Founder of AMMI Urges Africans to Invest in Research, Machine Intelligence

President and founder of African Masters in Machine Intelligence AMMI, Professor Moustapha Cisse

Kigali, Rwanda, October 18, 2018//-The President and founder of African Masters in Machine Intelligence AMMI, Professor Moustapha Cisse, has reiterated the need for Africans to invest in research and Machine Intelligence (MI) studies to address the challenges of the continent.

According to him, investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI), MI and research is certainly the best investment one can make to profoundly change today and impact the situation of the continent since the technological revolution is the order of the day.

He explained that what technological revolution does is, it finds the situation that is sometimes judged as hopeless and completely changed the cause of history.

Prof.Cisse said this in an interview during the launch of the first cohort of AMMI in Kigali, Rwanda.

Recounting his experience, he said: “In Africa when one wants to acquire special skills you must move to a distance place probably European or America to push boundaries forward to complete graduate studies in a different field”.

According to him, these are the reasons why some institutions like African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIM) are important on the continent.

In the past 15 years, the commitment of AIMS is centered on giving very specialised and excellent education in mathematics and its applications in Africa to young Africans.

“For the past decades with the support from Facebook and Google and Machine Intelligence rapidly progressed both in research and development and its application to solve fundamental problems however the talent pool in advancing these research is concentrated in certain regions of the world especially in Europe and the North America African scientists are hardly represented” he stated.

He added that the most important challenge that this lack of representation will cause is the number of problems  which we could tackle and solve which could  remained unsolved just because there are not right perspectives represented in the field for bettering industrial machines. Every one of these machines should have a milling machine coolant to make sure it is functioning properly. On Contour Tool Inc page you will find detail information about CNC machine. There are several different companies that provide a 5 axis CNC machine. When trying to make a decision on whether to get a 5 axis CNC machine or not, it’s going to be best to consult a salesman from any of the businesses . Comparison shopping would work best here. What specifically would you wish to realize from your machine? What are you looking for? What software programs work best for this sort of machine? what proportion space will this machine take up? Can adjustments be made easily? These are all legitimate questions that you simply must first ask yourself before purchasing a machine of this caliber. Cutting, machining or creating a specific part that’s complex and incorporates different angles and hard geometrics, is difficult. 5 axis CNC machines offer an answer to the present . That’s why the Aerospace Industry has been using this technology for a few time now. Usually the primary to require advantage of technology, the Aerospace Industry requires dependable, reliable and efficient tools and technology which will allow them to be one step before the remainder . 5 axis CNC machines allow them to try to to this and this is often not new technology for them.

“If Africa continues to be bypassed by Machine Intelligence revolution a real opportunity will be missed in global and economic disparities conversely creating an effective globally connected community of MI experts in Africa will reduce the technology gap, it will strengthen Africa’s economies and in the name of better governance, Africa is home to the youngest population , this is a vast pool of talents whose enthusiasm in MI is well illustrated by the success of various organisations” he said.

He however described the current backlogs  as threatening but was optimistic that institutions like AMMI and its  parent institution AIMS the keeping up with pace in AI, MI or Machine Learning is doable.

Speaking on the support from Facebook and Google, he said he was grateful for the immense contributions adding that he has worked the former and currently works with the latter and so he knows the deep commitment that both entities to positively impacting the world with technology.

He intimated that every course in the AMMI programme is taught by one of the best scientists in the world, revealing that very soon AMMI will be launched in other African countries.

“What I expect in the long term is to see AMMI graduates to make enormous contributions to their home countries and to the continent as a wholesale by delivering technological solutions which will improve critical aspects such as agriculture, education, health and various other scientific fields.”

Responding to what AMMI  is doing to motivate more woman to participate in the programme he said, he does not believe the notion that women do not like science but he think it was the environment that is not right,  “If we say certain fields are not for women then we are losing half of the talents”, he said.

He urged that the right environment will be created in order to get more women in science and Mathematics.

AMMI is a great opportunity – the only female Ghanaian student

A student from Ghana who graduated from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Ghana, Miss Abigail Aankah, shared her experience and what motivated her to join the first cohort of AMMI.

According to the young Mathematician, who is enthused about the opportunity given her said it has been quite interesting and amazing because they are learning news stuff from renowned lecturers.

She intimated that, the novel one year programme is a full scholarship which covers, tuition, accommodation and other incentives.

“AMMI is such that we have everything we need some that we can fully concentrate on our studies without any form distraction.”

She said she heard about AMMI from a lecturer at UG and saw that it was a great opportunity to grab.

“Since I came for the past one month I haven’t encountered any challenge so far, it is expected that since it is a master’s programme we have to work intensively so I have to adjust but apart from that everything has been good.”

Currently, there three persons offering the programme and she is the only female.

Highlighting on what Ghanaians should expect from her after completion of the AMMI, Miss Aankah said: “I am particularly interested in academia, a lot of people runaway from maths and the sciences because it is deemed to be difficult and because of the systems our education give to us, it is a lot of rigorous proofs, theorem and things you have to keep in mind but there is more to it. You will understand these proofs and theorem better and whatever statements the sciences gave you and then you will apply them.”

When I come back to Ghana I would like to work harder to encourage people and to impact society and to keep the vision of AMMI and AIMS alive.

She asked that mathematics and sciences should be made interesting from the foundation of the educational systems in Ghana, so that those who have the passion will be nurtured since science and mathematics is not for everyone.

African Masters in Machine Intelligence launched in Kigali

Meanwhile, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in collaboration with Facebook and Google launched the African Masters in Machine Intelligence (AMMI) in Kigali, Rwanda.

AMMI is a novel one year Master’s programme in Machine Intelligence (MI) which is revolutionizing critical aspects of our lives. It enhances medical diagnosis, improves industrial processes and enables scientific discoveries.

The programme which is going to produce the next generation scientists and critical thinkers currently has students from across Africa precisely 11 countries with over 40% being female.

By Diana M. Kodie

 

 

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