Denis Opudo
The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in partnership with Facebook and Google launched African Master’s in Machine Intelligence (AMMI) that will last for one year. Launched in 2003, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a network of centres of excellence for post-graduate training, research and public engagement in mathematical sciences for Pan-Africa. The masters will kick start in September 2018 at the Kigali based AIMS-Rwanda campus.
According to Founder and Director of the AMMI program and Professor of Machine Learning at AIMS, Dr. Mouhamadou Moustapha Cissé, AMMI is changing important aspects of people’s lives. This runs from enabling scientific discoveries, improving industrial processes to enhancing medical diagnosis. According to him, MI has rapidly made steps in researches and putting up of many applications. But the current group of talent running MI is clear indications of the diversity of the modern world leaving people will less option of facing the daily challenges. Most of the challenges that people have decided to solve are mainly influenced by the environment and the background where one comes from. Cisse said that the main goal of MI together with AMMI is to offer training to a generation of young scientists who will give machine intelligence research a new perspective and go on with developing it across the continent for the good of its society.
Together with its partners, AIMS believes in developing a group of Machine Intelligence practitioners who are globally and effectively connected. This is with the aim of narrowing the wide technology gap, enable better governance and strengthen African economies. According to Artificial Intelligence’s VP, Jerome Pesenti, the company is proud to partner with Google and AIMS to launch the initiative. He added that the main goal at Facebook is to agitate for positive economic and social impact across Africa. He said that the partnership is a stepping stone to driving innovation by backing the African existing talent pool and tech ecosystem. Pesenti added that they were glad to see the way students will incorporate advanced technology in getting solutions to problems and set up solutions for the better of the African future and the world as a whole.
Jeff Dean who is the AI Lead at Google said that the machine intelligence sector realizes a rapid growth. He added that it is encouraging to see industry leaders such as Google and Facebook partnering with academic institutions such as AIMS to groom the future students that will develop MI which will be of help to everyone. Dean said that his company was ready to partner with AIMS to support the project with the use of the AMMI program. He concluded that the partnership is a highlight of their commitment and investment in Africa. The partnership comes after its recent launch of a Google AI centre that is expected to start working before the end of 2018 in Ghana.
Through the AMMI program, bright young Africans will get a chance to attend quality training in machine learning and its use. All the AMMI courses will have leading lecturers from international and African institutions giving the students the best foundation that they can ever get somewhere. Founder and Chair of the AIMS Professor Neil Turok said that AIMS was happy to launch AMMI to speed up the joining of young Africa’s scientists into the course. He added that the company helps to support AMMI in other countries across Africa offering research and training that has the highest international standards.
African most talented youths will be offered a chance by AMMI to contribute to the growth of science, government, and economies in Africa. Turok said that the program is a stepping stone to AIMS’ long-term goal of preparing young Africans for the upcoming revolution in information technology and science. With five centres of excellence teaching Masters in Mathematical Sciences the network offers the direct link to sectors in three centres. AIMS also have programs and research centres that have 90 researchers comprising of qualified Chairs working within the network. AIMS is running a gender-response teacher training program in both Cameroon and Rwanda. These are the Next Einstein Forum aim at pushing Africa on to the global scientific map and Quantum Leap Africa aim at preparing the continent for the upcoming quantum revolution.
