African Artificial Intelligence Lab (AfriAI Lab)
Website: http://afriailab.udom.ac.tz

Preamble

The University of Dodoma (UDOM) and the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and
Technology (MN-AIST) are currently implementing a project to establish an African Artificial
Intelligence Lab (AfriAI Lab). The project is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth &
Development Office (FCDO) and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
through the AI4D Africa Program. One of the objectives of the project is to strengthen AI research
and teaching capacity of new researchers across Africa through mentorship, exploratory research,
and community building. In light of that, the project seeks to offer scholarships for MSc and PhD
candidates interested to conduct AI research in Healthcare and Agriculture. It is envisaged that the
scholarships will promote inclusion of gender and people with disabilities in AI research and
innovation, application of AI-based solutions in addressing pervasive social challenges, increased
accessibility to public research data, increased and strengthened partnerships and collaborations.

Project Priority Areas of Research

The successful candidates will work closely with the project team members in formulating AI
research ideas that fall in one of the two thematic areas. The distribution of the scholarship position
per thematic area is as outlined in the following table:

Scholarship Benefits

Successful PhD candidates will receive a partial scholarship for two years that cater for books and
stationaries, and research expenses (publication charges, field data collection, dissertation
production). The MSc scholarship will be awarded for one year and will only cater for books and
stationaries, and research funds.

Eligibility

i. Holds a relevant Bachelor degree for MSc applicants and MSc degree for PhD applicants
in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Computer Science,
Software
Engineering, Computer Engineering, Information and Communication
Technology (ICT), Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Agriculture Informatics,
Bioinformatics, or any other ICT related specialisation from an accredited university or
similar higher learning institution with a minimum GPA of 3.8/5.0 for MSc applicants
and GPA of 4.0/5.0 for PhD applicant or its equivalent and at least an average of “B+” in
the relevant subjects of specialisation.

ii. Meets the specific admission requirements of the University of Dodoma (UDOM) or
Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) with proof of
an admission letter (full-time).

iii. Demonstrates that her/his research interests are well aligned to the Lab objectives and
thematic areas with a proof of a concept note not exceeding two pages.

iv. Should have an interest in multidisciplinary and practical hands-on research.

v. Should have the motivation to seek extra funding and grants through the lab.

vi. Having a publication (s) in an international peer-reviewed journal or conference is an
added advantage.

vii. Should not exceed 40 years of age for PhD applicants and 30 years of age for MSc
applicants.

viii. Female applicants and people with disabilities are highly encouraged to apply.

Desirable Qualifications

An applicant should have knowledge and experience in the following areas:

i. Programming languages: Python, Java, C/C++, JavaScript, R, etc.
ii. Machine learning engineering: creating training pipelines and evaluating models using
toolkits such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, Fastai and Scikit-learn.
iii. Cloud-native development and toolkits such as Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift. (iv).
Software engineering best practices, including agile techniques.
iv. Experience in solving analytical problems using rigorous and quantitative approaches.

PhD applicants are expected to have additional experience in the following:

i. Machine learning theory: discriminative models, generative models, deep neural networks,
detecting and mitigating bias, adversarial robustness, causality, and uncertainty.
ii. Qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and user-centric design.
iii. Experimental research design.
iv. Analysing large-scale data from a variety of sources.
v. Experience in federated learning.

Mode of Application and Deadline

The application package MUST be named with an applicant’s FULL NAME and submitted by
email to jabhera.matogoro@udom.ac.tz before 30/11/2024. The application package shall contain
the following documents:

i. Admission letter from either UDOM or NM-AIST.
ii. Research concept note (not exceeding 2 pages)
iii. Published paper (s) in the relevant area of study.
iv. University degree transcripts.
v. 1-page motivation letter.
vi. 3-pages up-to-date curriculum vitae.

Contacts

For any inquiries kindly contact the following:
Dr. Jabhera Matogoro
Mobile: +255 784 423 615
Email: jabhera.matogoro@udom.ac.tz

or

Dr. Devotha Nyambo
Mobile: +255 752 905 156
Email: Devotha.nyambo@nm-aist.ac.tz