Bridging the Artificial Intelligence Knowledge and Skill Gaps in Africa: a Case of the 3rd Google Tensorflow Bootcamp and FEDGEN Mini-Workshop

Abstract

In transiting from one civilization to another, technology has played a vital and positive role. In the 21st century, one of the digital developments that is paving ways for human life improvement is machine-assisted technology using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Artificial Intelligence has successfully enhanced man’s capacity in solving complex problems and processes. However, as developed nations continue to reap from the adoption of AI in various fields of human endeavors, the continent of Africa has remained behind, especially in AI-based skills and research. Various governments in developing nations have encouraged the adoption of AI, especially in institutions of learning. However, theoretical adoption without practical experience has remained an ineffective way of bridging the digital divide. In this paper we present the outcome of a practical approach to bridging the AI divide among students and researchers in Africa through funding support from the Google TensorFlow College Outreach Award. A 3-day hybrid bootcamp was organized (11th to 13th December, 2023) using the Google funding in order to equip postgraduate students and researchers with AI and collaborative research skills. A pre-survey method was employed to ascertain the knowledge level of the bootcamp participants. From the pre-surveyed feedback, training sessions on various AI domains were presented, and participant equipped with practical AI skills using a deployed AI-based cloud programming platform running on the private Federated Genomic Cloud (FEDGEN) infrastructure at Covenant University. A post-survey feedback was used to ascertain the effectiveness of this approach. A comparative analysis of the pre-survey and post-survey reveals a 70% improvement of AI skills among participants. This shows that having continuous training session for students and researchers is an effective method in closing the AI skills gap between developed and developing nations.