Welcome to What’s Next in AI

Seminar Series Africa

 

IBM Research is inventing what's next in AI - from ground-breaking research in technologies that advance our computational understanding of language, to the next paradigms of AI that merge neural and symbolic reasoning, to advances towards trustworthy AI.  Through this series of seminars delivered by some of IBM Research's leading Scientists in Africa and other global labs, IBM Research Africa invites academics, students, developers, researchers and AI practitioners to a dialogue on the future of AI. With a focus on advances in trustworthy AI, neural and symbolic learning, reasoning and language understanding, this series will launch a continent-wide conversation on the future of AI and the role of the African computing community in inventing what's next for AI in Africa.

 

Read the blog post here.

 

Watch the live video here.

 

Registration

 

Agenda

Week 1, 18 August 2021

Advances in Trustworthy AI

Time Topic Speaker
09:00 EDT | 15:00 SAST

Introduction
Welcome 

Skyler Speakman (IBM Research Nairobi) 

Solomon Assefa, Director IBM Research Africa
09:10 EDT | 15:10 SAST

Keynote: Overview of Trustworthy AI  (30 mins)

Kush Varshney (IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center)
09:40 EDT | 15:40 SAST

Perspectives on AI from Different Worldviews (40 mins)

Karthikeyan Natesan Ramamurthy (IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center)

Ezinne Nwankwo (IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center / Duke University)
10:20 EDT | 16:20 SAST

Q&A

Moderator: Skyler Speakman (IBM Research Nairobi) 
10:30 EDT | 16:30 SAST

External Speakers: Spotlight Talks (10 mins)

Benjamin Rosman (Wits University, South Africa)
10:40 EDT | 16:40 SAST

Applications and Human-Centered Perspectives in Fair and Explainable AI (60 mins)

Vera Liao (IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center)

Celia Cintas  (IBM Research Nairobi) 

Girmaw Tadesse  (IBM Research Nairobi) 
11:40 EDT | 17:40 SAST

Q&A

Moderator: Skyler Speakman (IBM Research Nairobi) 
11:50 EDT | 17:50 SAST

Vote of Thanks & Closing

Moderator: Skyler Speakman (IBM Research Nairobi) 

Week 2, 25 August 2021

Advances in Learning, Reasoning, and Language Understanding

Time Topic Speaker
09:00 EDT | 15:00 SAST

Introduction
Welcome 

Ismail Akhalwaya (IBM Research Johannesburg)  

Charity Wayua, Senior Manager IBM Research Nairobi
09:10 EDT | 15:10 SAST

Keynote: IBM Project Debater (30 mins)

Noam Slonim (IBM Research Haifa)
09:40 EDT | 15:40 SAST

AI and NLP for Social Good



NLP on African & Low Resource Languages (50 mins)

Joan Byamugisha (IBM Research Johannesburg)

Alexandre Rademaker (IBM Research Brazil)

Youssef Mroueh (IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center)

Richard Young (IBM Research Johannesburg) 
10:30 EDT | 16:30 SAST

Q&A

Moderator: Ismail Akhalwaya (IBM Research Johannesburg)
10:40 EDT | 16:40 SAST

External Speakers: Spotlight Talks (10 mins)

 
10:50 EDT | 16:50 SAST

Advances in Learning and Reasoning (Neurosymbolic AI) towards NLU (60 mins)

Ryan Riegel (IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center) 

Naweed Khan (IBM Research Johannesburg)

Francois Luus (IBM Research Johannesburg)
11:50 EDT | 17:50 SAST

Q&A

Moderator: Ndivhuwo Makondo (IBM Research Johannesburg)
12:00 EDT | 18:00 SAST

Closing

Moderator: Ndivhuwo Makondo (IBM Research Johannesburg)

 

Contact

 

If you have any questions feel free to get in touch with us at
ai.series.africa@ibm.com