Rabat – Morocco’s Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) are organizing the African edition of the Applied Machine Learning Days (AMLD), from November 3 to 5, at UM6P in Benguerir.
During the first day of the event, AMLD member Kamil Seghrouchni explained to Morocco World News that the conference is about the democratization of machine learning with a focus on the problems that the African continent is currently facing in the areas of healthcare, education, and agriculture. Additionally, the event seeks to support African talent and youth.
Ambassador of Switzerland to Morocco Guillaume Scheurer emphasized the event’s significance for Africa and the youth, stating that “every company seeking growth needs to have a better understanding and capacity in Artificial Intelligence.”
Ambassador of Switzerland to Morocco Guillaume Scheurer
The event created a new bridge between Switzerland and Africa, providing an excellent opportunity for exchange and promoting the use of digital technologies.
Dr. Lawrence Nderu from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology told MWN: “The relevance of technology, extracting patterns from multiple data in healthcare and agriculture, is big and Africa must be at the heart of it.”
Speaking on the sidelines of AMLD, UM6P President Hicham El Habti explained that machine learning is not an “end in itself” in science and technology, but rather a “useful tool for catalyzing growth in all fields.”
El Habti highlighted AI’s major role in developing the COVID vaccine, as it was a “defining factor in sorting through dense data points and anticipating scenarios.”
Besides its implementation in healthcare, AI can be implemented in agriculture as well. It can provide farmers with insights from their fields and “turn disparate weather and climate data into actionable recommendations, all accessible from a smartphone,” UM6P’s president stressed.
Additionally, Artificial Intelligence serves as a tool for cultural preservation. Thanks to its capacity to process data at record speed, dialects such as Moroccan darija can now be codified, learned, and digitized due to smart pattern recognition.
El Habti also highlighted Africa’s development in the field of AI, saying that “with a 43% Internet penetration rate, Africa is uniquely positioned to further benefit from the virtues of artificial intelligence in order to accelerate development.”
Participants at the conference
Associate director and senior principal data scientist at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) Valeria De Luca told MWN that “the power of AI lies in its ability to help accelerate the decision making process and automate many things.”
She continued: “Events like this can help spread the importance of machine learning.”
The conference featured speakers from public entities, private multinational technology companies, and emerging startups who shared their expertise on how artificial intelligence can be used to solve real-world issues in Africa.
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