Join the East Africa Community's biggest ever AI innovation and upskilling program
2000
Students
50
Universities
4
Challenge
tracks
Explore the Four AI4EAC Learning Streams
Choose a stream that aligns with your interests and career goals. Each stream includes curated courses, webinars, and challenges to help you build real-world AI skills.
Health Stream
Learn how AI is transforming healthcare delivery, diagnostics, and data-driven decision making across East Africa
Agriculture Stream
Build AI skills for improving crop yields, farming systems, supply chains, and food security in the region
Finance Stream
Discover how AI can strengthen financial inclusion, fraud detection, and digital financial services
Education Stream
Understand how AI can support teaching, learning, accessibility, and policy development in education
Webinars
Courses
Building Business Models
Provider: SkillEd
To help participants refine their business ideas by guiding them through the core elements of a business model, strengthening their understanding of customers, value, resources, and costs, and enabling them to develop a solid draft business plan they can further improve with an adviser.
Build Your First Chatbot Using IBM watsonx
Provider: IBM SkillsBuild
In this course, you will learn the steps to create conversational chatbots that can understand and respond to natural language. You will also understand the fundamentals of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and learn how to apply them to real-world scenarios. Through a hands-on simulation using IBM watsonx, you'll gain the skills needed to create a simple chatbot.
AI in Action Curriculum
Provider: Technovation
An AI entrepreneurship curriculum that equips learners with the essentials to develop AI-powered solutions to real-world problems.
Vector Embeddings: AI's Key to Meaning
Provider: IBM SkillsBuild
In this module, you learn about how when searching online, the words used in a query often don't exactly match the words in the content being sought. That's where vector embeddings come in. They help AI to capture meaning by recognizing patterns and relationships across different types of data, rather than focusing only on exact words.
Prompt Engineering: Shaping Better AI Responses
Provider: IBM SkillsBuild
Prompt engineering is the key to getting AI to work smarter for you; by asking the right questions, you unlock more creative, accurate, and powerful responses. In this module, you'll identify the applications of different types of prompts used in generative AI. You'll explore different prompt engineering techniques and find out how to select a technique best suited to your specific task. Finally, you'll explore some best practices for writing effective prompts.
Huawei ICT Academy: Cloud Computing and AI
Provider: Huawei
Gain certified expertise in cloud computing infrastructure and AI technologies through Huawei's ICT Academy.
What is the AI4EAC Innovation Challenge?
Calling university students from East African Community (EAC) countries to participate in the first regional inter-university AI Innovation Challenge for East Africa.
Over the next 6 months, Zindi will convene a practical data and AI skills programme culminating in a two-day inter-university AI challenge event taking place at universities all over the region. AI builders, enthusiasts and newcomers are all equally welcome to participate; activities will include courses, webinars, in-person training, practice challenges, and an in-person final event. Participation is free.
The AI4EAC Innovation Challenge is a flagship initiative of the EAC AI Alliance — a regional programme of the EAC, implemented in partnership with the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), the East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO), the German Development Corporation (GIZ), UNESCO Campus Africa, JICA, and other partners.
What's in it for you?
The AI4EAC Innovation Challenge programme is a unique opportunity for you to gain practical skills in AI and data science, while contributing to real-world challenges faced within the EAC.
- Win up to $30,000 USD in cash prizes
- Access internships and other real-world job opportunities
- Gain real-world, industry-relevant AI experience
- Earn certificates and credentials to boost your portfolio
- Access free compute resources, office hours, and training
- Join a regional network of AI peers and experts across East Africa
Who is the AI4EAC Innovation Challenge for?
All undergraduate and postgraduate students at universities, academies, and bootcamps in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda are invited to participate - no experience required!
In collaboration with:
