Machine Learning for Biodiversity and National Heritage
Venue: The Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS), Blantyre, Malawi
Dates: 22nd– 23rd July 2021
Sponsors: Internet throughout the event was provided by Inq.
After two IndabaX events organised in Malawi, we really feel that we have created a name that is
recognised and is associated to Machine Learning. The 2021 event was again very successful and we attracted relevant and knowledgeable speakers. The 2021 event was held in cooperation with
KuHes (Kamuzu University of Health Sciences) and MUST (Malawi University of Science and
Technology) and was held to overlap during one day with an event organised by the two other
universities entitled: “Biodiversity Transforming Malawi”.
This shows that the IndabaX Malawi community is not only growing in Malawi but is able to collaborate with other initiatives and events which want to include Machine Learning in their program. We also held the first Zindi competition in Malawi – although the number of participants was small, this was an encouraging beginning as most participants in the event did not know about Zindi before.
Presentations and talks
Out sessions and talks were structured into five tracks containing talks, practical workshops and
posters.
- Track 1: Machine Learning: Algorithms and Areas of Applications
- Track 2: Start your Journey into Machine Learning: Practical sessions in Python
- Track 3: Remote Sensing and Drones
- Track 4: AI for Preserving Indigenous Knowledge
- Track 5: Industry and Government (including Ethics and Legal Issues)
Day 1 – 22nd July
| SLOT | SESSION TITLE | PRESENTER |
| 8.15 am | REGISTRATION | |
| 8.40 am | Opening | Dean of Applied Sciences MUBAS Dr. Mphatso Kamndaya |
| 9.00 am | The Use of Machine Learning in Drug Discovery and Development. | Dr. Steven Mitini-Nkhoma, MLW |
| 9.30 am | Statistics for Machine Learning | Dr. Marc Henrion, Head of Statistics MLW |
| 10.10 am | Break | |
| 10.30 am | Convolutional Neural Networks for Monitoring Endangered Species | Dr. Emmanuel Duforq, co-founder of Edge Accoustics |
| 11 am | Drone mapping and surveying 1 | Yusuf Chimole, Lync Systems |
| 11.30 am | Drone mapping and surveying 2 | Hope Chilunga, SAssociate Lecturer MUBAS |
| 12 pm | LUNCH | |
| 13.30 pm | GPU-accelerated DNA sequence analysis in Malawi | Dr. Philip Ashton, Lead Bioinformatician, MLW |
| 2:00 pm | Large carnivore monitoring through the use of radio telemetry and camera trapping | Eleanor Comley, the Field Research Coordinator in Liwonde for the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust |
| 2.30 pm | Remotely Sensed Temporal Change Detection Analysis of Urban Spaces in Blantyre City: A Machine Learning Approach | Emmanuel Chinkaka, Lecturer MUST |
| 2.50 pm | Training of Generative Adversarial Networks Models for Deep Learning | Dr. Michael Zimba, Lecturer MZUNI |
| 3.30 pm (Parallel sessions) | Short Presentations / Poster Sessions 1) On the Diversity of Cultivars from the same plant species? – Kondwani Mgamba, Lecturer MUST 2) Natural Language Processing – Zanga Chimombo, PhD Student, Chancellor College 4) Deep Learning for Image processing – Blessings Mlundira, Student 4th Year, MUBAS 5) AWS with Amazon sage Maker – Samson Maluku, Student MUST | |
| 3.30pm (Parallel sessions) | LABS / PRACTICAL for beginners and intermediate | IndabaX Team |
| 4.30 pm | END DAY 1 |
Day 2 – 23nd July
| 8.30 am | START | |
| 9.00 am | Applications in Ornithology | Dr. Tiwonge Gawa, Lecturer MUST |
| 9.40 am | Machine Translation | Dr. Amelia Taylor, Lecturer MUBAS |
| 10.20 am | Automatic segmentation and localization of biopsy needles in ultrasound (US) images. | Francis Masi, Lecturer MUBAS |
| 10.50 am | The deployment of RACHEL (Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning) | Carl Meyer, ShiftIT Solutions |
| 11.20 | Applications of Image Recognition and OCR for National Heritage – Plant Cataloguing and Classification – National Herbatorium, Zomba – Cataloguing Historical Information – Society of Malawi, Historical and Scientific | Dr. Amelia Taylor, Lecturer, MUBAS |
| 12.10 am | LUNCH | |
| 1:30 pm | “Key provisions in Malawian law on access to information and data use and possible, global repercussions of the proposed European Union AI legislation for system developers and providers” | Eva-Mfutso Bengo, Lecturer in Law, MUBAS |
| 2.10 pm | The Global Data Barometer | Mutisunge Michael-Phoya, Logos Open Culture |
| 2.30 pm | AI and Disinformation – A threat to Democracy | Pascal G. Bernard, Chief Data Officer at TAGD. |
| 3pm | The Zindi Platform for ML competitions (zindi.africa) | Sam Msikini, Zindi |
| 3.40 pm | LABS / PRACTICAL Parallel sessions for beginners and intermediate | IndabaX Team |
| 4.30pm | END DAY 2 |
Machine Learning Malawi 