The festival opened on 18 March 2024 with an inspiring keynote from Prof. Neil Turok, entitled “AIMS: Two Decades Growing Science in Africa.” Prof. Turok engaged the audience with AIMS’s story, highlighting its Cape Town centre as a hub for Africa’s brightest talents. This centre has become renowned for its intensive learning environment, transforming students
The opening ceremony of the Siyakhula Festival, held at the scenic Kenilworth Racecourse on 17 March 2024, launched a week-long celebration commemorating the 20th anniversary of AIMS. This occasion not only underscored AIMS’s critical contribution to the advancement of mathematical sciences but also set the stage for a series of enriching discussions and workshops designed
On 17 March 2024, the Siyakhula Festival featured the “AI for Climate Research – a Call to Action!” workshop, an enlightening session that underscored the critical role of artificial intelligence (AI) in combating climate change. This workshop focused on AI’s transformative potential in climate science, hydrology, biodiversity conservation, and marine sciences. The workshop was facilitated
The Machine Learning for Ecology Research group was involved in preparing and delivering a new course as part of the AI for Science AIMS South Africa’s Master’s degree. The course aimed at equipping the students with machine learning skills for bioacoustics, animal pose estimation, and bio-logging. Dr Dufourq covered machine learning for bioacoustics, which ranged
As new AI technology permeates our education system and thought processes, it is imperative that we lean on our wisdom and common sense – skills that distinguish humans from AI systems. This was a central theme discussed during a public lecture by Prof. Dr. Helga Nowotny, a founding member of the European Research Council (ERC)
AIMSSEC, the school enrichment department of the AIMS South Africa has done it again. The year 2024 has started with a bang! Jan Mouton Learning Centre (JMLC), at Stellenbosch University was a hive of activity as the mathematics Senior phase (SP) and Further Education and Training phase (FET) teachers converged at the centre for a
Emmanuel Dufourq and Lorène Jeantet collaborated with an international team of scientists from the City University of New York, the University of Antananarivo and Centre ValBio in Madagascar, where they leveraged the power of deep learning to transform an approach to primate conservation. Through the innovative use of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) paired with machine learning,
A workshop for the new generation of South African topologists, was held at AIMS South Africa from 8 to 11 December 2023. The aim of the workshop was to contribute to building a cohort of future topology researchers who will work together and build further international partnerships. The 40 Participants included postgraduate students and young
On 13 December, AIMS South Africa celebrated the success of 20 students (including 14 South Africans) from the January 2023 intake at a Recognition of Achievement Ceremony held at the Centre. In his welcome address, Dr Ulrich Paquet, Director of AIMS noted, “Today we celebrate with you, acknowledging how incredibly hard you have all worked,
On 16 November 2023, Prof. Corinne Manogue and Prof. Tevian Dray of Oregon State University met with Dr Sinobia Kenny of AIMS to exchange experiences of pedagogical practices within their respective higher education spaces. While Sinobia shared her knowledge about recruitment of rurally located students to teacher training courses, Corinne and Tevian described their experience
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