Draft:Deep Learning Indaba

The Deep Learning Indaba is non-profit organisation that aims to strengthen African Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence through a number of activities. The "Indaba" is so named for its meaning of an important meeting, discussion, or conference held by the izinDuna (elders) of the Zulu or Xhosa people of southern Africa. This kind of gathering is known by other terms in southern Africa, such as imbizo (in Xhosa), an intlanganiso, and a lekgotla (in Sesotho) as well as by terms from across the continent: co baraza (in Kiswahili) in Kenya and Tanzania, and padare (in Shona) in Zimbabwe. The first Deep Learning Indaba gathering was held at the University of the Witwatersrand in September 2017.

The Deep Learning Indaba is driven by three pillars: community, leadership and recognition. The community pillar exists to bridge gaps, connect silos and form collaborations, the leadership pillar says that Africans must be owners, shapers and contributors of the advances in ML/AI - “by Africans, for Africans” and the recognition pillar recognises the research and innovation excellence that happens on the continent. All programmes related to the Deep Learning Indaba exist to strengthen these pillars. For example, the annual Deep Learning Indaba aims to support the development of communities, the Deep Learning IndabaX aims to build local leadership in individual countries across the continent, and the annual awards which recognise excellence in research and innovation by Africans across our continent and are awarded annually at the Deep Learning Indaba.

The Deep Learning Indaba Organisation
The Deep Learning Indaba is a grassroots movement started in 2017  with the intention to address the lack of publications from African institutions at top AI conferences such as NeurIPS. The founders, collectively referred to as the Indaba Abantu, were a collection of researchers from Google DeepMind, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the University of Witwatersrand and Stellenbosch University. The Indaba Abantu has expanded over the years and is a grassroots movement driven purely by volunteer efforts to support the mission of strengthening machine learning in Africa.

The annual Deep Learning Indaba
The first Deep Learning Indaba gathering was held at the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa) in September 2017 with 300 attendees, with the theme "the talking drums of Africa". In September 2018, the second annual gathering was held at Stellenbosch University (Stellenbosch, South Africa) with more than 500 attendees and the theme of "Masakhane" (which means "we build together" in Arabic). The third Deep Learning Indaba gathering was held at Kenyatta University (Nairobi, Kenya) in August 2019 with more than 700 attendees with the theme of "Sauti Yetu" (which means "our voice" in Kiswahili). The COVID-19 pandemic meant the Deep Learning Indaba was forced to take a two year hiatus before resuming in 2022. In September 2022, the Deep Learning Indaba resumed with 400 community members meeting at SUP’COM (Tunis, Tunisia) with the theme "Masirouna" (which means "our destiny" in Arabic). The community gathered again in September 2023 at the University of Ghana (Accra, Ghana) with the theme of "Yebetumi" (which means "We Can" in Akan (Twi)). The next edition of the annual Deep Learning Indaba will be held in Dakar, Senegal from 1-7 September at Amadou Mahtar Mbow University (UAM).

Scientific Keynotes + Tutorials
Notable keynote speakers in the past indaba include:
 * Anima Anandkumar (2018)
 * Nando de Freitas (2018)
 * Jeff Dean (2018)
 * Aisha Walcott-Bryant (2019)
 * Abdoulaye Baniro Diallo (2019)
 * Ruha Benjamin (2019)


 * Ciira wa Maina (2019)
 * Finale Doshi-Velez (2019)
 * Richard Socher (2019)
 * Samory Kpotufe (2019)
 * Andrew Ng (2019)
 * Fei-Fei Li (2019)
 * Sebastian Ruder (2022)
 * Gabriela Csurka (2022)
 * Ernest Mwebaze (2022)
 * Sara Hooker (2022)
 * Elaine O. Nsoesie (2022)
 * G. Ayorkor Korsah (2023)
 * Timnit Gebru (2023)
 * Rahul Dodhia (2023)

Research in Africa Showcase
This is a platform for researchers from across the African continent and African machine learning communtiy to share their work and ideas. The showcase features poster presentations, short papers, and AI product demonstrations. This is an opportunity for researchers to network, learn from each other, and showcase their work to a global audience.

The Deep Learning IndabaX
The Deep Learning IndabaX movement was started in 2018, with the intention of supporting the leadership pillar and to increase the capacity of Africans contributing to the conversation around African AI. In 2018, there were events in 13 African countries, with this number growing to to 27 in 2019. The movement was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. However, after a one year hiatus, the IndabaX events continued in 2021 with 23 events. This number continues to grow with 25 events held in 2022, 37 in 2023 and 47 countries are confirmed to be hosting in 2024.

Awards: Celebrating Excellence in African Machine Learning
The Deep Learning Indaba awards serve to recognise excellence amongst Africans in all areas related to the development and flourishing of African AI.


 * The Thamsanqa Kambule Doctoral Award is named after Dr Thamsanqa “Wilkie” Kambule, a South African mathematician and teacher, in honour of commitment to his students and furthering the field. The award recognises excellence in research and writing by doctoral candidates at African universities, in any area of computational and statistical sciences.
 * The Alele-Williams Masters Award is named after Prof. Grace Awani Alele-Williams, a Nigerian mathematician and teacher, in honour of her contributions to mathematics and her consistent efforts in breaking down boundaries for woman. The award recognises excellence by Masters degree candidates at African universities, in any area of computational and statistical sciences.
 * The Maathai Impact Award is named after Prof. Wangari Muta Maathai, in honour of her contributions to democracy, peace and sustainable development in Kenya and across the greater African collective. This award encourages and recognises work by African innovators to be a positive force for change, by demonstrating an impactful application of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
 * The Umuntu Award for Services to the African Machine Learning Community is awarded at the discretion of the Deep Learning Indaba’s Board of Trustees to recognise individuals or teams who have gone beyond the call of duty to support our African communities.

Impact
The grassroots NLP community Masakhane NLP was founded at the 2019 Deep Learning Indaba NLP Workshop. The community went on to win the inaugural Wikimedia Foundation Research Award .

Related Grassroots AI Organisations

 * Data Science Africa
 * Black in AI
 * Khipu AI
 * Eastern European Machine Learning Summer School
 * Southeast Asia Machine Learning School