AI4D-Lab Workshop

Denis is at the forefront to lead data-driven business/research initiatives in industries that impact thousands of people. Serving as an applied data scientist and technical advisor in several industries His innovative problem-solving skills with a see-through capability have been witnessed in A.I, geospatial, emerging technology, and agri-tech and their integration into Agriculture, Environment, Rural Community, and responsible AI.

He is a seasoned co-founder, a true activist serving as a team lead and mentor for tech innovations in health, agriculture, biotechnology, the-future-for-work. Learn more about him.

Jumanne Mtambalike is an innovator, entrepreneur, and technology enthusiast who is optimistic about the future of Africa.

He cofounded Sahara Ventures with a vision to build Africa's Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship Ecosystem - Lean More

Nick is a 20+ year tech veteran having worked in Europe, North America & Africa with a diverse set of Multi $bn global clients helping customers deploy and mature complex Enterprise platforms and systems.  Having been based in South Africa for 10+ years and is founder and CEO of the AI Media Group, a boutique market analysis, consulting, publishing & events company. AI Media offer clients insights into the growing 4IR trade & investment opportunity in Africa.  They are also creators of Africa's largest B2B 4IR trade focused event (AI Expo Africa), Africa's first 4IR trade magazine (Synapse) and Africa’s first dedicated AI focused streaming channel (AI TV). Nick also serves on the Board of The Swedish AI Fund and AI Centre of Excellence, Kenya.

With 20K+ practitioners, AI Expo Africa is the largest B2B Artificial Intelligence & 4IR Smart Tech trade community in Africa uniting 100s buyers and suppliers locally, regionally and globally. The community is made up of decision makers, investors, buyers, suppliers, innovators, SMBs and global brands focusing on real world 4IR business applications you can deploy TODAY. Learn more at www.aiexpoafrica.com

The AI Media Group are the de facto regional trade body focusing solely on B2B trade (inward and outward) in this category in Africa. Over the last 4+ years the AI Media Group have become a trusted advisory partner and soft-landing entry point into the African 4IR market. The group focuses on both commercial and AI4Good applications and routinely works with software companies, Embassies, trade missions, NGOS and Governments as a trusted partner in the region. Learn more at www.aimediagroup.co.za

Thomas Basikolo works with the ITU coordinating and managing the AI for Good’s ML5G activities and as an advisor of the ITU-T Focus Group on Autonomous Networks. He received a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Yokohama National University, Japan. During his studies, he was awarded the Japanese Government (Monbukagakushō) scholarship. He was also a recipient of grants for Non-Japanese Researchers from the NEC C&C Foundation, and a visiting researcher at the NEC Data Science Research Laboratories. Prior to joining ITU, he worked as a Research Engineer in the Engineering Department of Microwave Factory Co., Ltd, Tokyo, Japan.

He is recipient of multiple Best Paper Awards, the IEEE AP–S Japan Student Award and the Young Engineer of the year award by IEEE AP–S Japan in 2018. He has co-authored peer-reviewed journal and conference papers, predominantly in the areas wireless communications and antenna engineering. He serves as a Reviewer of IEEE and IEICE Journals. His interests includes, machine learning, deep learning and network science, and their applications in wireless networks.

Prof. Mpho Raborife is an NRF-rated researcher specialising in computational linguistics. She is an associate professor and the deputy director at the Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Johannesburg. Amongst numerous awards she has received, she is a L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science sub-Saharan Regional fellow as well as the DST Women in Science alumni.

Prof. Raborife has worked in numerous projects (multidisciplinary) with project partners across three continents. She currently serves on the IDEMIA Black Women’s Ownership Trust board of trustees as well as on the advisory board for the Pan African Information Communication Technology Association.

Dr. Kadeghe Goodluck Fue (Member of SUASA, IET, IEEE, ASABE, AAAS, and AUVSI) is a Researcher, Founder, Developer, and Consulting Engineer in Digital and Data-Driven Agriculture (concentrating in Precision Agriculture, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Vision, Agricultural Robotics, and Agricultural Data Science). He is a seasoned tech-savvy engineer with more than 11 years of actively building moderate to complex tech systems for agriculture and natural resources. He is a trained full-stack developer capable of integrating hardware-software systems and developing innovative algorithms to challenging problems in autonomy and AI. He is the co-Founder and CEO of the Mifumo Developers Lab, a full-stack software development firm. Kadeghe studied at the University of Dar es Salaam, the University of Florida and the University of Georgia in USA for his Bachelor, Masters and PhD respectively.

He works for the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the School of Engineering and Technology - Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) as a Lecturer and Researcher. He is a Principal Investigator of the extramural funded Electronics and Precision Agriculture Lab (EPAL) at SUA. Administratively, He is the Acting Coordinator for the Academic Information Management and Support (AIMS) Unit at the office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic, Research and Consultancy). Read more at

Alex Berryhill is a Gender Policy Specialist at Ladysmith, a feminist research collective that helps organizations collect, analyze, and take action on gender data. She is also the Director of Digital Operations for Ladysmith’s Cosas de Mujeres project, which leverages WhatsApp to connect Colombian and Venezuelan women to the services they need, while collecting actionable data on gender-based violence in a safe and dignified way. Alex lives in Cartagena, Colombia, where she has worked alongside community-based women's rights organisations over the last seven years.

Alex holds a Master of International Affairs, with a specialization in Gender and Public Policy, from Columbia University.

Dr. Barakabitze is a Co-Founder and CEO of SmartHEA and an ELITE - S MSCA Fellow. He completed PhD in Computing and Communications from the University of Plymouth, UK in 2019. He received Master Degree of Electronics and Communication Engineering with first class from Chongqing University, PR China, in May 2015 and BSc. in Computer Science with Honours from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 2010. Dr. Barakabitze is recognised as the BEST Male ICT Researcher of 2021, an award that is awarded by the ICT Commission of Tanzania. Dr. Barakabitze is also recognised as the 2015 outstanding International Graduate Student of Chongqing University, China due to his excellent performance. He was a visiting researcher in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Cagliari, Italy and the ITU-T-Standardization Department in 2016 and 2017 respectively. He has led/participated in a number of national and international research projects, funded by the EU, UK, Ireland and the Government of Tanzania. Dr. Barakabitze has more than 40 publications in international peer-reviewed conferences and journals with a total of 936 Google scholar citations and H-index of 17. Dr. Barakabitze has served as session chair of Future Internet and NGN Architectures during the IEEE Communication Conference in Kansas City, USA.

He was also the Keynote and Panel Chairs at the International Young Researcher Summit on Quality of Experience in Emerging Multimedia Services (QEEMS 2017), which was held from May 29–30, 2017 in Erfurt, Germany. Dr. Barakabitze is a Reviewer for various journals and serves on technical program committees of leading conferences focusing on his research areas. His research interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, digital and data-driven agriculture, Telecommunication systems and network management and customer's quality of experience and video streaming services.

An AI leader standing for the unification of the African tech space. She is a conscious tech proponent with expertise in psychology, technology and economics and their integration into AI, blockchain and ethics. A tech catalyst that has served as chairperson, director and founder across multiple industries, sectors, and technologies - aiming to unlock the potential of the African arena. Humanizing technology and actively serving as a growth enabler for tech talent across the globe.

Often referred to as someone trailblazing through the continent accompanied with her inspirational-ally iconic outlook to unlock and be the consciousness for Africa's. #shespeaksafrica with a harvested blend between multidisciplinary, multi sector and multi technologies. Currently holds the position as Chairperson, Non-Executive Director, and Advisor.

He holds a B.Sc. Degree (1 st Class with Honors-1985) in Electrical Engineering from University of Dar es Salaam - Tanzania; and M.Sc. (1988) and PhD (1994) degrees in Computer-Based Instrumentation and Control Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. In Tanzania, he is a Researcher, Practitioner, Mentor and registered Consulting Engineer in ICTs/Telecoms. He is currently associated with The Nelson Mandela Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc, (IEEE) and Applied Engineering & ByteWorks (T) Ltd.

He has over 38 years of practice and his work spans the academia, industry and policy-making fields. Published over 50 papers on international journals, and supervised 21 postgraduate students. His passion is in creating and delivering value through ICT-enabled services in the shortest times possible. His research interests include: ICT4D, Mobile and Web applications, Big Data, Data Mining, AI4D, high-capacity Broadband networks, Intelligent Instrumentation and Control Engineering, Embedded and Mobile systems, ICT enabled 21 st Century Education delivery (ICT4E); and Agri-business for fighting poverty from the roots.

Mahadia is a Director of Data Sciences at the dLab. As a Data Scientist she oversees the dLab's data science, research and capacity development section, Mahadia has been instrumental in dLab’s ability to leverage partnerships with various Universities to spearhead collaborative research, consulting, gender-based programs and training on data science. As a consultant, she has developed an online and face-to-face data science curriculum for dLab and trained over 3000 individuals and 100 organizations in Tanzania, Uganda, Congo, South Africa, Cairo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Somalia, Djibouti, etc. She is also actively involved in dLab's partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics to strengthen Tanzania’s national data ecosystem.

Mahdia's exemplary research skills, data science expertise, and management have helped dLab successfully develop over 240 data science products and services generated over 70,000 data points and manage 14 data-driven innovation projects. She has delivered strategic consultancies with various organizations such as Cambridge Education, International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX), UNFPA/Community Systems Foundation (CSF), World Bank, and Open Data Institute (ODI) African Monitor, IntraHealth International, and Web Foundation.

Dr. Jamal Banzi is the Lecturer of Computer Science specializing in Artificial Intelligence at the Sokoine University of Agriculture. Dr. Banzi obtained his BSc. degree in Information Systems from the University of Dodoma, Tanzania in 2011. He then went for a Master's study and obtained an MSc. in Signal and Information Processing Engineering, at Tianjin University of Technology and Education in 2015. He joined the Sokoine University of Agriculture in the same year 2015 as an Assistant lecturer. In the year 2019, he obtained Ph.D. in Information and Communication Engineering majoring in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Science and Technology of China(USTC).

Dr. Banzi’s current research interests include; Cognitively Inspired AI, AI+ healthcare, Computer Vision, Deep Learning, Computer Assisted Sign Language Recognition for hearing disabled communication, AI+ Agriculture (Intelligent Agriculture Systems), and Signal detection and analysis for fault diagnosis of the operational Machines.