Centers of Excellence – Page 6 – ACE – Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence

February 21, 2022April 13, 2022

How ACE Impact Thematic Networks are driving Digital Development on the Continent

Under the ACE Impact project, two thematic networks are working diligently to promote digital development in Africa. These are the African Digital Education Network (ADEN) and the Digital Science and Technology Network (DSTN). The regional network approach is unique and offers a wide range of advantages, including the ability of ACE Impact centres involved and their partners to pull resources together to achieve a common goal.

ADEN focuses on raising awareness of the benefits of digital education across Africa, sharing resources with institutions of higher education in Africa, among other core mandates. DSTN is working to develop a range of skills and research in e-health, e-agriculture, e-environment, intelligent cities and transport, e-education, critical for AFrica, in a growing global digital economy. Its mission is to promote collaborative research, and a training offer adapted to the job market and socio-economic partnerships. DSTN relies on a community of scientific experts in data science, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things, etc.

ACEs involved in ADEN and DSTN

The four (4) Africa Centres of Excellence involved in the African Digital Education Network are:

1) Africa Centre of Excellence on New Pedagogies in Engineering Education (ACENPEE)

2) Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL)

3) Africa Centre of Excellence for Innovative and Transformative STEM Education (ACEITSE)

4) the Africa Centre of Excellence for Teaching / Learning Math and Science for Sub-Saharan Africa (CEA MS4SSA).

For the Digital Science and Technology Network (DSTN), the six (6) centres involved are:

1) Africa Center of Excellence for Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL). Through ACETEL’s involvement in this network, it hopes to bridge the technology knowledge gap by building capacity in information and communication technology (ICT)

2) Africa Center of Excellence in Applied Informatics and Communication (CAPIC). CAPIC is developing several impactful activities in the following fields: High Performance Computing, Data Science with a special focus in involving biologists and medical partners

3) Africa Center of Excellence in Statistics and Applied Economics (CEA-ENSEA). This centre is also developing activities (lectures, training, workshops/conferences, responding to regional and international calls etc) in the field of Data Science – data management, statistics and data analysis, deep learning, with application to health, agriculture, environment, among others.

4) Africa Center of Excellence in Mathematics and ICT (CEA MITIC). CEA MITIC is focusing on implementing activities in the following areas – Big Data and Trusted Artificial, Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) systems and SDN (Software Defined Network) in poorly connected area, Cybersecurity, Data Science with a special concern on involving companies and social partners.

5) ACE in Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science and Applications (ACE-SMIA). CEA SMIA is implementing activities in Big Data and Trusted Artificial Intelligence, High Performance Computing, Data Science with a special focus in involving companies and social partners.

6) OAU ICT-Driven Knowledge Park (OAU-Oak Park). The scientific thematic focus areas of OAU-Oak Park, under this Network are Cybersecurity, IoT systems and SDN (Software Defined Network) in poorly connected areas, High Performance Computing.

Key Achievements of the Networks so far

Both ADEN and DSTN have recorded remarkable progress since their formation in 2019, furthering digital development on the continent.

ADEN has been able to organize a successful virtual staff and student symposium (on 17th May 2021) which featured scientific paper presentations from 10 participants. ADEN is actively promoting the use of digital education resources through its members in various participating universities. They work to establish collaborations with various institutions (such as EPFL), for capacity building and technical support to help drive digital education in Africa. In addition to these, ADEN has made progress towards achieving its various objectives which include – 1. Strengthening collaboration amongst the four (4) STEM Education ACE Impact centers 2. Training faculty in the design and production of quality online digital resources and integrating digital technologies in courses. 3. Producing quality educational resources, adapted to local context, for distribution amongst the centers and other institutions. 4. Organizing seminars for students on the use of digital resources 5. Facilitating joint research activities within the ADEN, including faculty and student exchanges 6. Organizing meetings to share and disseminate knowledge and publish the outcome of such academic efforts. 7. Setting up a common educational platform to store and distribute e-learning resources

DSTN key achievements include the hosting of a highly successful symposium dubbed “Digital Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in Africa”, from 6th to 10th December 2021 at the Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal. The symposium provided a framework for multidisciplinary scientific discussions between the major actors of the African digital transformation (public and private actors, socio-economic actors such as NGOs, companies, foundations, and international partners) to collectively address the crucial links between research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology transfer. The DSTN has hosted various thematic workshops, including on e-Agriculture and on Digital Science for health. These workshops are targeted at (1) identifying strengths and complementarity of the partners on each topic, (2) promoting networking and collaboration to apply for the DSTN call for Research-Team and other calls for funding, and (3) identifying lecture and training needs and opportunities for the ACEs.

The ACE Impact project thematic networks remain committed to working hard to achieve their respective targets and call on all institutions of higher learning to join hands with them in promoting digital education in Africa for the advancement of Higher Education on the continent.

February 21, 2022March 3, 2022

Centres for Competence in Digital Education

AAU-EPFL joint capacity-building initiative

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have evolved in a big way to impact all the sectors of economies including the educational sector. It is said that the education sector has been slower in harnessing the opportunities from technology compared to the other sectors. Africa as a continent still faces many challenges in adopting ICTs to improve processes and benefit from the efficiencies promised by technology. African countries are challenged by the digital divide which makes it difficult for technology implementation to cover and benefit the most vulnerable and unconnected communities.

One of the positive impacts of COVID-19 in Africa has been that it re-prioritized to topmost priority the proper implementation of ICTs for teaching, learning and research by educational institutions. For a long time, the educational institutions had accepted that they needed to invest in the integration of ICTs to transform how they delivered their services. However, committing financial and human investments and piloting digital courses had not been urgent for most educational institutions in Africa until the pandemic affected the functions of the educational institutions.

Under the ACE Impact for Development project a collaboration was initiated by the Association of African Universities and the EPFL – École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne of Switzerland to implement the Centers of Competence in Digital Education (C-CoDE) Initiative. The C-CoDE initiative involves six (6) ACE Impact host Universities that were competitively selected to to establish Centers of Competence in Digital Education on their campuses. The C-CoDE centers are being mentored to promote the sustainable integration of digital education in the teaching processes, as a means of strengthening the quality of teaching as well as expanding access to higher education.

The C-CoDE initiative recognizes the need for ICTs to be implemented in a thoughtful way so that the focus shifts from the technology to how the teaching methods, faculty and students interact with the technology in order to achieve the intended teaching and learning outcomes. The initiative also pays attention to the importance of building the capacities of academics, digital education experts (pedagogy engineers) and the technical specialist teams. The training strategy ensures that the digital education experts are being trained so that they continuously run training programs for their university faculty as an ongoing commitment to sustain the new ways of teaching. The Vice Chancellors of the participating universities are involved to ensure that the initiative has support at the highest leadership level. The Vice Chancellors have committed financial and infrastructural resources to support the success of the project.

The six participating universities are the National Open University of Nigeria; University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria; University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, Ghana; Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; and Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Bénin. The participating ACE Centers in these universities include the Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL), the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED), the Africa Center of Excellence in Population Health and Policy(ACEPHAP); the Center for Dryland Agriculture(CDA), the Regional Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (RCEES); CEA-Centre d’Etudes, de Formation et de Recherche en Gestion des Risques Sociaux (CEFORGRIS) and CEA-SMIA (Centre d’Excellence Africain en Sciences, Mathématiques, Informatique et Application.

The C-CoDE initiative is being piloted from September 2021 to July 2022 with the participating institutions through training and coaching to transform their educational curricula by integrating modern digital education methods. Overall, close to 200 faculty and staff would be trained. However, 18 digital experts (three from each of the six-participating universities) have received training in leading the digital transformation in their respective institutions. The bigger goal is to use the lessons from the C-CoDE initiative to transform the way that other universities in Africa are integrating digital educational methods to deliver their curricula. The broader goal is for the selected Centers to eventually serve other African higher education institutions using a training-the-trainers model, within the broader ACE Impact project portfolio and beyond – across the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region.

Training under the C-CoDE initiative is innovatively delivered using the flipped classroom style. The quality and engaging learning materials and activities were prepared in advance and made available on the EPFL Open edX platform. The participants study and prepare themselves ahead of the live sessions. During the virtual live sessions, the facilitators provide clarifications concerning the content and learning activities that participants would have gone through. Live sessions are used for building and sharing common knowledge through group activities, live discussions, and presentations. Participants are also exposed to and encouraged to use a variety of online tools and technologies to interact and put in practice teaching paradigms.

The C-CoDE initiative is being delivered in both French and English to accommodate the languages of the participating universities. The digital experts (3 from each participating university) have been trained in course design, educational resources and development and implementation of learning management systems. They are scheduled to do their last module focused on online delivery and evaluation in March 2022. A total of two hundred (200) faculty members have been selected to participate in a digital education masterclass from January 2022 to July 2022. The female participants are 36.5 % of the total number. The digital education masterclass for the selected academics is composed of 4 small Private Online Courses (SPOCs).

African governments and University leaders have critical roles to play in facilitating the effective mainstreaming of digital methods by African higher education institutions. Support is needed from African governments to commit resources for the development of robust national internet infrastructure by supporting flexible national communication policies for the benefit of the educational and research communities and institutions in their countries. National governments are strategically positioned to bridge the digital divide by prioritizing the internet coverage of unconnected areas for the benefit of academic communities and others that are potentially vulnerable.

University leaders are responsible for creating the vision for digital education and championing its effective implementation at the institutional level. They are also key in connecting with government leaders and ensuring that the needs of the academic communities are clearly understood.

February 21, 2022

ACE IN FOCUS – ACETEL

The Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL) was established in February 2019 and is located at the headquarters of the National Open Universityty of Nigeria (NOUN), Jabi, Abuja, Nigeria. The centre is one of 54 supported under the World Bank ACE Impact project, receiving support from the Association of African Universities, and National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigeria. The Centre focuses on the development of human capacity and research in digital solutions that will lead to the utilisation of technology for education and its deployment to other sectors.

The centre hopes to bridge the technical knowledge gap by building capacity in Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), Cyber Security and Digital policies to achieve high levels of digital development on the African continent.

Why is ACETEL special?

ACETEL programmes are designed to build capacity in Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, and Management Information Systems courses at the postgraduate levels leading to the production of highly skilled human resource to drive the adoption and use of ICT solutions. It also offers short courses to bridge technology knowledge gaps.

Its core values are:

Specifically, the ACETEL research focuses on gaps, needs assessment of digital capacity development, solutions, and policy issues in the education and public sectors; effectiveness of green logistics information technology learning tools on students’ academic achievement in STEM-related courses; developing smart digital learning tools for science in Open and Distance Education; impact of Cybercrime on Learners’ Academic Performance and Research Data Integrity; and enhancing postgraduate learners’ research skills using cloud computing learning tools.

In 2021, 41 students gained admission into ACETEL. These students comprised of both national and regional students, 11 females and 30 males students enrolled from The Gambia, Ghana, Cameroon and Uganda.

February 21, 2022March 3, 2022

KNUST Engineering Education Project (KEEP, Ghana) SCHOLARS WIN THE NATIONAL CYBER QUIZ COMPETITION 2021

Otuekong Ekpo (at the left) with Joseph Atta Yeboah (at the middle) and Solomon Dodoo (at the right)

The 2021 National Cyber Quiz Competition was organized by the Institute of Compliance and Cyber Studies to create awareness about Cyber-Security and its related issues. The maiden edition of the quiz lasted for five days and was launched on Monday 18th October 2021, concluding on Friday, 22nd October 2021 at Knutsford University, East Legon.

Competing schools were Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast, Lancaster University, Academic City College, Valley View University, Central University and Ghana Christian Heritage University.

KNUST was ably represented by Joseph Atta Yeboah, Otuekong Ekpo and Solomon Dodoo Attoh, postgraduate students of the Cyber-Security and Digital Forensics programme from the Department of Computer Science. These students are also part of the KNUST engineering Education Project (KEEP), a project which seeks to deliver high quality postgraduate courses and applied research focused on addressing development challenges related to industrialization, digital development (ICT), energy systems, renewable energy, manufacturing, exploration and development of oil and gas industry.

The quiz competition featured questions in information security, cyber ethics, cyber law, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, and blockchain.

KNUST made history by lifting the trophy for the maiden edition of the cyber quiz competition. KEEP scholars won a cash prize, certificates and a sponsorship for a compliance and cyber analyst course in January 2022.

February 21, 2022March 3, 2022

KNUST College of Engineering (Ghana) awarded CAD $1 Million grant

The Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Prof. (Mrs.) Rita Akosua Dickson (in the middle) with Pro Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Prof. Ellis Owusu-Dabo (2nd from right) with Dean of Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Prof. Abdu- Rahman Ahmed (right) with Provost of the College of Engineering, Prof. Mark Adom-Asamoah (2nd from left) and the Principal Investigator and Scientific Director for RAIL, Prof. Jerry John Kponyo (left)

The College of Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) , the KNUST Engineering Education Project (KEEP), one of the nine Centres of Excellence in Ghana has been awarded a grant to fund the establishment of a Responsible Artificial Intelligence Lab (RAIL) under the Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D) Africa Multidisciplinary Labs project initiated by International Development Research Centre (IDRC). RAIL has been envisioned as a Maker Space that would develop talents in Data Science and Machine Learning to help bridge the widening skills gap needed to champion the Digital Economic Transformation agenda of Ghana and the Sub-Region.

The activities in this Innovation Centre are aligned with the KNUST Engineering Education Project (KEEP) digital development technologies thematic area, specifically set to promote the digitalization of products, processes, and services via innovative toolbox development for Renewable Energies, Health, Agriculture, Climate Change and close engagements with local Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and governmental bodies.

The CAD $1 Million Lab would be networked centrally and decentralized to allow intelligent, flexible, and future-oriented collaboration across multiple sites using common IT equipment. The Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering would host this centrally networked lab infrastructure, which would provide computing, research, training, and expertise transfer to Universitée Alioune Diop de Bambey (Senegal), The University of Cape Verde, and The Gambia Technical Training Institute.

Prof. Jerry John Kponyo, the Principal Investigator (PI) and the Scientific Director of the Lab and the Deputy Project Lead for KEEP, in his initial reaction to the news of the grant award is grateful to IDRC and GIZ for jointly funding the setup of the Lab. He stressed the “need to adopt collaboration and a multidisciplinary approach to solving the peculiar challenges in the sub-region.” He is of the view that Artificial Intelligence holds the key to leveraging technologies to unlock the potential of highly talented young innovators in the sub-region. The PI also sees the funding as a mustard seed through which multiple initiatives could be developed to realize the African dream.

The Dean of Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Prof. Abdul-Rahman Ahmed, was also happy that the team he constituted to respond to the funding call with the help of the Office of Grants and Research (OGR) has worked diligently to make the RAIL project a reality. He further indicated that the RAIL project reinforces the faculty’s vision of developing strategic collaboration between academia, SMEs, and government actors to enable transfer-oriented cooperation between applied research, skills development, regional industry, entrepreneurs, and service providers, to empower more players to engage in technology-based innovations in the sub-region.

The Provost of the College of Engineering, Prof. Mark Adom-Asamoah was excited about the prospects of the Lab and encouraged all key actors in the project implementation to work together to realize the ultimate objectives of the Lab Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, Prof. (Mrs.) Rita Akosua Dickson, in congratulating the team indicated that the grant couldn’t have come at a better time. She urged the team to keep working hard to win more grants.

The project team is made up of Prof. Jerry John Kponyo (PI), Dr. Isaac Acquah, Dr. James Dzisi Gadze (HoD of Telecommunications Engineering), Dr. Eric Tutu Tchao, Mr. Andrew Selasi Agbemenu, Mrs. Christiana Selorm Aggor, Dr. Mrs. Eunice Akyereko, Dr. Henry Nunoo-Mensah, Mr. Benjamin Kommey, Prof. Francis Kemeausuor, and Dr. Christopher Appiah.

KEEP will provide a Laboratory space for setting up the Responsible AI Lab. The Lab will be supported for three years to set up and run short courses in disruptive technologies and a master’s programme in Data Science and Machine Learning. RAIL would also provide research support to PhDs, advisory and extension services, policy formulation, and agenda-setting around Responsible Artificial Intelligence use.

Click here for more information on KEEP

Find out more about KNUST

February 21, 2022March 3, 2022

ACE Impact Partners with IBM to Offer STEM Training to Students

Enhancing STEM education in Africa has been one of the cores focuses of the ACE Impact project and it’s participating centres. The ACE Impact project has partnered with International Business Machines Corp (IBM) to build the capacity of centers through training workshops for ACE faculty and students on Artificial Intelligence, and Cloud Application and providing student internship opportunities at IBM Research Labs in Kenya and South Africa.

This collaboration aims to ensure that students are gaining practical research experience and developing key advanced digital skills, which in turn will improve their employability, including their participation in the workforce as entrepreneurs. Since its inception in 2020, 110 faculty and students have benefited from the training workshops.

Concerning the internships, an initial set of 11 students will be selected for the first year. Students will carry out research in areas such as developing analytics and AI tools and methods; and creating cloud and blockchain solutions for health, climate risk, food supply chain and other domains. The selection process is underway and interviews with shortlisted applicants will take place in March 2022.

Highlighting the usefulness and benefits derived from the training, Mr. Patrick Hussaini, a student from the Africa Centre of Excellence for Mycotoxin and Food Safety (ACEMFS), Nigeria noted that the training on Artificial Intelligence that he participated in improved his knowledge and deepened his interest in that area. “The training has heightened my love for Artificial Intelligence such that I have picked up a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Johannesburg, to enhance my understanding of the field. Additionally, it expanded my knowledge as I am now able to create a Chatbot using the IBM platform”, said Mr. Hussaini.

Speaking on the relevance of the training to industry needs, he added that the skills acquired is crucial to the African market, as it can help improve organizational processes and strengthen systems. The IBM Watson (application/software) for instance, simplifies the use of Machine Learning, Natural Language processing, creation of Chatbot and Computer Vision. Thereby automating complex processes and optimizing employee’s time.

February 21, 2022March 1, 2022

WAGMC Launches Maiden MSc Genetic Counselling Programme in Sub-Saharan Africa

The West African Genetic Medicine Centre (WAGMC), University of Ghana welcomed the first cohort of students into its new flagship Master of Science (MSc) degree programme in January 2022. The postgraduate genetic counselling programme is the first of its kind in Ghana and in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the third of such programme on the continent. The programme is accredited by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC). Students who graduate from the programme will be required to complete a mandatory one-year internship under the supervision of the Ghana Psychology Council to become licensed to practice as Genetic Counsellors.

Professor Solomon Ofori-Acquah (WAGMC Centre Leader) with Dr. Judith Osae-Larbi and Dr. Dorcas Annan(WAGMC Research Fellows) with some WAGMC Genetic Counselling Students.

The MSc Genetic Counselling programme is a professional health degree programme. It is designed to combine critical skills-training and rigorous independent research, to prepare students for the dynamic field of genetic counselling. It explores both the theoretical and practical aspects of genetic counselling while developing skills in research, teaching, public education, critical thinking, and health leadership. The programme will equip students with current knowledge in human genomics, genetics, genetic analysis and bioinformatics, as well as the relevant communication, counselling, and psychological skills they need to succeed and adapt to advances in genomic medicine. WAGMC worked with several collaborators and partner institutions in South Africa, USA and UK to develop the maiden genetics educational programme. These partnerships offer students exciting internship opportunities across the genomic medicine spectrum all over the world.

January 19, 2022March 1, 2022

Pre-Call for Applications for Additional Financing under the African higher Education Centers of Excellence (ACE II AF)

In collaboration with the Governments of Ghana, Malawi, and Mozambique, the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) and Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) are jointly launching a Call for Proposals under the Eastern and Southern Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Project (ACE II). This initiative is proposed to be financed through Additional Financing to ACE II to be reviewed by the World Bank Group (WBG) Board in May 2022 (tentative). The main objective of the proposed project is to strengthen linkages between universities in participating countries and regional agricultural sector needs through strengthening (i) agri-food related education and training enhanced with trans-disciplinary approaches and applied research; (ii) university linkages to the regional agricultural sector – its priorities, needs and stakeholders; and (iii) university partnership with private and public entities related to agri-food both within and outside the region.

The ACE II AF is a result of broad consultations with the governments of Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique; and IUCEA and RUFORUM. Six key regional gap areas have been identified and prioritized for this Project: (i) agribusiness and entrepreneurship; (ii) agri-food systems and nutrition; (iii) agricultural policy analysis; (iv) agricultural risk management and climate change; (v) rural innovations and agricultural extension; and (vi) statistical analysis, forecast and data management. The Project will support the governments of the three participating countries to collectively address challenges in the aforementioned key gap areas by (a) selecting African Centers of Excellence (ACE) through a competitive and transparent process from existing higher education institutions which have certain capacity for research and training in agriculture; (b) strengthening selected universities through professionalizing leadership and management, streamlining administration and capacitating faculty to produce excellent training and applied research which can meet the needs of highly-skilled personnel and knowledge transfer for the agri-food sector; (c) building networks among these institutions to promote regional collaboration, foster partnerships with other institutions including industries for training and applied research to produce innovative solutions for real development impact; and (d) developing a culture of results-orientation and accountability in institutional management through a performance-based financing mechanism. As a regional project, ACE II AF will be governed by its Regional Steering Committee (RSC) and facilitated by its Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU).

The submitted proposals will be evaluated by an Independent Evaluation Committee and the RSC will make the final selection decision. Interested institutions should meet all the following eligibility criteria: (i) be from the participating countries; (ii) offer PhD program(s) or demonstrate readiness to offer a PhD program; and (iii) have programs in at least two disciplinary areas related to one of the regional gap areas.

Proposals are expected to encompass the following elements: Enhancing capacity to deliver regional high quality training in agriculture to address challenge(s) in at least two key gap areas; a) enhancing capacity in addressing emerging challenges such as COVID-19 b) enhancing capacity to deliver applied research to address the challenge(s); c) the strength of the partnership (national and international) and capacity to build networks and offer capacity development for TVET and other Higher Education Institutions; d) building and strengthening national, regional and inter-regional academic collaboration to raise the quality of higher agriculture education and training; e) partnerships with relevant agro-based institutions that deal with processing, storage and distribution of agricultural produce f) building and using industry/sector partnerships to enhance the impact of the project on development, and increase the relevance of these centers of education and research; g) enhancing governance and management of the ACE and the participating universities to improve monitoring and evaluation; and h) demonstrated evidence of the applicant university engagement as well as its willingness to take a leadership role in agriculture transformation in the target country.

Higher education institutions from the Republics of Malawi, Mozambique and Ghana interested to participate in the program are requested to submit their Expression of Interest through https://bit.ly/ACEIIExpression not later than 31^st January 2022. The development of final proposals will be undertaken with support from RUFORUM and IUCEA. The governments in collaboration with the World Bank, may offer additional technical support to institutions to develop strong proposals.

The submitted proposals will be competitively evaluated by an Independent Evaluation Committee. However, the Regional Steering Committee will make the final selection decision for successful proposals.

For further information contact the Dr. Jonathan Stephen Mbwambo, email: jmbwambo@iucea.org or Prof. Majaliwa Mwanjalolo, email: m.majaliwa@ruforum.org

November 29, 2021November 29, 2021

Admission to ACETEL

Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Leaming (ACETEL) is a World Bank, Association of African Universities, and Nigeria’s Nanonal Universities Commission supported centre of excellence focusing on the development of human capacity and research in solutions that will lead to the utilisation of technology for education. Domiciled at the headquarters of the National Open University of Nigeria, Jabi, Abuja, the Centre team comprises Of national and international scholars drawn from relevant fields Of science as well as and private sector stakeholders.

Application forms for 2021/2022 Academic Session are available at https://acetel.nou.edu.ng/ from 1st to 15th December 2021 in the following programmes:

MSc Artificial Intelligence
MSc Cyber Security
MSc Management Information System
Ph.D Artificial Intelligence
Ph.D Cyber Security
Ph.D Management Information

ACETEL is therefore, requesting interested and suitably qualified candidates to apply for admission into any of the above indicated postgraduate programmes. Application forms and requirements are available at www.acetel.nou.edu.ng. Interested candidates should follow the online application procedure laid down via the ACETEL Website https://acetel.nou.edu.ng/. While ACETEL offers equal opportunity for enrolment and studies to all, female members of the society are specially encouraged to apply. Scholarship is also available for eligible candidates.

APPLICATION FEE

MSc = N20,OOO
PhD = N30,OOO

November 25, 2021November 29, 2021

Djibouti Participates in the Young African Scientific Talent Programme in Paris

Djibouti Participates in the Young African Scientific Talent Program in Paris

The Centre of Excellence for Transport and Logistics (CEALT) hosted by the University of Djibouti was represented in the African Scientific Talents at the City of Science and Industry in Paris from 17th to 22nd October 2021. Dr Abdou Idris Omar, a researcher and Bioclimate lecturer at the university represented the centre in a unique opportunity to interact with fellow researchers, and explore prospects for future collaborations.

Dr Abdou Idris Omar image — Dr Abdou Idris Omar

Dr. Omar was among the 32 young African scientists – 15 women and 17men under the age of 35 from 20 African countries (Angola, Guinea, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Kenya, Rwanda, Tunisia, Djibouti, Madagascar, Senegal, Egypt, Mali, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Tanzania, Ghana, Mozambique and Chad) selected to participate in the event.

The researchers had the opportunity to make presentations on the scientific projects they have undertaken, whilst also engage with the Universcience teams and other key stakeholders in the science fraternity.

Participants visited various tourist sites including the planetarium of the City of Science and Industry, and the mediation rooms of the Sparks of the Palace of Discovery, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle,the Musée de l’Homme, the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution and the Muséum’s gardens.

The event was supported by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the network of French Embassies in Africa, the Next Einstein Forum Network and Campus France.