in African and global healthcare systems. Dr Ugar's areas of expertise include responsible AI & governance in healthcare, Algorithmic bias, fairness, and discrimination; data ethics & value-sensitive design; technology transfer & value colonialism; sociotechnical impacts of AI in African contexts; digital mental health interventions; and cultural, sustainable innovations in Africa. I have published peer-reviewed articles and policy papers, received competitive scholarships, and presented at international conferences. Beyond research, Dr Ugar engages in global policy and industry conversations to ensure AI is ethical, equitable, and culturally sustainable.
Edward Booty has experience across public, private and non-profit healthcare organisations such as Novartis, Capgemini, and the Department of Health in the United Kingdom. As a result, he has worked extensively on digital healthcare; patient and market access; performance improvement; payment systems; health insurance; business development; and new service delivery models. This experience spans both developed countries and emerging markets.
Edzai Zvobwo is the founder of MathsGee and Acalytica, two EdTech and AI platforms that advance inclusive learning and digital growth. A data scientist and AI strategist by training, he has built systems used by over a million learners and entrepreneurs across the continent. His work blends causal inference, behavioural science, and human-centered design to make education more measurable, adaptive, and equitable. Edzai holds a Master of Applied Leadership and Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management, a Postgraduate Certificate in Computational Intelligence for Industry from the University of Johannesburg, an Honours Degree in Mathematics from the University of Zimbabwe, and a Certificate in Impact Investing in Africa from UCT. Recognised as a Top 40 African EdTech Innovator, Tutu Fellow, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeeper, he continues to shape how Africa reimagines learning through data, AI, and systems thinking.
I am a machine learning researcher and technical writer.
Elena Sinel is a multi-award-winning social entrepreneur committed to revolutionizing education worldwide. <em>Teens In AI</em> is her latest initiative, driven by her passion for AI and its potential to create a lasting positive impact. Officially launched at the ITU’s <em>AI for Good Global Summit</em>, its mission is to build pipelines for underrepresented talent, enhancing diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence. The initiative provides young people aged 12-18 with early exposure to AI for social good through expert mentoring, talks, workshops in AI/ML, human-centered design and ethics, hackathons, accelerators, company tours, and networking opportunities. The vision is to ensure AI is developed by a diverse group of thinkers and doers, advancing AI for the benefit of humanity. Elena is a highly sought-after speaker. Her recent achievements include: <ul> <li><strong>Winner – Women4Technology Industry Leadership Award</strong>, Mobile World Summit 2020</li> <li><strong>Winner – Diversity Award</strong>, Mobile World Summit 2020</li> <li><strong>50 Most Influential Women in UK Technology</strong>, Computer Weekly, 2019</li> <li><strong>CERPrize Winner</strong>, 2019</li> </ul>
<div class="trix-content"> Elhousna FAOUZI from Morocco, I am a 3rd year Ph.D. student at the Sultan Moulay Slimane University in Morocco. My area of interest is Climatology, spatial sciences, Hydrology modelling and Remote sensing. I have been working and conducting researches in this area for 2 years. </div>
Elias W. Ba is a Senior Software Engineer at Open Function Group (OpenFn) and the Project Lead for the AI Triage initiative at Haskè Health+. With over 10 years of experience bridging data systems, machine learning, and public health, he designs open-source infrastructures that automate and scale health data workflows across Africa. He founded GalsenAI, West Africa’s largest AI community, and has led national-scale innovation projects in health, aviation, and digital transformation. Passionate about responsible AI, Elias advocates for practical applications of AI that strengthen healthcare delivery, empower local talent, and democratize access to data-driven tools.
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.
Founder & CEO at Modularity Grid, a deep tech startup funded by Innovate UK, Google and Airbus. Profiled in WIRED and the MIT Tech Review 35 Under 35 Innovators global list, Elizabeth worked in academia at Imperial College London, and prior to that co-founded Mandulis Energy, a renewable energy infrastructure company funded by KfW, UNCDF, Total, Fresco Capital and others. She started her career in M&A at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, and holds an MSc from Oxford University.
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...
Elyes Manai is a Machine Learning Consultant, Educator and Mentor. He helps companies tap into the power of data science to reduce costs and increase revenue as well as build relationships with relevant target audiences through educational content and community building. He graduated from a Masters of Research in Artificial Intelligence and is passionate about making Machine Learning more robust, efficient, and explainable. Elyes is heavily invested in impactful work, mainly through education and community building. He regularly hosts talks and workshops, creates Youtube content, contributes to open source projects and mentors startups. Specifically, he used to lead the Facebook Developer Circles Tunisia community, co-founded PyData Tunisia & Data Co-Lab and mentored startups at the Google For Startups Accelerator. His work has been recognised by Google and he's now the youngest Google Developer Expert in Machine Learning in the MENA region. Elyes has made it his mission to support others and create opportunities though education and mentoring.
Emile Jordaan is an agribusiness and technology practitioner with a strong focus on climate‑smart agriculture and sustainable farming systems. His work centres on applying innovative technologies to enhance farm resilience, improve resource efficiency, and strengthen long‑term productivity in a changing climate. With more than 30 years’ experience in the agricultural sector, Emile brings a practical, solutions‑driven perspective to agritech, environmental stewardship, and food‑security challenges. He is passionate about supporting farmers and industry stakeholders in adopting climate‑responsive practices that balance economic viability with ecological responsibility. Emile holds a B.Sc. Agric. from the University of the Orange Free State and an MBA from the University of Stellenbosch. He currently leads Metos SA, a subsidiary of Winfield United SA, where he continues to advance the adoption of innovative, data‑driven climate-smart farming technologies.
<div class="trix-content"> Africa focused investor and entrepreneur. Founder and CEO of ILARA Health, a high tech point of care diagnostics venture which aims to democratize access to diagnostics across developing markets. Passionate about prevention and early detection of diseases. Avid biohacker. Emilian has over 10 years of successful launching, fundraising, growing, exiting technology ventures in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Russia. Present focus on Africa. 7 years of experience with leading consulting firm in Europe, US, Africa. Joint MBA Columbia Business School / London Business School. </div>
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.
Engineer Bainomugisha is an Associate Professor and Chair, Computer Science at Makerere University, Uganda. Through his research work, Engineer is on a mission to harness the transformative power of computational technology and intelligence to tackle complex society challenges for the benefit of humanity. He has pioneered and led several social impact initiatives including, AirQo (https://www.airqo.africa), a Google AI Impact Challenge winner initiative that leverages AI, IoT and Cloud technologies for environmental air pollution monitoring, modelling and analysis in African cities to foster resilience and healthy urban communities. He is also passionate about contributing to quality Computer Science education in Africa that is of sufficient breadth and depth, practical and fast enough. He is a Co-Founder of Sunbird AI (https://sunbird.ai), a not for profit initiative that develops and deploys practical AI systems for social impact.
Eniola is a software and systems engineer with over three years of experience in data science and machine learning. He actively participates in data science competitions held by online communities such as Kaggle or Zindi, which allows him to solve real-world problems and expand his skill sets.
<div class="trix-content"> Eslam Hussein arrived in South Africa from his native Egypt in 2013, in February 2014 he enrolled to study Computer Science at the University of the Western Cape. He has since completed his BSc, Hons and finally graduated Magna Cum Laude with an MSc in Computer Science in April 2022. Today, Eslam works as a Data Scientist at the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy at UWC, where he develops and uses data science projects to teach aspiring data scientists across the continent at hackathons and other events. </div>
<div class="trix-content"> Esther Oduntan is a researcher and academia in Computer Science. She obtained her PhD from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), MSc in Machine Intelligence from the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AMMI) M.Sc, Computer Science from University of Lagos, UNILAG and BSc in Computer Science form Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria Certificate in Education(Computer Science/Economics). She is a Chief Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro Ogun State and an Adjunt in Chrisland University, Nigeria. Her research interest is in machine intelligence comprising machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. She is a member of Women in Machine Learning (WiML), Black in AI (BAI), Data Science Nigeria (DSN), Women in Data Science (WiMLDS), African Directory of Science, Web of Science Scholar, Computer Professionals of Nigeria (CPN), Professional member of Nigerian Women in Information Technology (NIWIIT) and the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS). Happily married with children </div>
Fabrice Lauper is supporting the ICRC's digital transformation efforts, which includes looking for ways to extend the use of new technologies for humanitarian operations, while protecting affected populations from digital risks
Faten Ghriss is a AI software engineer and Team Lead at InstaDeep. She has a few years of experience as a backend and data engineer. Faten is currently working in a Reinforcement Learning based project at InstaDeep where she helps solve a scheduling and dispatching problem. She's the co-founder of Young Tunisian Coders Academy, an organization that teaches kids coding, robotics and soft skills.
<div class="trix-content"> Fatima-Zahrae Nakach is a first-year Ph.D. student at the UM6P, in the MSDA Lab. She received her engineering degree in Web Intelligence from the Computer Science and Systems Analysis School (ENSIAS, University Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco) in 2021. Her doctoral research investigates the use of multi-modal machine learning and ensemble learning for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, her work is conducted under the research project “Machine Learning based Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment” </div>
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.
Foutse Khomh is a Full Professor of Software Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, Canada CIFAR AI Chair on Trustworthy Machine Learning Software Systems at Mila - Quebec AI Institute, and FRQ-IVADO Research Chair on Software Quality Assurance for Machine Learning Applications. He received a Ph.D. in Software Engineering from the University of Montreal in 2011, earning the Award of Excellence. In 2019, he was awarded the CS-Can/Info-Can Outstanding Young Computer Science Researcher Prize, Canada’s highest recognition for an early-career academic in Computing. His research interests include software maintenance and evolution, machine learning systems engineering, cloud engineering, and dependable and trustworthy ML/AI. His work has received four 10-Year Most Influential Paper Awards and six Best/Distinguished Paper Awards. He has served on the program committees of several international conferences, including ICSE, FSE, ASE, ICSM(E), SANER, and MSR, and has reviewed for multiple top international journals in Software Engineering and AI, including EMSE, TSC, TPAMI, TSE, and TOSEM. He has also served on the steering committees of SANER (chair), MSR, PROMISE, ICPC (chair), and ICSME (vice-chair). Additionally, he initiated and co-organized the *Software Engineering for Machine Learning Applications (SEMLA)* symposium and the *RELENG (Release Engineering)* workshop series. He is on the editorial board of multiple international software engineering journals (e.g., *IEEE Software, EMSE, JSEP*) and is a Senior Member of IEEE.
Gabriel is a machine learning engineer at NASA Harvest, where he uses satellite data to better understand which crops are being grown where. Prior to joining Harvest, Gabi worked at Okra Solar, an energy access company, where he investigated applications of machine learning to smart solar mesh grids. Before this, he worked on machine learning for customer analytics in Toronto.
Hi, my name is Gabrielle Dompreh and I am a AI Specialist Solutions Architect at AWS. I'm passionate about problem solving across various industry segments with the use of AI/ML. Outside of work I enjoy gaming, writing and creating digital art
Galina is based at the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. Her work focuses on quantifying barriers to the global electricity sector’s transition to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels. In her work, she applies machine-learning-based techniques to uncover novel insights form large complex asset-level datasets, to inform future energy infrastructure investment decisions. Two of her recent studies were published in Nature Energy, including one on predicting Africa’s future capacity mix. This work was covered by over 100 news outlets and radio programmes, including BBC, The Guardian, Bloomberg, The New York Times and TIME. Previously at the OECD, an international organisation in Paris, Galina led projects for the public and private sector on the extractive sector's decarbonisation, green development finance and natural capital management. Galina’s experience also includes the role of an economic adviser to the Minister of Industrialisation and Trade in Namibia. She started her career as an economist in the UK and Scottish Governments. Galina holds an MPhil in spatial economics and real estate finance from the University of Cambridge and MA in economics from the University of Glasgow.
<div class="trix-content"> George Boateng is a Computer Scientist, Engineer, Educator, and Social Entrepreneur who has been recognized as a Pioneer in the 2021 MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35. George is currently a PhD Candidate and Doctoral Researcher at ETH Zurich, Switzerland focusing on AI / Applied Machine Learning, and a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge, U.K. George is also the CEO and Cofounder of SuaCode.ai, an AI EdTech start-up that is enabling young Africans to learn to code using smartphones and AI. He previously worked as an Applied Scientist at Amazon (Alexa AI). George has a BA in Computer Science and an MS in Computer Engineering from Dartmouth College, U.S. where he was an E.E. Just STEM Scholar and an E.E. Just Graduate Fellow. </div>
Dr. George Jojo Boateng is a Computer Scientist, Educator, and Social Entrepreneur recognized as one of the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe, and 2021 MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35. He is an Senior Researcher, Core Director of Wearable AI for Rheumatoid Arthritis Management (WARAM), and Lecturer of the #AI4Impact course at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He is also the CEO and Cofounder of Kwame AI, an AI start-up that has built AI assistant such as Adesua (science education), SuaCode (coding education), Eskwai (legal work), and runs community support initiatives: AfricAIED, a workshop on AI in Education in Africa, and Brilla AI, an open-source project building an AI Contestant for Ghana's National Science and Math Quiz (NSMQ). He previously worked as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Cambridge, U.K., and as an Applied Scientist at Amazon (Alexa AI). He has a PhD in Wearable AI from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and a BA in Computer Science and an MS in Computer Engineering from Dartmouth College, U.S.
Dr. Ghita Mezzour serves as the Moroccan Minister in Charge of Digital Transition and Administration Reform. Before her appointment, she worked as both an entrepreneur and an academic, focusing on the development of digital solutions with significant socio-economic impact. She holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Dr. Mezzour has been recognized with multiple international awards for her contributions to the field.
Gilles Quentin Hacheme is a Senior Research Scientist at Microsoft AI for Good Lab, where he uses computer vision, remote sensing, and statistics to address societal challenges such as food security, climate change and disaster response. As member of the Masakhane NLP research community, he has worked on breaking language barriers in Africa. He also co-founded Ai4Innov and GeoAI-Africa, non-profit organizations where he works on adapting and building AI technologies to tackle societal challenges in Africa. Finally, he has been listed among the top 30 AI pioneers in Africa by Empower Africa.
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.
Gina is a medical doctor (MBBCH, Cum Laude) with a Masters in Biostatistics and Epidemiology (University of Oxford) and additional training in AI in Healthcare from MIT. She has extensive experience in clinical research, digital health innovation, and healthcare data analytics, including leading projects in AI implementation at Audere Africa and developing novel health data solutions. She has presented her work on digital health and AI at international conferences, including MedTech Malta and HIMSS Las Vegas. She recently joined Netcare as Clinical Data Analytics Manager, where she focuses on leveraging advanced analytics and AI to generate actionable insights that enhance quality of care, strengthen health system performance, and drive innovation across clinical services.
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.
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.
Gregg Barrett is the CEO of Cirrus, Africa’s AI initiative. Gregg is a technology executive who builds and scales innovative operations at large private and public sector organisations, non-profits, and start-ups globally. He co-founded an organisation that became the market leader in contract management systems in Africa and was selected to provide the E-commerce platform for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) common market. He also led the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) in Southern Africa to develop and advance contract and commercial management in the region. He is a seasoned executive with extensive and diverse experience in strategy, building and managing relationships, deal making, communication, developing high performance teams, organisational leadership, and problem solving across a range of areas. Over the last decade Gregg has led work in data science, machine learning, corporate research, and corporate venture capital. This includes the establishment and management of data science, machine learning, corporate research, and corporate venture capital operations, working across people, process, and technology, integrating structured and unstructured data to direct research, business, and investment strategy. He is a supporter of ELLIS and CLAIRE, and a participant in MLCommons, the Energy Efficient High Performance Computing Working Group (EE HPC WG), TinyMLedu, and the OECD.AI Compute task force. He holds an undergraduate degree from Oxford Brookes University in Marketing and Business Management, a Masters in Data Science from Northwestern University, and has completed the Professional Risk Manager (PRM) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) programmes. Gregg serves as the Alumni Admission Council Director and the Global Ambassador for Northwestern University in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Guillaume Scheurer earned his Law degree from the University of Neuchâtel and pursued postgraduate studies in International Security Policy at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. His early career included working at a law practice in Neuchâtel, where he was called to the bar, and serving as a lawyer at the general directorate of a large private insurance company near Zürich from 1990 to 1992. His prior government service includes: <ul> <li><strong>Ambassador to Ukraine and Moldova (2015-2019)</strong></li> <li><strong>Deputy Head of the Delegation to the Swiss Delegation to the OSCE (2013-2015),</strong> including during Switzerland’s Chairmanship of the OSCE in 2014</li> <li><strong>Deputy Head of the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C. (2009-2013),</strong> where he also led the Political and Legal Section</li> <li><strong>Deputy Head of the Political Division for Human Security, Peace Promotion, and Human Rights</strong> at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berne (2005-2008)</li> </ul>
ML researcher , my research interest includes deep learning , Computer vision and NLP . with hands-on experience of working with real-world data. Skilled in NLP , Computer vision , Python Programming Language, and deep learning. Looking forward to opportunities to work with data in the areas of NLP and CV that requires a combination of my current knowledge and experience. My goal is to use my academic background to make a positive contribution to society.
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.
<div class="trix-content"> Hamza Bendahou has an Engineering and Financial background, Hamza graduated from SUPAERO in 2012, and worked for 5 years in the insurance field for Gras Savoye WTW where he was managing an actuary team. Passionate about UAVs, he designed and built long range autonomous Drones that can fly up to 4 hours and have onboard multiple sensors targeted to agricultural work. Hamza is an expert in embedded systems, big data insurance analysis and a certified drone pilot that has trained multiple companies to both drone piloting and precision agriculture in more than 12 African countries. </div>
Harmke Alkemade supports customers in various industries with Data Science and AI use cases that leverage the Azure services, in the role of Specialized AI Cloud Solution Architect in a global team. Previously she worked as a Cloud Solution Architect Data & AI in the Dutch subsidiary of Microsoft. Before joining Microsoft, Harmke followed a graduate program in Artificial Intelligence and worked on various data science and programming projects.
Dr. Hassan Chafi is the Vice President of Research and Advanced Development at Oracle, where he also leads the expansion of Oracle’s R&D team in Morocco. In his role, Dr. Chafi oversees a range of projects, from exploring early-stage research ideas to identifying opportunities for transforming these ideas into advanced software services integrated into Oracle products. His team has made significant contributions to Oracle’s flagship product, the Oracle Database, including the introduction of the new ISO SQL graph query standards, which have been natively implemented in the database. Dr. Chafi holds more than 60 technical patents and has an extensive background in computer engineering. <h3>Education:</h3> <ul> <li><strong>PhD in Computer Engineering (2014),</strong> Stanford University</li> <li><strong>MS in Computer Engineering (2006),</strong> Stanford University</li> <li><strong>BS in Computer Engineering (2004),</strong> University of Maryland, College Park</li> </ul>
Hatem Haddad is Co-Founder and CTO atiCompass. He received a doctorate (2002) in Computer Science and Information Systems from University Grenoble Alpes, France. He was Postdoctoral Fellow at VTT Technical Research Center of Finland and at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He was a visiting researcher at Kent Ridge Digital Labs (KRDL), Singapore. His current research interests include Information Retrieval, Natural Languages Processing, Machine Learning and Deep Learning. He is a PC member or Chair in different conferences and serves as a reviewer for relevant journals in the area.
Hayet Hammana is an investment professional with over a decade of experience in asset management, private markets, and venture investing. She advises institutional investors and family offices on fund selection, strategic allocation, and market expansion for established companies, while actively supporting founders and early-stage companies in structuring, fundraising, growth, and deal sourcing. She also founded Africa Bridge, improving liquidity and secondary market access in the African venture ecosystem—follow their work on Substack via Liquidity Intel – Secondaries in MEA. Hayet holds a Master’s in Portfolio Management from IAE Gustave Eiffel and is a member of the CFA Society Switzerland.
<strong>Head of Commercial: AI at Cassava AI.</strong> Hein Badenhorst joined Cassava Technologies in 2025 and is the Head of Commercial: AI at Cassava AI. He brings over 30 years of experience driving digital transformation and P&L growth across banking, consulting, and technology sectors. In his role at Cassava, he leads the commercial strategy and go-to-market execution for the company's Compute AI offerings. Before joining Cassava, he was the CEO of AfriGIS and the Data and AI Technical Leader at IBM South Africa. His deep expertise spans digital disruption and advanced data analytics with a proven track record of implementing complex technology strategies across many industries. At Cassava AI, Hein is dedicated to building robust AI ecosystems and driving the adoption of enterprise-grade solutions built on the NVIDIA software stack. He brings a wealth of knowledge on scaling AI infrastructure and developing impactful commercial frameworks for the digital age.
Hicham El Habti is the President of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. With a strong background in both corporate and education management, he plays a key role in fostering organizational development, leading the formulation and implementation of the university’s strategic vision, and driving transformation initiatives. His leadership focuses on promoting institutional reforms, enhancing operational efficiency, and establishing impactful collaborations at both local and international levels. Hicham El Habti has extensive expertise in Applied Mathematics and Economics. He also holds an engineering degree in Economics, Management, and Finance from l’École Normale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris.
Born on May 24, 1994 in Sfax, Tunisia, Houcemeddine Turki is an open science advocate and a long-term contributor to Wikimedia Projects including Wikipedia and Wikidata. He is currently a board member of Wikimedia Tunisia User Group and of Wikimedia and Libraries User Group. He is also a member of Wiki Indaba Steering Committee, the coordination body for African Wikimedia Movement. As well, Houcemeddine Turki is a Research Assistant at the Data Engineering and Semantics Research Unit, University of Sfax, Tunisia. He is working on various fields including Data Science, Biomedical Informatics, Semantic Web and Scientometrics. Moreover, Houcemeddine Turki is a medical student at the University of Sfax, Tunisia.
Humera Tariq is a professor of computer science at the University of Karachi, Pakistan. She received her Ph. D in computer science for her dissertation on “ Region growing approach for segmentation of Brain MR Images” in 2015. She also holds a B.E degree in Electrical Engineering from NED University, Pakistan. Most of her research centers around medical image processing, pattern recognition, high-performance computing, and techniques for decision making and data mining. Applications of her research include the development of image and video processing algorithms, games, and simulation. She is an active NVIDIA DLI University Ambassador since 2019 and conducts various workshops on deep learning at both national and international forums.
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.
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.
Ihsane Gryech is a Ph.D. Candidate in Data Science at the International University of Rabat (UIR) as well as ENSIAS, Mohammed V University in Rabat. She Obtained a bachelor's degree at Mohammed V University, Rabat, in mathematics and informatics, then got a master's degree in Big Data from the International University of Rabat. In 2017, she joined the TICLab laboratory as a trainee where she worked on web content by leveraging users intuition to predict items popularity in Social Networks, Sentiment analysis using Social Media, and Air Quality Prediction. In 2018, with a special interest to the environment, she started her PhD and joined the MoreAir project. Ihsane is a Google Africa PhD Fellow. She also won the local Falling walls competition and was the only representative of Morocco at the Falling walls Conference in 2018 in Berlin, Germany.
Ikram CHAIRI is an Assistant Professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in the research group MSDA (Modeling Simulation and Data Analysis). Her research interests focus on Data Analysis, Machine Learning, especially in the development of new algorithms of training able to overcome the limitation of data in term of quality and quantity. She first obtained an engineering degree in Statistics and Data warehousing in 2010, and then, she got a PhD in Machine Learning and data analysis in 2014 from University Abdelmalek Essaâdi. In 2015, she was a Postdoctoral Research at GIAA (Laboratory of applied artificial intelligence) at university Carlos III of Madrid and participated in the projects on intelligent conversational agent for RENFE.
IMANE KHAOUJA received an engineering degree in computer science with a major in business intelligence from ENSIAS, in Rabat, Morocco, in 2014. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the Mohammed v University, in Rabat, Morocco, with a co-direction with the International University of Rabat. She was a recipient of the Google Ph.D. Fellowship in 2018 Her research interests include NLP and information extraction.
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.
Ivan Zvonkov is a Machine Learning Engineer at NASA Harvest/University of Maryland where he works on operationalizing machine learning research relating to agriculture and food security. Before joining NASA Harvest, Ivan worked at a fintech start-up where he developed machine learning and data science solutions for automating trade finance document processing. Ivan completed his BEng in Software Engineering at the University of Western Ontario where he developed an award-winning forest fire forecasting project for his capstone.
Jacquelene “Jackie” Friedenthal is the Science and Technology Counsellor at the Embassy of Switzerland in South Africa, where she advances Switzerland–South Africa collaboration in education, research and innovation through science diplomacy. She works across government, academia, industry and innovation ecosystems to enable strategic partnerships, support joint programmes, and strengthen talent and mobility pathways. Her work has been recognised with the Science Diplomacy Award for Individual Contribution to Transformative International Science Partnerships with South Africa. At AMLD Africa 2026, she will introduce the Swiss–South Africa ERI partnership landscape and highlight the Academia–Industry Training (AIT) Programme in partnership with the University of Basel as a practical model for building industry-relevant skills and accelerating innovation outcomes.
Dr. Jacques Ludik is a smart technology entrepreneur, AI expert, and award-winning AI leader with over 25 years of experience in AI and data science. He is the Founder & President of the Machine Intelligence Institute of Africa (MIIA), and Founder & CEO of Cortex AI Group, driving cutting-edge AI innovation and societal impact. Previously, he founded CSense Systems, Africa’s first AI company acquired by General Electric, and has held executive roles at Jumo and GE. Through ventures like Sustainable Technology Ventures Capital (STVC) and Bluefin Group, he is advancing AI-driven solutions and infrastructure across Africa. Dr. Ludik is also the author of “Democratizing Artificial Intelligence to Benefit Everyone” and a global voice on human-centric AI, digital transformation, and Africa’s smart technology future.<!-- notionvc: 06eccb5f-41d2-4d8a-bc4c-de97243ffa7d -->
Jade Abbott (Lelapa AI, Co-founder & CTO) has over a decade of experience spanning the banking sector, non-governmental organisations, and startups. She is the co-founder of Masakhane, a grassroots initiative focused on advancing Natural Language Processing (NLP) research for African languages. Jade holds an MSc from the University of Pretoria and has received numerous accolades for her work, including being recognised by InspiringFifty, which highlights exceptional women in tech, and Mail & Guardian’s ‘200 Young South Africans’ list, which honours trailblazing young professionals. In 2024, she was named to MIT Technology Review’s prestigious Innovators Under 35 list, a global recognition celebrating the most promising young minds driving the future of technology.
Jan Blomerus is an experienced actuary and academic leader specialising in actuarial science, financial modelling, and machine learning. He became a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa and of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in 2007 and earned an MSc in Actuarial Science in 2015. His research focuses on the application of deep neural networks to life insurance valuations, with a PhD thesis submitted in 2025. Before entering academia in 2014, he held senior actuarial roles, including leadership in valuations at major South African insurers and consulting positions. Jan combines hands-on technical expertise (including Julia, Prophet, Risk Agility, SQL, and many others) with a passion for building transparent and efficient automation frameworks for improving actuarial valuation workflows.
Jason Hinch is a Senior Data Scientist and AWS SysOps Engineer at Scigenix. He specializes in applying machine learning and AI solutions within the pharmaceutical industry. He has successfully designed and built AI/ML-driven software for both government agencies and private sector organizations within the pharmaceutical industry and government regulatory space. These projects integrate LLMs, advanced analytics, and scalable cloud infrastructure to deliver impactful, regulatory-compliant solutions.
Jean-Claude Baraka Munyaka is an urban resilience researcher and practitioner working at the intersection of data science, climate risk, and public policy in the Global South. He holds a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engeneering from the University of Pretoria and focuses on urban flood risk governance, early warning–early action systems, and digital decision-support tools. His work bridges hydrometeorological data, spatial analytics, and governance frameworks to support more effective, evidence-based decision-making under climate stress.
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<div class="trix-content"> I am currently withing my first year of my PhD at the Chair of Remote Sensing Technology at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. My research interests lie in the generalization of AI models within the area of Remote Sensing. I am particularly focusing on Meta Learning approaches. Furthermore, I completed my bachelor's degree in Business Mathematics at the University of Mannheim, Germany. After two years as a Consultant in the field of Data Science and Analytics, I went on to the University of Barcelona, Spain, in order to complete my M.Sc. in Data Science in July 2021. </div>
João Pedro Martins leads the AI Technical Strategy team for EMEA, part of Microsoft's Worldwide Success organization, a team with deep technical skills in AI/ML focused on helping our customers bring their AI workloads to life in Azure.
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.
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.
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.
Prof. Jonathan Shock is an associate professor in the Department of Maths and Applied Maths, <span class="notion-enable-hover" data-token-index="1">Interim Director of the UCT AI Initiative</span> at the University of Cape Town and an adjunct professor at the INRS Montreal. Originally from Oxford, England, he completed his PhD at the University of Southampton in 2005, in applications of string theory to understanding quantum chromodynamics. He then had postdoctoral research positions in Beijing, Santiago de Compostela and Munich before becoming a lecturer at the University of Cape Town in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics in 2013. Prof. Shock has a wide array of research interests and spends a lot of his time supervising students. His research interests cover machine learning (in particular reinforcement learning), theoretical physics, and neuroscience.<!-- notionvc: 3c00e888-4d22-402e-a98c-f130488ac936 -->
Jonathan is a Data Science consultant and educator based in Zimbabwe. His work is varied, ranging from 'traditional' data science to deep learning and generative art. You can find some of his personal research on http://www.datasciencecastnet.home.blog/
Jörg Schad is the CTO at ArangoDB. In a previous life, he has worked on or built machine learning pipelines in healthcare, distributed systems at Mesosphere, and in-memory databases. He received his Ph.D. for research around distributed databases and data analytics. He’s a frequent speaker at meetups, international conferences, and lecture halls.
Joseph JTR Mugauri is an Intellectual Property Consultant and a Doctor of Laws candidate at the University of Pretoria, focusing on AI governance, data regulation, and intellectual property (IP) law. His current doctoral research explores the standardisation of AI explainability and alignment through legal frameworks, with a sector-specific lens on South African industries. He holds a Master of Laws from the University of Cape Town, where he examined the intersection of blockchain, AI, and copyright enforcement, earning distinction and scholarships for academic excellence. Joseph has contributed to key research initiatives, including the Open AIR project under the SARChI Chair in IP, Innovation, and Development. He also completed an AI Safety Governance Fellowship at the Equiano Institute of Research. His practical experience spans legal research, compliance analysis, and digital learning development, having led course design and migration projects at UCT’s Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching. With a strong legal practice and digital innovation foundation, Joseph brings a transdisciplinary perspective to the challenges and opportunities of AI in Africa. His work aims to shape policy and legal standards that promote responsible innovation, ensure human rights compliance, and build resilient IP ecosystems for Africa’s digital future.
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.
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.
Kabelo Makwane is the Country Director for Google South Africa, a role he assumed on 6 January 2025, where he leads the company’s strategy, operations, and partnerships to accelerate digital transformation and inclusive growth across the country. [T](https://technext24.com/2024/12/05/makwane-appointed-google-south-africa/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) With more than two decades of experience in the ICT and technology sector, he is known for building high-performing teams and scaling businesses at the intersection of cloud, data, AI, and enterprise transformation. Before joining Google, Kabelo was Managing Executive for Cloud, Hosting and Security at Vodacom Business Africa. He previously held senior leadership roles at Accenture, including Managing Director for the Africa Global Unit within Accenture Operations and Managing Director for Cloud and Technology Consulting, where he built and expanded the cloud practice. Earlier in his career, he spent eight years at Microsoft, serving as Nigeria Country Managing Director and Public Sector Director for Microsoft South Africa. He also led Cisco’s Public Sector business in South Africa as Regional Manager, following earlier roles in managed services and consulting.
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.
Kamal Bhattacharya is a Professor for Computer Science at IU International University in Berlin and Co-Founder <a href="http://advancity.com/">Advancity.com</a>. Kamal held multiple research and management roles around the globe. He served as a VP & Director at IBM Research, Chief Innovation Officer at Safaricom, Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan, commissioner of Pathways for Prosperity, and several other roles focusing on the use of technology in International Development. He holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Göttingen University in Germany, has published 50+ papers in international scientific journals and conferences, and holds 20+ patents
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
Karim Beguir is the CEO and Co-Founder of InstaDeep, twice nominated in the global AI100 list. Karim helps companies come to grips with the latest AI breakthroughs and deploy them to improve efficiency and ROI. As a graduate of France's Ecole Polytechnique and former Program Fellow at New York University's Courant Institute, he has a passion for teaching and using applied mathematics. He's also a Google developer expert, a mentor at Google for Startups Accelerator and a steering committee member of Deep Learning Indaba. Karim is on a mission to democratize AI and make it accessible to a wide audience.
Her Excellency Ambassador Karima BARDAOUI is a career diplomat currently serving as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Tunisia to the Republic of South Africa, with concurrent accreditation to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho, and the Kingdom of Eswatini. Ambassador BARDAOUI joined the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1997 and has since held several senior diplomatic and leadership positions, reflecting a career spanning bilateral, multilateral, political, and strategic diplomacy. Her previous assignments include: • Ambassador of Tunisia to the Czech Republic (2017–2019) • Member of the Permanent Mission of Tunisia to the United Nations in New York, with responsibility for the Third Committee (social, humanitarian, and cultural affairs) (2014–2017) • Counsellor for Political Affairs, Communications and Press at the Tunisian Embassy in Paris (2006–2011) • Director for the Americas at the Americas–Asia Directorate General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2019–2023) In her current role in Southern Africa, Ambassador BARDAOUI has led a dynamic diplomatic agenda encompassing economic diplomacy, cultural outreach, and science and innovation diplomacy. She notably coordinated initiatives marking the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Tunisia and South Africa, while actively advancing Tunisia’s bilateral relations with all countries under her accreditation, with a strong emphasis on political dialogue, trade and investment, academic cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges. Ambassador BARDAOUI is a strong proponent of science diplomacy as a strategic instrument for advancing African cooperation, fostering innovation-driven development, and building sustainable, knowledge-based partnerships. She actively supports collaboration between Tunisian and Southern African universities, research centres, and innovation ecosystems, in alignment with the African Union’s Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (STISA-2034). Her engagement in high-level science and innovation initiatives reflects a diplomatic vision that bridges scientific communities, empowers youth and researchers, and positions Tunisia as a connector between North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the wider Mediterranean scientific space. She consistently highlights the critical role of science and technology in addressing shared continental priorities, including climate resilience, food security, health technologies, digital transformation, and the promotion of women in STEM and leadership. Ambassador BARDAOUI holds a Master’s degree in Law and has completed advanced diplomatic and economic training in Europe, including programmes in Madrid and at the École nationale d’administration (ENA) in Paris and Strasbourg. She has also undertaken specialised training in international relations, public diplomacy, media engagement, and crisis management at leading institutions, including the Clingendael Institute (Netherlands), Deutsche Welle Akademie (Germany), and TÜBİTAK (Türkiye). During her tenure in New York, she further participated in UNITAR training workshops focused on the drafting, negotiation, and adoption of United Nations resolutions. Widely respected for her commitment to intercultural dialogue, regional integration, and multilateral engagement, Ambassador BARDAOUI is recognised for advancing Tunisia’s strategic interests abroad through inclusive and forward-looking diplomacy. She champions a vision of an innovative, resilient, and interconnected Africa, driven by scientific excellence, shared prosperity, and strengthened South-South and triangular cooperation.
Kato Steven Mubiru is CEO and Co-Founder of Crane AI Labs, building sovereign AI infrastructure for the 3.8 billion people in the Global South. Following his Gold Prize win in Cohere's 2025 Expedition Aya, Steven co-founded Crane AI Labs and achieved international recognition when their Swahili-Gemma model was featured on Google DeepMind's official website in the "Gemmaverse" showcase alongside projects from Ukraine's government, SK Telecom, and other global leaders. Under Steven's leadership, Crane AI Labs has developed the Crane-Gemma model family achieving remarkable efficiency breakthroughs: their Swahili-Gemma-1B model scored 27.6 BLEU (153% improvement over Gemma 3 4B) while achieving the highest BLEU-to-parameter ratio at 27.6 per billion parameters. The models run entirely offline on basic smartphones and are deployed across multiple formats including Hugging Face (204+ downloads monthly), Ollama, and mobile-optimized LiteRT versions. Steven's work spans both the Afri-Aya project (advancing vision-language models for 15+ African languages) and Crane AI Labs (building full-stack sovereign AI infrastructure). Crane AI Labs represents a new paradigm for African AI entrepreneurship - building globally recognized technology while serving local needs and maintaining cultural sovereignty. The rest of the application remains the same, with these corrections applied consistently throughout where those figures and partnerships were mentioned.
<div class="trix-content"> Khalil Gorsan Mestiri is an AI Research Engineer at InstaDeep, working extensively on leveraging AI for the benefit of solving real world problems with a focus on railway systems and routing problems. He is currently working on prototyping and implementing a deep reinforcement railway dispatching solution that handles the train rescheduling of the Germany fleet at-scale. Born and raised in a mediterranean north African country, Tunisia, Khalil has a deep interest in its history from Carthage to nowadays. </div>
Khalil Mrini is a PhD Candidate at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), and works on applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning to medical question answering. Globally, his work aims to democratize advances in NLP so that marginalized people can benefit from human language technology. His work is supported by a grant from the US National Institutes of Health, and he has won an Amazon Research Award, as well as Adobe Research Gifts. He has previously interned at Adobe Research and Amazon Alexa, is currently interning at Facebook AI, and will be interning at Google Brain. He is also passionate about diversity and inclusion, and has co-founded the “North Africans in NLP” affinity group.
Ms. Khungeka Njobe is a distinguished sustainability, science, and innovation leader with more than 25 years of executive and board‑level experience across environmental governance, climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and technology‑driven sustainable development. Her career uniquely integrates scientific research leadership, policy implementation, and sustainable finance, positioning her at the forefront of Africa’s transition toward climate‑aligned, nature‑positive, and technology‑enabled growth. Her extensive experience in science and technology innovation includes serving in senior executive roles at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), where she advanced national R&D strategy, innovation governance, IP commercialisation, and multidisciplinary research partnerships. She also led the establishment of the World Economic Forum–affiliated Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR South Africa), strengthening the country’s capacity to shape global governance of emerging technologies such as AI and digital infrastructure. As former Chairperson of the Technology Innovation Agency, she oversaw the development of the innovation ecosystem and technology commercialisation in support of South Africa’s knowledge economy. She holds advanced degrees in biology, zoology, and finance and investment, complemented by executive education in ESG, sustainability, innovation, and climate change from leading global institutions. Msi Njobe is a respected sustainability strategist, having led large‑scale climate and biodiversity programmes, mobilised funding for transformative environmental initiatives, and supported public‑ and private‑sector leaders to integrate ESG and climate priorities into decision‑making. Her multidisciplinary experience positions her as a leading African voice on how AI can accelerate sustainability, climate adaptation, and inclusive development across the continent.
My name is Kidist Amde Mekonnen. My background is in computer science. I got my Bachelor's degree in 2017 from the University Of Gondar, Ethiopia. I got my master's, African Masters in Machine Intelligence (AMMI) program from Facebook and Google in 2020 from the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Rwanda. I am a current scholar at the University of Trento, Italy, where I am pursuing a Master's in Data Science. I am a Mentor at MeetMentors. I am a cofounder and core member of the women in AI Ethiopia team. I am working for a mentorship program in collaboration with the women in AI and robotics Germany team. I have worked as an assistant lecturer at the University of Gondar. I have worked as a teaching Assistant at AddisCoders.
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
I am a Solutions Architect at AWS. My interests lie in Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing. I am currently pursuing a Master's degree at the University of Witwatersrand with my research focused on Adversarial Learning in NLP. In my spare time I enjoy taking long walks with my dog.
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.
Lauren is a Data Scientist with experience across multiple sectors and a background in social science and statistics. She is passionate about creative and clear data visualisation with the aim to make data accessible and understandable for all audiences. At Rural Senses, Lauren helps to make the voices of rural communities in developing countries heard so that project developers can better understand their values, thus leading to better outcomes for the projects and the communities they intend to serve. Her aim is to empower individuals and organisations to make confident, data-driven decisions and is an advocate for ethical and open data science.
<div class="trix-content"> Dr. Lawrence Nderu is a Lecturer/Research fellow in the Department of Computing at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology- KENYA. He is also the Dean at JENGA School of Data Science and AI and an Adjunct at Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology, and Innovation (PAUSTI). He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Fuzzy Logic from the University of Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Paris, France, and a Master's degree in Software Engineering from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. His current research interests are AI and ML in Health, AI and ML in Agriculture, and Natural Language Processing. </div>
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.
Dr. Lily Paemka is a molecular geneticist, Principal Investigator, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, and is the Deputy Director of the West African Genetic Medicine Centre (WAGMC), both at the University of Ghana, Legon. She serves on the executive committee of the GhGenome Project as Cancer Genetics Coordinator and is Head of Genetics at Yemaachi Biotechnology Ltd. Dr. Paemka earned her BSc degree from the University of Ghana and her PhD in Genetics from the University of Iowa, USA. Her earlier research includes work on autism, epilepsy, cystic fibrosis, and cancer genetics. In 2017, she was awarded a DELTAS Africa postdoctoral research grant, which enabled her to return to Ghana to lead research on breast cancer genetic risk in Ghanaian women. Her research interests center on elucidating the genetic underpinnings of Mendelian and complex traits and diseases in African populations. Her current work focuses on the genomics, epigenetics, and cytogenetics of breast cancer, prostate cancer, and multiple myeloma in Ghanaians. She is also involved in drug discovery and the development of cell lines of African origin. In 2021, she received the prestigious UNESCO–OWSD Early Career Fellowship. Dr. Paemka is passionate about genomics capacity-building in Africa and actively mentors undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Ghana.
Ms. Lucilla Sioli is the Director for <em>Artificial Intelligence and Digital Industry</em> within the Directorate-General CONNECT at the European Commission. She is responsible for coordinating the European digitization of industry strategy and developing policies in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors. The directorate also supports research, development, and innovation in key digital industrial technologies, including microelectronics, photonics, robotics, and AI. Lucilla holds a PhD in economics from the University of Southampton (UK) and another from the Catholic University of Milan (Italy). She has been a civil servant with the European Commission since 1997.
Hi, my name is Lydia Khalfoun and I am an Associate SA at AWS. I love working in innovative projects with blockchain and IA/ML. Outside of work, I love the nature and like travelling, hiking and biking.
Magali Cattin has a master’s degree in bioengineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Switzerland Lausanne (EPFL) and completed her master thesis at Imperial College London. During her masters’, she has developed expertise in machine learning as well as regulatory and ethical aspects of data collection. After one year of experience in several areas such as the medtech industry at SurgiBox Inc. and research in refrigeration technologies for vaccine delivery at the EssentialTech Centre, Magali started her PhD at the LTS5 and the EssentialTech Centre, EPFL. Her PhD project focuses on the detection of cervical cancer using machine learning and involves a close collaboration with the Geneva Hospitals (HUG) and the University of Dschang in Cameroon.
Dr. Manal Jalloul is NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute's certified instructor and University ambassador. She is also the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of AI-Lab, which is the certified delivery partner of NVIDIA DLI in EMEA. AI Lab is an Artificial Intelligence consultancy, training, and solution development company. Dr. Jalloul is Lebanon's country advisor in the Global Advisory Board of the International Group of Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Jalloul is also a lecturer and researcher at the American University of Beirut. Her research interests lie in the fields of digital image and video processing, 3D printing, parallel computing, and artificial intelligence. She has several peer-reviewed publications in international journals and conferences.
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.
Marie Didier is a scientist and entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in Nonlinear Optics from EPFL and advanced degrees in physics and conservation science. Her career bridges research, innovation, and cultural diplomacy, from developing cutting-edge imaging technologies to building initiatives that connect local expertise with global impact. As the founder and CEO of MATIS, a Swiss deep-tech startup, Marie leads the development of portable multispectral imaging and AI-based solutions for art assessment, security, and material identification. Her work merges machine learning, optics, and cultural heritage science, transforming traditional methods of preservation and authentication into scalable and secure digital tools. Before founding MATIS, Marie worked as a Kress-Mellon Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and as a PostDoc for industry at CSEM, where she specialized in advanced microscopy and algorithmic imaging. Deeply committed to bridging culture, society, and knowledge, Marie co-founded and directs RestArt Beirut, a philanthropic and cultural diplomacy initiative dedicated to connecting education and academic expertise with traditional craftsmanship, fostering local talent, and empowering communities through cultural heritage preservation. In parallel, she is dedicated to connecting tradition and innovation by bringing technology where it can generate tangible societal impact. A field she is deeply engaged in is the preservation of cultural heritage, where she contributes to the development of advanced tools for assessment, conservation, and the fight against art trafficking helping nations protect the invaluable cultural assets that define their history and identity. Her work bridges science, technology, and culture, fostering collaboration between researchers, institutions, and local communities worldwide. Rooted in both science diplomacy and cultural diplomacy, Marie’s mission is to create meaningful connections between deep-tech innovation and societal impact, ensuring that technology serves not only progress but also the preservation and transmission of cultural and scientific heritage.
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
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.
Dr. Martin Bekker is an AI ethics researcher and computational social scientist at the University of the Witwatersrand. He holds a PhD and degrees in Philosophy, Peace Studies, and Development from the LSE, Bradford, The univeristy of Johannesburg and Stellenbosch. Currently a fellow at the MIND Institute, he previously led research for the Royal Bafokeng Administration and served on a World Economic Forum advisory panel.
Mr Müller has a long experience working at the interface between science, science policy and diplomacy. After an initial stay in academia and completing a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering, Mr Müller joined SwissCore – the Swiss Contact Office for Education, Research and Innovation (ERI) – in Brussels and worked at the interface of science, science policy and diplomacy, first as a research advisor and then as co-director. He joined GESDA in September 2019 as Executive Director of the Academic Forum where he coordinates the anticipatory input of the broader scientific community on a range of issues, such as the future of artificial intelligence, brain-inspired computing, genetic engineering or complex systems.
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.
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.
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/.
Passionate about data in all of its forms, psychology, and social human interactions. Avid believer in paying it forward!
<div class="trix-content"> Mihaela van der Schaar is the <a href="https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2018-19/weekly/6522/section2.shtml">John Humphrey Plummer</a> Professor of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Medicine at the University of Cambridge and a <a href="https://www.turing.ac.uk/people/researchers/mihaela-van-der-schaar">Fellow </a>at The Alan Turing Institute in London. In addition to leading the van der Schaar Lab, Mihaela is founder and director of the <a href="https://ccaim.cam.ac.uk/">Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine</a> (CCAIM). Mihaela was elected IEEE Fellow in 2009. She has received numerous awards, including the <a href="https://www.dow.cam.ac.uk/news/professor-van-der-schaar-presents-2018-oon-lecture">Oon Prize on Preventative Medicine</a> from the University of Cambridge (2018), a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2004), 3 IBM Faculty Awards, the IBM Exploratory Stream Analytics Innovation Award, the Philips Make a Difference Award and several best paper awards, including the IEEE Darlington Award. Mihaela is personally credited as inventor on 35 USA patents (the majority of which <a href="https://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=0&f=S&l=50&d=PTXT&RS=%28IN%2F%22van+der+schaar%2C+mihaela%22+OR+IN%2F%22schaar%2C+Mihaela%22%29&Refine=Refine+Search&Query=IN%2F%22mitrea%2C+mihaela%22+OR+IN%2F%22schaar%2C+Mihaela%22">are listed here</a>), many of which are still frequently cited and adopted in standards. She has made over 45 contributions to international standards for which she received 3 ISO Awards. In 2019, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesta_(charity)">Nesta</a> report determined that Mihaela was the most-cited female AI researcher in the U.K. </div> <div class="text-icon__links"></div>
Miriam Nkomalago is the Founder and Content Writer of AI Frontier Africa, a specialised newsletter dedicated to advancing conversations on artificial intelligence governance, policy, and innovation across the African continent. Her work focuses on the importance of inclusion through collaborative infrastructure in AI governance in order to ensure that Africa builds relatable AI solutions that align with the realities of the continent. Through research, writing, and advocacy, Miriam highlights the risks posed by a lagging regulatory environment and the opportunities for Africa to shape inclusive and responsible AI ecosystems.
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.
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.
Co-organizer of AMLD Africa. PhD in Machine Learning
Mohamed Makni is a civil engineer from EPFL with a background in transport & mobility. He is also the CEO & Co-founder of DeepFlows. They help city planners and governments reduce the time, the cost and the complexity to access granular and accurate traffic data using machine learning. They work towards creating the next generation of traffic management systems to cope with rising urbanisation rates. Their premise is to cut (travel times & emissions) and make cities (liveable & sustainable) for future generations.
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.
Montassar Ben Messaoud is a tenure-track assistant professor in the IT Department at Tunis Business School. He received his Ph.D. from ISG de Tunis and Ecole Polytechnique de Nantes, in 2012. His research explores the intersection of software engineering, quality assurance, and license compliance. In recognition of his research contributions, he was awarded the National Young Researchers’ Encouragement Grant by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in its 5th edition. Montassar Ben Messaoud is a leading member of the AISE initiative, which focuses on scaling Artificial Intelligence for Software Engineering (AI4SE) across the industry. Dedicated to cultivating this ecosystem across Africa, he secured competitive funding from IEEE and ACM SIGSOFT to deliver high-impact educational programs, seminars and global conferences.
During the whole of his studies of experimental physics at the TU Dresden Moritz was working at the Max Planck Institute (CPfS) in the extreme conditions lab. Besides giving him a profound technical understanding it made him an expert in LabVIEW and the field of solid state research. His fascination for Machine Learning and a genuine ability to explain complex matters makes him the perfect bridge between the industry and our expert technicians.
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.
Mouafek Ayadi is an IT Consultant & Activist. Holding a Master’s degree in Business Intelligence Engineering, he is currently working as an Innovation Data Scientist at ODDO BHF and serving as a Mentor in Google Africa Developer Scholarship Program as well as having previously been a AWS Educate Ambassador. His certifications include: Certified in Microsoft: Azure Data Scientist Associate Certified in Consulting from Dubai Rochester Institute of Technology An Entrepreneurship background in the USA, Qatar, Tunisia, Spain Proof of training more than 2000 individuals in New Technologies.
<div class="grid__item"> <div class="markdown__body"> <div class="trix-content"> Research Scientist and Head of Google AI Center, Accra. Founder and Director of African Masters Of Machine Intelligence at African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. </div> </div> </div>
<div class="trix-content"> Doing MS (Data Science) from NED University of Engineering & Technology and also a passionate data science practitioner at Pakistan premier data science consultancy company “Love For Data”, Karachi, Pakistan as a Data Analyst. My area of interest is Deep Learning, Reinforcement learning, Temporal data analysis, Network science and Information theory. I love the Mathematics and Statistics behind the models that make imaginations into reality. My objective is to pursue a research-based career to solve real-world problems. </div>
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.
Associate Professor, INSAT Tunisia AI expert UNESCO Co-Founder of Deepth, startup working on Augmented Intelligence for Health Tech. Coordinator: www.innovchallenge.com
As a sophisticated, intelligent, and solutions-focused technocrat, Muthoni has blazed a trail of industry accomplishments and notable recognitions from lead industry leaders such as InstaDeep Limited, Africa's Talking, and Women in Machine Learning and Data Science. Having cultivated an unequivocal forte for unearthing greater capabilities in product strategy, Business Development, and Data Science, she earned a reputation as a thought leader who is equally as analytical as she is visionary. She dives headfast into solving complex deep-seated challenges by uncovering possibilities and reframing thinking to capitalize on opportunities that have previously eluded predecessors through leveraging distinction in enterprise market insight and on-demand software expertise.
Nadine is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and earned her PhD in Actuarial Science from the University of Pretoria. She heads the Technical Development at Riskscape, a geospatial and actuarial solutions firm specializing in risk assessment, climate modelling, and financial analytics powered by high-definition spatial data. With over more than a decade of actuarial research experience and extensive practical experience in risk and finance, she has developed industry-leading tools, including Riskscape’s climate risk products for evaluating physical risks on property level. She is co-developer of the Actuarial Society of South Africa’s official Climate Index, a groundbreaking industry initiative that allows practitioners to assess the effect of climate anomalies on their businesses.
Nanjira Sambuli is a researcher, policy analyst and strategist interested in and working on understanding the unfolding, gendered impacts of ICT adoption on governance, media, entrepreneurship and culture. Nanjira is a Commissioner on the Lancet & Financial Times Global Commission (Governing Health Futures 2030), President and co-Chair of the Transform Health Coalition, a board member at The New Humanitarian , Development Gateway and Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL). She is also a Ford Global Fellow. Nanjira also sits on several advisory boards, including the World Economic Forum’s Technology and Social Justice Initiatives, <A+> Alliance for Inclusive Algorithms and the Carnegie Council’s AI and Equality Initiative . Additionally, she is a Diplomacy Moderator at the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA).
Prof Nasreen Mahomed is a Specialist Radiologist, Associate Professor of Radiology and the Academic Head of Radiology at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She holds 4 degrees MBBCH(Wits), FC Rad (SA), MMED (Wits), PhD (Wits). In 2013 she was awarded the prestigious Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Derek Harwood Nash international fellowship awarded to 3 global recipients annually, where she did paediatric Neuroradiology and Chest at Boston Childrens, Harvard University. She has been awarded a number of national and international award's most recently South Health Excellence Awards 2025, Excellence in Leadership winner and Certificate of Recognition Rahima Moosa Mother and Child hospital Clinical service delivery 2025. Prof N Mahomed is highly skilled in Paediatric radiology, has 76 peer reviewed publications and supervised 16 masters students to completion. She has been an invited speaker at many international medical conferences, most recently the European Society of Paediatric Radiology ESPR in Romania June 2025, the Asianic Society of Paediatric Radiology AOSPR in Qatar, October 2025 invited speaker on AI in Peadiatric Radiology in the opening plenary, and the AI in Paedatric Radiology summit, ML Africa AI in Health care summit 2025 and South African Clinician Scientist Society Conference 2025, Harnessing a Culture of Generating New Knowledge. Prof N Mahomed successfully chaired the inaugural Wits Radiology Breast Imaging Symposium 17 October 2025. The speakers and moderators were from different universities and both private and public sector in South Africa. As Academic Head of Wits Radiology Nasreen believes private public partnership is key to sustaining academic medicine in South Africa. She also chaired the Wits School of Clinical Medicine Comprehensive Women’s Health 18 October 2025, supported by various individual South African Muslims women’s forums Salaam media this event was attended by 200 in person delegates, supported by Salaam media live streamed by over 500 delegates. Prof N Mahomed received an overwhelming positive response and a request for an event in 2026. Prof Nasreen Mahomed hold executive positions on the WHO childhood pneumonia committee, World Federation of Paediatric Imaging as the TB Chair, College of Medicine South Africa Council, the Radiological Society of South Africa (RSSA) and is the immediate past president of the South African Society of Paediatric Radiology (SASPI). Prof N Mahomed other awards include the Carnegie Corporation USA fellowship, the SAMRC research grant, the Robert Austrian International Fellowship, Best Oral presentation Wits Faculty of Health Sciences for Doctoral Research, the Robert Austrian fellowship, the Gauteng Health Excellence Awards for service delivery and the ASNR Ann Osborn Visting Professorship 2024. Her current and research is innovative and is based on artificial intelligence in medicine Radiology and the impact it has on lower income countries that donnot have sufficient specialist's radiologists and will impact medical care of patients. She is passionate about radiology in the public service. Nasreen is also a philanthropist and is actively involved in several medical outreach programs including the South African National Woman’s Forum (SANWF) and has spoken at many forums. She hopes her efforts have a global impact on health.
Nazareen Ebrahim is a South African communications and technology expert, AI ethics practitioner, and international conference speaker with over 20 years of experience. She is the Founder of Naz Consulting International, a communications technology advisory business that integrates Socially Acceptable, her dedicated research group on the social impact of artificial intelligence, and her personal brand. Her work focuses on building a responsible digital citizenry across the African continent and globally. Nazareen blends policy insight, public engagement, and executive-level training to advance ethical AI development and governance.
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.
Nicholas Kelley is the Director Data Science & A.I. Innovation in the central Novartis Data & AI organization, and has two main priorities. First, to identify, prioritise, and launch key use-cases for the AI Innovation Lab in line with its mission of delivering reusable AI capabilities for the scientific and medical core of the business. Second, on a broader enterprise perspective, to better define the AI opportunities landscape across the value chain. Here the key focus is on continued improvement of our Novartis data science foundation through innovative partnerships and by leading the data science community and capability building initiatives. Recent initiatives include seeding and driving AI solutions such as Generative Chemistry as part of the partnership with Microsoft Research, the first cross-Novartis Data Science challenge in collaboration with MIT, and launching the AI for Life Residency program. Nick has a formal background in computational methodology with a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford University, with career experience in computational biology, chem- and bioinformatics, and most recently in the application of A.I. and machine learning in health.
Nirel Kadzo, an AI Engineer and Consultant based in Nairobi. She is dedicated to the application of AI in the arts and cultural preservation. Her work specifically explores how technology can address challenges in African cultural heritage, shifting the narrative from cultural extraction to service. As an East African native, she uniquely bridges the gap between advanced technical knowledge and authentic cultural insight. Nirel's presentation will illuminate practical ways to use AI to preserve cultural value within local communities.
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.
<div class="trix-content"> 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. </div> <div class="text-icon__links"></div>
<div class="trix-content"> 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. </div>
Nourchene is an AI Research Engineer at Instadeep Tunisia. She has deep skills in Natural Language Processing (NLP). She has worked on challenging research projects focusing on the latest advanced NLP models. She has also delivered product projects responding to real world business cases.
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.
Dr Paige Benton holds a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Johannesburg, based at the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science. Her research lies at the intersection of political philosophy and contemporary social issues, with a focus on liberal theory, women’s rights, digital justice, and the politics of artificial intelligence. She seeks to address the evolving challenges to democratic stability. Most recently, Dr Benton was an invited panellist for the Round Table Discussion, ‘Data Commons: Creating Inclusive Data Capital and Enabling Fair Access’, hosted by United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies. She serves as a guest editor for AI & Society's Topical Collection on Indigenous Knowledge Systems and AI. She is a co-chair for the Society of Philosophy and Technology’s Special Interest Group on The Political Philosophy of Engineering and Technology. She is Co-PI of a three-year project entitled ‘Safeguarding Democracy in the Age of AI’, which focuses on examining how AI technologies undermine the political and epistemic agency of citizens in the Global South.
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.
Praise Amonye is an emerging thought leader at the intersection of mathematics, artificial intelligence, and financial engineering, applying advanced quantitative methods to address complex global challenges. He is the Founder of Deep Afrika, a research and innovation initiative focused on developing data-driven solutions for Africa’s most pressing development and health needs. With a strong academic foundation in pure and applied mathematics and advanced training in financial engineering, he has led high-impact projects in financial risk modeling, machine learning, and healthcare innovation. His work explores how optimization techniques and predictive analytics can strengthen financial systems and improve public health outcomes. Praise has co-organized and spoken at international conferences and is widely recognized for his ability to bridge deep technical expertise with strategic insight. Driven by a passion for innovation for development, he is committed to advancing the future of technology, project management, and health through research-led practice.
Priya Donti is an Assistant Professor and the Silverman (1968) Family Career Development Professor at MIT EECS and LIDS. Her research focuses on safe and robust machine learning for high-renewables power grids. Priya is also a co-founder and Chair of Climate Change AI, a global nonprofit initiative to catalyze impactful work at the intersection of climate change and machine learning. Priya received her Ph.D. in Computer Science and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. She was recognized as part of the MIT Technology Review’s 2021 list of 35 Innovators Under 35, Vox’s 2023 Future Perfect 50, and the 2025 TIME100 AI list, and is a recipient of the Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Early Career Fellowship, the ACM SIGEnergy Doctoral Dissertation Award, the Siebel Scholarship, the U.S. Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship, and best paper honorable mentions at ICML and ACM e-Energy.
Rachid Guerraoui is a professor in computer science at EPFL where he leads the Laboratory of Distributed Computing. He worked in the past with Ecole des Mines de Paris, CEA Saclay, HP Labs in Palo Alto and MIT. He has been elected ACM fellow and professor of the College de France. He was awarded a Senior ERC Grant and a Google Focused Award.
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.
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.
Rockefeller is a PhD student at University of Stellenbosch and sought-after AI evangelist. His research focuses on deep learning applications and dynamic systems.
Dr. Rose Nakasi is an Artificial Intelligence Research Scientist and Lecturer at College of Computing and Information Sciences at Makerere University, where she also leads groundbreaking work at the intersection of AI and global health. As the Head of the Makerere Artificial Intelligence Health Lab she drives innovative projects on leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance healthcare particularly, in resource-constrained environments. Dr. Nakasi holds a PhD in Computer Science from Makerere University. Furthermore, She drives the Topic Group on AI-based Malaria Detection under the WHO/WIPO/ ITU Global Initiative AI for Health (GIAI4H) and also contributes to shaping ethical and policy frameworks for data driven health solutions as a member of the CODATA International Data Policy Committee. Additionally, Rose is an active member of the Data Science Africa. Dr. Nakasi’s work exemplifies a relentless commitment to harnessing technology for advancement of inclussive and life-saving healthcare solutions.
Rosina has been working in the international renewable energy industry for over 8 years, with the most recent years focused in the fast-growing pay-as-you-go industry. As Head of Data Science & Analytics at M-Kopa, she leads a team of data scientists and analysts who are harnessing the power of data to enable the innovative financing of smartphones, solar powered home systems including lighting, televisions and fridges and digital financial services.
Rüdiger L. Urbanke obtained his Dipl. Ing. degree from the Vienna University of Technology, Austria in 1990 and the M.Sc. and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, in 1992 and 1995, respectively. He held a position at the Mathematics of Communications Department at Bell Labs from 1995 till 1999 before becoming a faculty member at the School of Computer & Communication Sciences (I&C) of EPFL. He is a member of the Information Processing Group. He is principally interested in the analysis and design of iterative coding schemes, which allow reliable transmission close to theoretical limits at low complexities. Such schemes are part of most modern communications standards, including wireless transmission, optical communication and hard disk storage. More broadly, his research focuses on the analysis of graphical models and the application of methods from statistical physics to problems in communications. From 2000-2004 he was an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and he is currently on the board of the series ""Foundations and Trends in Communications and Information Theory."" In 2017 he was President of the Information Theory Society. From 2009 till 2012 he was the head of the I&C doctoral school, in 2013 he served as Dean a. i. of I&C, and since 2016 he is the Associated Dean for teaching of I&C. He is a co-author of the book "Modern Coding Theory" published by Cambridge University Press.
Safiia Mohammed is a PhD candidate and Responsible AI researcher at the University of Windsor (Canada), where her work focuses on AI/ML privacy, security, accountability, and digital forensics. She leads workshops on core AI safety topics, such as responsible AI principles and federated learning, helping bridge academic research and practical education. Safiia holds two Master’s degrees: one in machine intelligence from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (where she earned Google and Facebook scholarships) and another in information security and digital forensics from Ireland’s Institute of Technology Blanchardstown. At Windsor, ON, Safiia is president of the Women in Cyber Security (WiCyS) student chapter, mentoring students and advocating for greater diversity in tech. She is also an academic mentor and life coach, empowering students professionally and personally. Beyond academia, she is active as a tech entrepreneur, Safiia Tech founder, and mentor, sharing insights on AI ethics and accountability through talks and platforms like LinkedIn, where she highlights the need for trustworthy AI systems.
<p class="font_8 wixui-rich-text__text">Dr. Samuel Segun is a Senior Researcher at the Global Center on AI Governance and a Research Fellow at the African Observatory on Responsible AI and the AI Ethics Group at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research, University of Pretoria. He is also a Research Fellow with the Research Group on Africa, Philosophy, and Digital Technologies (APDiT) at the Institute of Intelligent Systems, University of Johannesburg.</p> <p class="font_8 wixui-rich-text__text"></p> <p class="font_8 wixui-rich-text__text">He previously served as AI Innovation & Technology Consultant for the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, leading the development of a Toolkit on Responsible AI Innovation in Law Enforcement, an INTERPOL-led project. Additionally, he is the Lead Consultant for Arkenstone Advisory and a technical reviewer for the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), contributing to the Guidelines for the Development of a National Strategy on AI in Security and Defence.</p> <p class="font_8 wixui-rich-text__text">Dr. Segun is an Instructor in the Artificial Intelligence (AI), Ethics, and Policy in Africa Certificate Program at the University of Cape Town. He has published over 15 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals and has delivered keynote talks, speeches and lectures at major conferences on AI safety, data and computational ethics, algorithmic audit, and responsible AI practice. He is also the editor of several works, including: AI Ethics & Governance in Africa, Selected Issues in the Ethics of AI, Conversations on African Philosophy of Mind, Consciousness and AI.</p> <p class="font_8 wixui-rich-text__text"><span class="wixGuard wixui-rich-text__text"></span></p> <p class="font_8 wixui-rich-text__text">Dr. Segun has received several prestigious fellowships, including: UNDP West African Youth Integrity Fellowship (2013), Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) Fellowship (2016), Global Excellence Stature Fellowship for Doctoral Research, University of Johannesburg (2018). In 2021, he was appointed as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stellenbosch University School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, where he led research on computational and data ethics.</p>
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.
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).
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.
Hi, my name is Saubia Khan and I am an Associate Startup SA at AWS. My main interest lies in AI/ML particularly in healthcare and recently in accessibility.
Shawal Kassim is a PhD candidate at the School of Computational and Applied Mathematics and a former consultant at McKinsey & Company. Specializing in the intersection of industry and academia, Shawal's primary focus is building and benchmarking Classical and Quantum models for diverse industrial applications. In this workshop - Africa's first workshop focused on Financial QML - Shawal will guide participants through the architecture of a fundamental Quantum Machine Learning model. While the session focuses on practical application within financial datasets, the techniques demonstrated are versatile and transferable across various sectors.
<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).
Shinez is an industry manager at Google MENA where she brings Google's tech, data and digital strategies to the public sector and telecommunications industries. Before joining Google, she worked at Bell Mobility in Canada, Kiva in Kenya and at McKinsey in Dubai where she led digital and advanced analytics transformations in the Middle East and Africa across several sectors including cleantech and renewables. Shinez holds an MBA from Oxford University, a M.Sc. in industrial engineering and an advanced analytics translator certification.
Siobhan Hall is an incoming DPhil student at the University of Oxford, where she’ll be pursuing a project centred around Deep Learning and brain-computer interfaces at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences. Siobhan completed her Masters in 2019 at Stellenbosch University’s Biomedical Engineering Research Group. She has most recently completed a computational neuroscience research internship at the University of Amsterdam, and contributed to an early stage computer-vision start up (Mamba Insights).
Sipho Mtombeni is the Government Affairs and Public Policy Manager at Google South Africa. In this role, he engages with the South African government on policy and legislative matters concerning artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, copyright, privacy, and online safety. Prior to joining Google he held a regulatory position at the Competition Commission of South Africa. Mr. Mtombeni holds an LLB (Law) Degree from the University of Pretoria and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).
<section> <div class="container--center"> <div class="grid grid__c3"> <div class="grid__item--s2"> <div class="markdown__body"> <div class="trix-content"> Sneha Jha is a research fellow at Imperial College London where she does interdisciplinary research between the Dept of Mathematics and the Dept of Surgery and Cancer. She is a member of the iCARE group under the NIHR Imperial BRC and the Translational Data Analytics and Informatics In Healthcare group. Prior to Imperial College, she received a graduate degree in computer science from University of Pennsylvania and worked at the Clinical Language Understanding Research group at Nuance. Her research interests are in machine learning and natural language processing with a focus on solving problems in health care. She is also interested in the overlap of technology with policy, law and ethics. </div> <div class="text-icon__links"></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </section><header class="section-header bg-color-light"> <div class="container--center display-grid-system"></div> </header>
Stefano Ermon is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the CS Department at Stanford University, where he is affiliated with the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment. His research is centered on techniques for probabilistic modeling of data and is motivated by applications in the emerging field of computational sustainability. He has won several awards, including four Best Paper Awards (AAAI, UAI and CP), a NSF Career Award, ONR and AFOSR Young Investigator Awards, a Sony Faculty Innovation Award, a Hellman Faculty Fellowship, Microsoft Research Fellowship, Sloan Fellowship, and the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award. Stefano earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Cornell University in 2015.
<div class="trix-content"> Stephen is the founder and CEO at Wekebere where he’s building the future of prenatal health using wearable technologies and predictive analytics. Stephen is a passionate entrepreneur on a mission to improve maternal and prenatal health with technology-enabled solutions that accurately monitor the health of mothers and babies. He Loves working at the intersection of engineering, science and healthcare to develop solutions that make people's lives better. He is a Software Engineer by training with 10-year experience in R&D and product development in digital health and med tech. Stephen’s broad experience, ability to build and lead international teams through the development of wearable and digital health products covering hardware, software, data analytics and clinical validation. has seen him deliver strong commercial success, He has won global and continental Awards including Yenching social innovation award 2018 in Beijing china, Innovate for life 2017, ACIA Young ICT Visionaries award 2016, RUFORUM Top 15 young African Entrepreneurs, Innovate for life by Amref Health care, and Youth spark Innovation Grant. </div>
<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>
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.
Dr. Tapiwa Chiwewe is a distinguished technologist and thought leader with over 15 years of experience in the information technology industry, specializing in software development, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. He is a passionate advocate for using technology to solve real-world problems, and he is always looking for new ways to innovate. Tapiwa is also a gifted speaker, and he has given keynote presentations at industry conferences and events. He earned his PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Pretoria and holds the title of Senior Member within the IEEE. Tapiwa is the founder and managing director of Omnien, a technology company that he founded from the ground up. Prior to founding Omnien, Tapiwa worked at IBM for 7 years, where he held several leadership positions. He was the co-lead of IBM’s Global Technology Outlook, program director for ecosystems, senior manager at the Africa Research Lab, leading the AI and quantum computing teams, and leader of the Advanced and Applied Artificial Intelligence group. Tapiwa received IBM’s Outstanding Technical Accomplishment award, and his teams received “A-level” awards. Before IBM, Tapiwa was a senior engineer at the CSIR in the Mechatronics and Micromanufacturing group. He also worked as a full-stack software developer at 5DT, where he created commercial products that were shipped globally. Tapiwa is a TED speaker and has authored over 15 articles and delivered over 40 invited talks. He was recognized as a top global thought leader and influencer on climate change. His work has been featured by BBC, CNN, IEEE Spectrum, and Popular Mechanics, among others.
Dr Tara Southey is the Founder and CEO of TerraClim (Pty) Ltd, a Stellenbosch University spin-out at the forefront of climate-smart agriculture. With a PhD in Viticulture and Climate Science, her career has focused on understanding the impacts of climate variability and change on South Africa’s wine and agricultural industries. Dr Southey has led flagship projects on climate risk, water use, and digital decision support, translating cutting edge research into practical tools for producers. Her work has been instrumental in building high-resolution climate databases, mapping terroir and crop suitability, and advancing the use of geospatial intelligence for agriculture. Through TerraClim, she is pioneering integrated climate data platforms that support industry resilience, sustainability, and ESG compliance. Passionate about bridging science, industry, and policy, Dr Southey brings both technical expertise and vision for how climate intelligence can secure South Africa’s agricultural future in a changing world.
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.
Dr. Tawfik Jelassi was appointed UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information on 1st July 2021. In this position, he is responsible for the Organization’s programmes on building inclusive knowledge societies, leading digital transformation, strategizing the role of ICT in education, and fostering freedom of expression. Dr. Jelassi holds a Ph.D. doctorate in information systems from New York University (USA) and postgraduate diplomas from the University of Paris Dauphine (France). Dr. Jelassi has extensive experience in higher education, scientific research, and information & communication technologies. He held academic, corporate and government leadership positions in Europe, the USA, and Tunisia. Among others, he was Programme Director and Professor of Strategy and Technology Management at IMD Business School in Lausanne (2015 – June 2021). Prior to that, he served as Minister of Higher education, Scientific Research and Information & Communication Technologies in the democratic transition government of Tunisia (2014 – 2015). Prior appointments included being Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ooredoo Telecom in Tunisia, Dean at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris), and Professor & Chairman of the Technology Management Department at INSEAD (Fontainebleau).
Tebogo G. Tlhopane is a South African entrepreneur and innovation leader working at the intersection of financial systems, regulated manufacturing, and technology-enabled compliance. His work spans fintech, health innovation, and sustainable industrial development, with a strong focus on traceability, transparency, and inclusion within emerging markets. He is the founder of Zaka, a transaction and enablement platform designed to formalise informal trade by creating verifiable transaction histories, digital identities, and data trails for cash-based businesses — particularly within fresh produce and township economies. The platform supports financial inclusion by enabling compliance-ready participation in formal credit and payment systems, while strengthening AML visibility through structured transaction data. Tebogo is also the CEO of BioMuti, a health and biotechnology company advancing botanical extraction, indigenous knowledge systems, and product innovation across nutraceuticals, medical applications, and bioplastics. Through BioMuti, he has led the development of traceable production models and data-driven innovation pipelines that integrate regulatory compliance, sustainability, and advanced manufacturing. Across his ventures, Tebogo applies AI-enabled tools to support transaction monitoring, product traceability, risk analysis, and operational decision-making — not as standalone technologies, but as practical enablers of compliance, accountability, and scale. His work reflects a broader commitment to building trusted systems that connect informal economies, regulated industries, and emerging technologies into transparent, inclusive, and compliant value chains.
<div class="trix-content"> Theophilus Aidoo holds a Master of Science degree in Mathematical Science and Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering. He currently works as a remote Data Scientist with Ishango.ai . He is knowledgeable in deep learning algorithms applications in Agriculture. </div> <div class="text-icon__links"></div>
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.
Thierno Ibrahima DIOP is Lead Data Scientist and passionate about NLP and everything that revolves around machine learning. He has been mentoring Data Scientist students and apprentices for 2 years. Before getting into Data Science, he did Freelance work in web and mobile application development. He is co-founder of GalsenAI, an artificial intelligence community in Senegal, Coursera instructor on data science, Google developer expert in machine learning, Machine Learning coursera instructor, ZINDI ambassador in Senegal and co-organizer of GDG Dakar.
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.
<p class="p1">Tom Lawry is a leading voice in the global conversation on artificial intelligence and its role in transforming healthcare. As a keynote speaker, advisor, and thought leader, he brings a wealth of expertise drawn from years of working at the intersection of medicine, technology, and digital transformation. With a career that includes senior leadership positions at Microsoft—where he served as National Director for AI for Health and Life Sciences, Director of Worldwide Health, and Director of Organizational Performance in the company’s first health incubator—Tom has developed a unique perspective on how AI is reshaping the future of healthcare. He has spent more than a decade advising medical and health leaders worldwide, guiding them through the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation. His insights stem not only from successes but also from understanding the common missteps organizations make when first embarking on their AI journey. Tom emphasizes the importance of planning, prioritization, and strategic alignment to ensure AI investments deliver meaningful results. Through his work as an author, advisor, and speaker, his mission is clear: to help leaders harness AI effectively, shorten learning curves, and accelerate progress toward more efficient, impactful, and human-centered healthcare systems.</p>
As the Rector of the United Nations University and Under-Secretary-General of the UN, Professor Marwala leads global initiatives integrating research, artificial intelligence, and sustainable development. His leadership is shaping how technology can drive inclusive growth and address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Before joining the United Nations, he served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, where he championed multidisciplinary innovation and technology-driven education strategies that transformed the institution into a hub for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa. At AMLDAfrica26, he will share visionary insights on how AI and human ingenuity can together create a more equitable and sustainable future. Join us as we explore the intersection of AI, leadership, and development across the African continent.<!-- notionvc: 9f0aacac-e7de-460b-8eab-de15c49336d7 -->
I am a professional MBBS student and researcher at DOW University of Health Sciences, Pakistan, Asia. My research interest include scientific volume rendering and medical imaging data visualization for education, training, non-invasive surgery and treatment.
Valeria De Luca is associate director and senior principal data scientist at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where she works on multi-modal data-driven approaches to quantify patient’s response to disease and treatment. Prior to joining Novartis in 2017, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at UCSF and ETH Zurich focusing on predictive models for critical care. She holds a PhD in Computer Vision from ETH Zurich on personalized cancer treatments.
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.
I'm a postdoctoral researcher in machine learning at EPFL in the INDY Lab. My research revolves around the development of machine learning algorithms and statistical models to study human behavior within <strong>social systems,</strong> with a focus on political systems. I develop interpretable models of collaborative and competitive processes, such as peer-production, sports, carbon-footprint perception, voting, and law-making.
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.
Wael Ouarda is an assistant professor of computer science at the Digital Center of Research of Sfax. He received his Ph.D. degree in computer science from the National School of Engineering of Sfax in 2017 for his dissertation on ""Towards a Novel Biometric System of Smart Riding Club."" He is an active member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) since 2012. Wael Ouarda is interested in intelligent systems that operate in large and known domains like Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computer Vision, and Business Intelligence. Most of his research centers around techniques for decision-making. He believes that finding good solutions to these problems requires approaches that cut across many different fields and, consequently, his research draws on areas such as artificial intelligence, decision theory, and operations research. Applications of his research focus on Smart City: Smart Life & Smart Health & Industry 4.0 & Smart Security & Smart Transportation. Wael Ouarda has several conference papers and journals and published more than 40 papers in various areas of artificial intelligence. He was an invited speaker in several Workshops on Artificial Intelligence since 2017.
Walid Daou is passionate about the transformative impact of Machine Learning and AI across various industries and currently leads Advanced Analytics initiatives at OCP. He began his career in financial markets as a Quantitative Trader in London, working at Barclays Capital and later at the hedge fund Capula. Following this, he founded and managed an EdTech company in France and Morocco for six years, which became the market leader in competitive exam preparation in Morocco. A dedicated Machine Learning enthusiast, Walid Daou also teaches the <em>AI for Executives</em> course at EDHEC. He is a graduate of École Polytechnique and École des Mines de Paris, specializing in Applied Mathematics.
Passionate about how Machine Learning and AI can have an impact on all businesses, Walid Daou currently runs Advanced Analytics initiatives at OCP. He started his career in Financial Markets, as a Quantitative Trader in London, in Barclays Capital and in a Hedge Fund, Capula. He then founded and run an Edtech company in France and Morocco for six years, that became the leader in the market of preparation of competitive exams, in Morocco. Machine Learning enthusiast, he teaches the ""AI for Executive"" course at EDHEC. Walid Daou is a Graduate from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines de Paris, in Applied Mathematics.
Walid Krichene works at Google Research on large-scale optimization and recommendation. He received his Ph.D. in EECS in 2016 from U.C. Berkeley where he was advised by Alex Bayen and Peter Bartlett, a M.A. in Mathematics from UC Berkeley, and a M.S. in Engineering and Applied Math from the Ecole des Mines Paristech. He received a best paper award at KDD 2020, the Leon Chua Award and two outstanding instructor awards from U.C. Berkeley. His research interests include convex optimization, stochastic approximation, and recommender systems.
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
Wei Xiao is working on expanding Nvidia’s AI footprint in emerging markets and emerging technologies. Wei has a breadth of expertise in Applied AI, IoT and Mobile. Prior to Nvidia, Wei was leading the AI ecosystem engineering and evangelism team at Arm, driving the success of Arm ML hardware and software penetration through technical partnerships and community engagements. Before that, she spent 7 years at Samsung in the IoT and mobile developer relations teams, covering different roles from an engineer, evangelist to ecosystem engineering management. Wei is enthusiastic about cultivating developer relationships for product growth and innovation, as well as bringing a robust user experience. In her spare time, Wei teaches AIoT course in the Graduate School of Computer Science at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.
Wissem obtained a BSc in Computer Science at EPFL, then MSc in Communication Systems with a specialisation in Machine Learning. His main research areas at EPFL focused on Graph learning. Wissem is currently developing NLP and Speech Recognition solutions at Swisscom to better understand and serve their customers.
Wissem obtained a BSc in Computer Science at EPFL, then MSc in Communication Systems with a specialisation in Machine Learning. His main research areas at EPFL focused on Graph learning. Wissem is currently developing NLP and Speech Recognition solutions at Swisscom to better understand and serve their customers.
Dr. Yae Gaba is a postdoctoral researcher at Quantum Leap Africa who specializes on geometry and TDA applications. He is putting together a 2023 workshop on TDA to solve practical problems.
Yanet Niguse Tesfay is an AI/ML researcher, software engineer, and innovator passionate about harnessing artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive sustainable social impact. She is the creator of FarmBuddy, an AI-driven decision support tool that helps African smallholder farmers improve productivity through localized, data-driven insights. Yanet is also a Harvard WECode Fellow, Generation Google Scholar (EMEA), and Mastercard Foundation Scholar. Her work focuses on sustainable agriculture and food security, climate change, and empowering underserved communities through ethical, inclusive, and human-centered AI.
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.
Yoshua Bengio is recognized worldwide as one of the leading experts in artificial intelligence, best known for his pioneering work in deep learning. His contributions earned him the 2018 A.M. Turing Award, often referred to as *the Nobel Prize of Computing*, alongside Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun. He is a Full Professor at Université de Montréal and serves as the Founder and Scientific Director of Mila – Quebec AI Institute. He also co-directs the CIFAR *Learning in Machines & Brains* program as a Senior Fellow and acts as the Scientific Director of IVADO. In 2019, he was honored with the prestigious Killam Prize, and in 2022, he became the computer scientist with the highest h-index in the world. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of London and the Royal Society of Canada and has been appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada. Concerned about AI's societal impact and ensuring it benefits all, he played a key role in the development of the Montreal Declaration for the Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence.
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.
